Tommy Ramone

Dee Dee got the name 'The Ramones' from Paul McCartney. McCartney would call himself Paul Ramon when he checked into hotels and didn't want to be noticed. I liked it because I thought it was ridiculous. The Ramones? That's absurd!

I remember as a young man seeing these bigger-than-life, strong images of black manhood in the form of Jim Brown and Fred Williamson, Jim Kelly, Billy Dee Williams. All these guys were these alpha males who were smart, attractive. I said, 'Wow, I want to be like that.'

The thrill of a photo-realist painter is if you get really close to the painting, it looks just like a photograph. Whereas in my case, if you get close to my paintings, they totally fall apart - so I'm about as far from a photo-realist as it gets.