Monte A. Melnick

Monte A. Melnick was born in Queens and grew up in its Forest Hills section. He attended Halsey Jr High Forest Hills, Forest Hills high School, and Queensborough Community College.
Monte played in several bands, most notably he was in a country rock band called Thirty Days Out from 1971 to 1972. The band had records released on Warner Brothers Reprise and they even appeared on the Mike Douglas Show. Monte was also in two bands with Thomas Erdelyi (later to be known as Tommy Ramone). The bands were called Triad and Butch. He worked for the Ramones for over 22 years from 1974 - 1996. Most of those years were spent as tour manager. But Monte wasn’t just the Ramones Tour Manager, he was also mom, dad, teacher, doctor, babysitter, bill collector, voice of reason, referee, negotiator, bodyguard, alarm clock and personal assistant, among other duties too numerous to mention.
He has an uncredited role in the film, Rock ‘N’ Roll High School, starring the Ramones
He was the Audio Visual Supervisor for The New York Hall of Science for 16 1/2 years, and the in House Manager at Queens Theatre in The Park.
Monte wrote the book 'ON THE ROAD with the RAMONES' now out in a BONUS EDITION and available on Amazon worldwide. The original edition was published in 2004. The bonus edition is the latest and is the one with the RAMONES letters in the color red. The bonus edition comes with 40 added pages. Hey Gil, you will be glad to know that the book includes an enormous number of photos and graphics, so you don’t have to enjoy reading to enjoy the book.
I have to say something and I am not saying it to kiss up to our guest. A number of books have been written about the Ramones, but Monte’s book, ON THE ROAD THE RAMONES, is by far the best and most revealing. After all he was with the band everyday from the beginning to the end. The book is written with quotes from just about everyone who was close to the Ramones. That is part of what makes the book so great.
The Ramones were, and are, my favorite band and Monte helped hold them together for over 20 years, not an easy task. In my opinion, Monte should be regarded as a national treasure.
Monte has travelled all around the world with the band. The Ramones played 2,263 live shows. Except for a few years living in Massachusetts, Monte has spent his entire life living in Queens.