Drummer and producer Tommy Ramone, the last surviving original member of punk legends The Ramones, has died. Born Erdélyi Tamás, the 62 year old rocker was reportedly in hospice care for cancer treatment and died Friday afternoon at his Ridgewood, Queens, home, according to Variety.
Born in Budapest, Erdelyi emigrated to America in 1957 and studied engineering, eventually drumming for the Ramones from 1974 to 1978. He played on the New York band’s iconic 1976 debut album as well as 1977’s Leave Home and Rocket to Russia, of the same year.
Tommy was the last to join his fallen bandmates, frontman Joey Ramone (Jeffrey Hyman, who died in 2001), guitarist Johnny Ramone (John Cummings, 2004), and bassist Dee Dee Ramone (Douglas Colvin, 2002). In 2002, the band were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
“It wasn’t just music in The Ramones: it was an idea,” he said in 1978. “It was bringing back a whole feel that was missing in rock music — it was a whole push outwards to say something new and different. Originally it was just an artistic type of thing; finally I felt it was something that was good enough for everybody.”
Erdelyi also produced the Replacements’ 1985 album Tim and Los Angeles punks Redd Kross’ 1987 record Neurotica. He had recently performed in the acoustic bluegrass band Uncle Monk with with his partner Claudia Tienan.
