Johnny Ramone is still an a*shole, even from the grave

You can say whatever you want about Ramones guitarist Johnny Ramone, but you can't say he wasn't one of the greatest guitarists of all time.

You could also never say he ever made any apologies for acting like a total jerk 100 percent of the time.

Read just about any account of the band's career, and John Cummings, who died in 2004 at the age of 55, is portrayed as a mega-douche. Because he was. We're talking about a guy who stole Joey Ramone's girlfriend out from under him, then flaunted it in his face while the band was at it's peak. A guy who wouldn't visit Joey in the hospital and bury the hatchet, even when the singer was dying of cancer. A guy who is said to have possessed a large amount of Nazi memorabilia. A guy who wouldn't even let Joey's family in on the band's induction into the Hall in 1998. A guy who went from being best friends with Joey's brother, Mickey Leigh, to treating him like dung for decades on end.

Solid read.

A great account of Johnny's greatest hits can be read in Leigh's admittedly one-sided book, "I Slept With Joey Ramone."

So now come reports that Johnny's autobiography, "Commando: The Autobiography of Johnny Ramone," is set for release in April.

The book is stocked with stories told from the death-bed, so there's a 1.9 percent chance there are some apologies and remorse (If there is, I swear I will come back and delete this post). But we're talking about Johnny Ramone here. While his people are keeping most of the details close to the vest, we know that he once again goes into his relationship with wife Linda, poking through his coffin and into Joey's yet again, effing with poor dude's already effed up head in the afterlife. And we know that even though Linda thought about including interviews from John's pals, maybe balancing the thing out a little, but nah, why not let the guitarist rip away from his bully pulpit.

What a d*ck.

Yet, we can almost forgive it all because of sh*t like this.

Kickin' Em Out: 1989

All of these "early influence" inductees really piss me off. Why does the Hall only recognize "early influences" but not future influences? I'm assuming "early influences" means there were no charts so there were no hits so they were never commercially recognized but had a huge impact on future artists. Fine. But what about bands later on that could never have commercial success because they could never make a Billboard chart, but their "influence" had a massive impact on what happened later. The list is endless so there's no point even getting started.

So who's going? The Ink Spots and their vocal harmonies or The Soul Stirrers and their gospel soul? Does it matter? I say no.

So we'll flip a coin and boot The Ink Spots because their name is dumber. And since we have to have a big name heave-ho, we're taking out Phil Spector. Yes, he produced legendary girl group records, and yes he was behind the boards for seminal solo works by John Lennon and George Harrison.

But Mr. Wall of Sound also royally effed up the last Beatles album and The Ramones' "End of the Century," which you could argue led to that band's demise.

Oh yeah, and he MURDERED SOMEONE.

Dion
The Ink Spots
Otis Reading
The Rolling Stones
Bessie Smith
The Soul Stirrers
Phil Spector
The Temptations
Stevie Wonder