Gary James' Interview With The Ramones' Tour Manager
Monte A. Melnick



He's often referred to as "The Fifth Ramone", and for good reason. You see, Monte Melnick grew up knowing the guys in The Ramones. He went to the same junior high and high school with them. He was with the band for twenty-two years, watching 2,263 live shows. Monte is the author of On The Road With The Ramones. A new bonus edition was just released on May 27th, 2019. We spoke with Monte A. Melnick about his friendship with, and his time with The Ramones.

Q - Monte, I had no idea that you wrote a book about your experience with The Ramones.

A - The book came out in late 2003, 2004. I've had three editions of it already. This is the last bonus updated one.

Q - Never say never. Maybe something else will happen.

A - Yeah. It'll take awhile. It took me awhile to get this one up. In the number of years since the book's been out, different Ramones passed away and different things happened in the Ramones' world which is always happening. That's why I updated it and called it the Bonus Edition. There's like forty more pages in the book.

Q - The Ramones played a club in Syracuse, New York called The Lost Horizon. Were you with them then?

A - I was with them from the beginning to end. I was everywhere. I can't remember the club offhand 'cause I was with them for over 2,200 shows. If you say they played there, they played there and I was there.

Q - Before you became The Ramones' tour manager, did you have any idea what a tour manager did?

A - No.

Q - A tour manager, not to be confused with a road manager, you're in more of an advance-man position, aren't you?

A - First of all, I worked my way up. I didn't start as a tour manager. I basically started doing the sound for them in the studio. Then they had jobs outside. I did sound at CBGB's. They started getting jobs and I humped the equipment and did everything in the beginning. I kind of learned what it was like to be a road manager/tour manager. I worked my way up.

Q - As a tour manager, you did what then?

A - A tour manager takes care of booking hotels, dealing with the record companies, dealing with promoters, transportation, equipment, a lot of things. Setting up interviews. It's a big job. There's a lot of things happening.

Q - The Ramones had a publicist, didn't they?

A - Yeah. The publicist would say to me, "Hey, we got this interview coming in Monday." I'd set up which guy would do it, tell him where to go, sit down with him and stuff like that.

Q - Did you ever aspire to become a personal manager?

A - I was a personal manager. After The Ramones broke up, Marky asked me to manage him. I managed him for his first album. I got him his first album deal, "Marky Ramone And The Intruders".

Q - Someone once told me a personal manager's job is like a baby sitting job. Did you ever find that to be the case?

A - No. (laughs) A tour manager's like a baby sitting job, not only with the band, but the crew. I'd have to deal with a crazy band and a crazy crew on top of it. Double my craziness. It's different being a tour manager. It was totally different. I moved into that for a little bit, but I didn't really fit well. I was with them for about a year and a half. Then he went on his way, but I got him his first record deal though. I sent him out on the road. The problem with Mark was, he was coming from The Ramones and they were well established. They were making money on the road. Their hotels and transportation was great for The Ramones, but I couldn't get the same money for Mark. He was like, "Why do I gotta go to this type of hotel?" and "I'm not making that much money. What's going on?" I explained, "Mark, you're not The Ramones. You're Marky Ramone. I can't get as much money for you." So, that was the problem. It's different being tour manager and a regular manager. A totally different thing. I like being tour manager better.

Q - A lot more headaches as a personal manager.

A - Although you make a lot more money if you have a personal manager if the group's making a lot of money. You make a lot more money that way. There's plenty of headaches as tour manager too. (laughs)

Q - You knew The Ramones from early on. You and Tommy would go to The Fillmore East and you would see people like Jimi Hendrix and The Who. What did you guys think of Jimi Hendrix?

A - We loved him. We idolized him. I played with Tommy in a three piece trio, kind of like a power trio. So, we loved him and Cream too. That was our favorite group. We were very influenced by that 'cause we formed a band called Triad, three pieces, a Power Rock group.

Q - When you guys were watching these groups at The Fillmore, did Tommy ever turn to you and say, "One day I'm going to be in a big band like that"?

A - (laughs) Not really, but we wanted to be in bands and we started bands together and tried to do it.

Q - You had a band called Thirty Days Out.

A - Yeah.

Q - You were on Reprise Records.

A - Reprise/Warner. Two albums, 1971-1972.

Q - Where did the record company catch your act?

A - We had a good manager that knew people in record companies and he brought 'em around and they liked us and signed us.

Q - You opened for The Beach Boys?

A - Yeah. Rush, Quicksilver Messenger Service. We were kind of like a Poco, Flying Burrito Brothers. A Country/Rock group. That's the type of music I was coming from at that time. Far from the Punk music. (laughs)

Q - When you would get in front of a Beach Boys audience, would you go over?

A - Yeah, 'cause we're playing Country/Rock.

Q - You've said that The Ramones didn't sell a lot of records. They made money from touring and selling merchandise.

A - Yes.

Q - Here's the thing: If a group is not getting radio airplay, how does the public hear about you to come out to the concerts and buy your merchandise?

A - Because we started playing clubs all over the place, little, small clubs. And then we'd come back to the cities over and over again and built a following that way. They had a good write-up with a lot of the press. They liked 'em. They got good press write-ups, especially after the CBGB's Festival back in early '76. We went to small clubs and came back over and over again and built a following that way.

Q - Who was booking The Ramones in the early days? Was it Frank Barsalona?

A - No. We went through a lot of different agencies before they could figure out where to put us. They had us opening for acts like Black Sabbath and Ted Nugent. That wasn't good. (laughs) It was the raw days of The Ramones. The audiences didn't like 'em. They were throwing stuff at 'em. It was kind of dangerous at Black Sabbath concerts a couple of times. Once we opened up for Toto. They didn't know where to put 'em. That was crazy, Toto. The good thing about that was by the time the audience woke up, The Ramones were off the stage.

Q - What opening slot did The Ramones have to leave the stage?

A - It was the Ted Nugent show. Up in Canada they played. They started throwing stuff like sandwiches on stage. They gave the finger to the audience. There's a famous picture of 'em giving the finger to the audience of 30,000 and walking off stage. This is before anybody knew what The Ramones were all about.

Q - Bruce Springsteen wrote "Hungry Heart" and wanted to give it to The Ramones to record, but his manager wouldn't allow it. How different would The Ramones career have been in they had in fact recorded the song?

A - Much better. Probably would've gotten radio play in the States. That's the problem, they couldn't get radio play in the States. Overseas they got radio play. They played big shows overseas.

Q - The Ramones were popular in South America?

A - Oh, huge. The biggest. Especially Argentina.

Q - What kind of venues were they playing there?

A - Eventually stadiums. 50,000 seats.

Q - They probably could make great money there.

A - Yeah. That's why they went back there a few times. They went there early on. The kids kind of loved it. A lot of groups were going down there when The Ramones were going down there. So, they built a big following. And the attitude of The Ramones caught on with the kids down there. They got a lot of radio play. So, they got huge down there. It's amazing.

Q - You saw over 2,200 shows of The Ramones. Did you ever get tired of watching them or hearing them?

A - Well, later on I'd put 'em onstage and go backstage and talk to the promoters about business and money.

Q - After The Ramones retired, you worked with Marky Ramone. Were there other groups you worked with as well?

A - Yeah. I did a little thing with Ronnie Spector. A couple of things I did.

Q - These days you're an audio/visual supervisor at the New York Hall Of Science?

A - Yes. That's what I do now.

Q - What does that mean?

A - Well, we have a theatre there. We have a 3-D theatre and we have three different buildings and I run P.A.s and run the theatre. People can rent out the theatre in different areas of the museum and I run the P.A.s and projectors and stuff like that.

Q - So, you're sort of still in music today then?

A - Well, more museum type of thing, working sound and theatre operations. Go back to the question about booking. We joined Premier Talent (Frank Barsalona) later on. They were a great booking agent. They were terrific. They understood us. They knew where to put us. It took us three or four booking agents to finally get the right one. The early years it was kind of confusing looking at The Ramones. Premier and Barsalona were top-notch. It was good working with them. The clubs couldn't fool around. They had to give me what I asked for on the rider, otherwise they wouldn't get another major act. It was good having a good booking agent with clout. One thing about The Beach Boys, it's a funny thing. Mike Love just put out an album of beach songs and he put "Rockaway Beach" on it. Then recently he had Marky come onstage and play that song with him. So, kind of like a circle there. The Beach Boys circle back to The Ramones, (laughs), somehow.

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