Joey Ramone(1951-2001)

Joey Ramone was born Jeffrey Ross Hyman and the lead singer of the four-member punk-rock band the Ramones. In 1974, the band began in Queens, New York, when as he said "The only thing that you heard on the radio was disco." By 1976, the band became a major force in the evolution of rock-n-roll; they have been lauded as the inventors of punk rock and are important influences in musical and popular culture. Joey began his musical career at age 13 playing the drums. By the age 19, he was playing in New York clubs, sometimes under the name Jeff Starship. Their big break came at the legendary CBGB, a where-it's-at club that also gave rise to the likes of Blondie and Talking Heads. The Ramones was one of the first acts signed to Seymour Stein's Sire Records. Twenty-one years later, and on another label, the group disbanded. In 1995, Joey Ramone was diagnosed with lymphoma. He died of the disease on April 15, 2001, a month before his 50th birthday.