Tommy Erdelyi
| Tommy Ramone | |
|---|---|
Ramone in 2008
|
|
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Tamás Erdélyi |
| Also known as | Thomas Erdelyi, Erdélyi Tamás, Scotty |
| Born |
January 29, 1949 Budapest, Hungary |
| Origin | Forest Hills, New York, U.S. |
| Died | July 11, 2014 (aged 65) Ridgewood, New York, U.S. |
| Genres | Punk rock, bluegrass |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, songwriter, record producer |
| Instruments | Drums, percussion, guitar, mandolin, vocals |
| Years active | 1965–2014 |
| Labels | Sire, Radioactive, Chrysalis |
| Associated acts | Ramones, Uncle Monk |
| Website | ramones |
Thomas Erdelyi (born Tamás Erdélyi; January 29, 1949 – July 11, 2014), known professionally as Tommy Ramone, was a Hungarian American record producer, musician, and songwriter. He was the drummer for the influential punk rock band the Ramones for the first four years of the band's existence and the last surviving original member of the Ramones before his death.
Tamás Erdélyi was born on January 29, 1949, in Budapest, Hungary. He was born to Jewish parents, professional photographers, who had survived the Holocaust by being hidden by neighbors; many of his relatives were murdered by the Nazis, though. The family left Hungary during the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. In 1957, he emigrated with his family to the United States. Initially settling in the South Bronx, the family moved up to the middle-class suburb of Forest Hills in Queens, New York. Forest Hills was the place where Tamás grew up. He changed his name to Thomas Erdelyi.
In high school, Tommy played guitar in a mid-1960s four-piece garage band, the Tangerine Puppets, with a schoolmate and guitarist, John Cummings, the future Johnny Ramone. After leaving school, at 18, he started working as an assistant engineer at the Record Plant studio, where, he worked on the production of the 1970 Jimi Hendrix album Band of Gypsys.
When the Ramones first came together, with Johnny Ramone on guitar, Dee Dee Ramone on bass and Joey Ramone on drums, Erdelyi was supposed to be the manager, but was drafted as the band's drummer when Joey became the lead singer, after realizing that he couldn't keep up with the Ramones' increasingly fast tempos. "Tommy Ramone, who was managing us, finally had to sit down behind the drums, because nobody else wanted to," Dee Dee later recalled.
He remained as drummer from 1974 to 1978, playing on and co-producing their first three albums, Ramones, Leave Home, and Rocket to Russia, as well as the live album It's Alive. His final show as a Ramones drummer was at Johnny Blitz benefit event at CBGB's in New York, USA on May 4, 1978.
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