Johnny Ramone’s widow Linda talks romance, alleged Joey Ramone love triangle: ‘The band always came first’

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Linda Ramone is in the mood for love.

The widow of late punk legend Johnny Ramone has teamed up with Happy Socks for a collaboration inspired by her rock ’n’ roll love story with the guitarist. The special edition collection, titled Happy Socks x Linda & Johnny Ramone, features bold, colorful prints that reflect the various phases of their time together.

Johnny, described as “the stone-faced guitarist of the punk band the Ramones” by the New York Times, passed away in 2004 at age 55 from prostate cancer. Johnny, who was born John Cummings, was the third member of the band to die in a little over three years following singer Joey Ramone (Jeffrey Hyman), who also succumbed to cancer in 2001 at age 49, as well as bassist Dee Dee Ramone (Douglas Colvin) who died in 2002 at age 50 from a drug overdose.

Ramone spoke to Fox News about her romance with the rocker, how she’s keeping his legacy alive, the alleged love triangle involving Joey, as well as what her life is like today.

Fox News: How important has it been for you to keep the legacy of your late husband Johnny Ramone alive?
Linda Ramone: Very important. When Johnny was dying, he would talk about his legacy all the time. It was very important to him. So for him to put me in charge of his legacy – that was always the biggest thing he could ever do for me. He would always say, "I would rather be here keeping my own legacy alive. But if there’s one person I’m picking, it’s you."

And that was really big, especially at that time. Johnny was very sick, but he always did think about his legacy. He loved The Ramones. He loved being Johnny Ramone from The Ramones. And the legacy is now super important, especially since they all passed away.

Fox News: How did Johnny’s love of hobbies influence the designs for the Happy Socks collection?
Ramone: For Johnny, it was all about collecting. It all started when we were living in a one-bedroom apartment in New York City. He would always say, “When I retire.” That’s all you would hear from him – “When I retire.” Johnny was always plotting and planning his retirement (laughs). And we always knew we would move to LA because of the weather. We would go to LA in November and it would be so nice. But when we came back home to New York in March, it would be freezing. So we always knew retirement wasn’t going to happen in New York City. There’s just no way.

And we always wanted a house with a pool. When you’re sitting in New York City and it’s freezing cold for half the year, you’re always dreaming of what it could be like sitting by a pool. Even though both of us didn’t swim, we still wanted a pool. And we would collect movie posters but we didn’t have any space to put anything. There’s only so much decorating you can do with a one-bedroom. But we still kept collecting.

Johnny was all about baseball and horror. And together we collected Elvis. So when we got to retire and moved to LA, we had plenty of collectibles. We had an Elvis room already. We had a horror room... The first room that we walked into our house became the Elvis room. I collected a lot of ‘60s stuff and we bonded over ‘60s movies. I think that inspired the socks… All the inspiration just came from around the house and the memories we shared here.

Fox News: What do you believe was the secret behind your lasting marriage?
Ramone: First of all, collecting was a big thing for us. We shared hobbies together and bonded over that. I mean, young love is always different from any other love. But the fact is we grew together. And we actually became closer after Johnny retired and we moved to LA. Sometimes retirement can separate people.

Fox News: What was Johnny’s idea of romance?
Ramone: Going to a ball game (laughs). That was his idea of romance — going to see a Yankee game.

Fox News: It’s been said you stayed in touch with ex-boyfriend Joey Ramone until his death.
Ramone: Yes — the negativity comes from the whole love triangle thing (laughs). People are always like, "Oh, she broke Joey’s heart." It was our first love, me and Joey. So it was very deep and it was amazing. But at one point, Johnny fell in love with me... When Joey [learned] Johnny was in love with me, it was either [accept it] or break up the band. None of us, the three of us, ever put each other first. The band always came first. That’s how it was. We all knew it.