Dogmatic

The Guardian is reporting on the forthcoming Johnny Ramone tribute statue being inspired by former US President, Ronald Reagan.

The unlikely connection between a Republican president and a punk icon was highlighted yesterday when it was revealed that a statue of Johnny Ramone inspired by the lavish funeral of Ronald Reagan will be unveiled this week.

Ramone, who died in September last year, was the guitarist with the Ramones and unofficial leader of the group. But, unlike his colleagues - and in contrast to his rebellious image - he was a committed Republican.

“We were watching the [Reagan] funeral from Cedars-Sinai [hospital], and Johnny had always loved Reagan - he was his favourite president and his favourite actor,” Arturo Vega, the band’s artistic director, told the Los Angeles Times. The grandeur of the Reagan funeral led Ramone to consider the memorial to his own mortality.

“And we were admiring how well it was going and how everything was done. I suggested some kind of monument … He agreed right away. The monument was my idea; the statue was his idea.”

Ramone was cremated at the Hollywood Forever cemetery in Los Angeles. The cemetery hosts many early members of the Hollywood aristocracy, including Tyrone Power, Rudolph Valentino and Cecil B DeMille. The band leader Woody Herman is also buried there.

The 4 ft bronze statue, which will be unveiled at a two-hour ceremony on Friday, shows Ramone from the waist up. Based on a small figurine given to Ramone by the rock musician Rod Zombie, it shows the late guitarist wearing a leather jacket and playing a Mosrite guitar.

The statue, by artist Wayne Toth, bears the inscription: “If a man can judge success by how many great friends he has, then I have been very successful - Johnny Ramone.”

Many of Ramone’s greatest friends are expected to attend the ceremony on Friday, including Nicolas Cage, Lisa-Marie Presley and Eddie Veder.

Ramone, whom Vega described as a “control person”, vetoed an early suggestion that the statue might be of the entire band. “He discarded it right away,” said Vega. “Really, what it is, is this is a very personal thing.”

Joey Ramone, the band’s singer, died of lymphatic cancer in 2001 and Dee Dee Ramone, the bassist who is buried in the Hollywood Forever cemetery, died from a drug overdose in 2002.

The drummer, Tommy Ramone, is the only surviving member of the original band.

Ramone’s widow, Linda Ramone, said he had great hopes for the statue. “He wanted people, the fans, to come from all over the world and get to see it. He wanted it to be bigger than Jim Morrison’s grave.”