When I got into rap I didn't exactly win any popularity contests. I called myself Dee Dee King, after B.B. King, to the total dismay of my fellow Ramones.

Billboard called my solo album, 'Standing In The Spotlight,' a great party album and even said that my raps put the Beastie Boys to shame.

I like to do what I do in my house and I love to play shows, but I don't want to have to go out and talk to a bunch of people I don't know.

The distance thing is partially due to the fact that I'm pretty shy and I've struggled with extreme stage fright in the past. So I just have to go onstage in a different head space so I'm not as self-aware.

All of my favorite records have vocals high in the mix, even if it's music that wasn't necessarily mainstream.

There's a side to being in a band that some people embrace and some don't: the fact that you're performing and you care about how it comes across.

I'm really lucky I'm still around. Everybody expected me to die next... But it was always someone else instead of me.