Watch Duff McKagan, Billie Joe Armstrong, Steve Jones + Fred Armisen Jam Ramones Classics at Johnny Ramone Tribute
An all-star lineup of legendary musicians came together over the weekend to celebrate the life of Ramones guitarist Johnny Ramone. Set at the Hollywood Forever cemetery, Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong, Guns N’ Roses’ Duff McKagan, Sex Pistols’ Steve Jones and comedian Fred Armisen joined forces and performed punk rock classics for the crowd.
Each year, Johnny Ramone’s widow, Linda, puts on a celebration for her late husband’s life. She may have outdone herself this year, pulling Billie Joe and Duff McKagan away from their usual stadium gigs to play an acoustic jam for a few hundred.
In the video above, you can see the makeshift group perform Ramones favorites “Rockaway Beach,” “Judy is a Punk” and “Danny Says.” Below, you can find clips of “I Can’t Make it on Time” and even the Sex Pistols’ “Pretty Vacant.”
"When I was a kid I watched, on late night TV, a show they were playing in Ann Arbor and if you look it up it's on YouTube," Billie Joe recalls. "They sounded so fucking good and the energy in the crowd was so completely into it and they had the big banner behind them with the big symbol and I always remember that. The imprint is permanently imprinted into my brain."
In the spirit of punk rock, the surprise group of artists “practiced a few times” for their set, “but not too much,” according to Fred Armisen.
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