by Neil W. McCabe

The former guitarist for the punk band, The Real Kids, who lived in the city for 10 years until 1999, recalled the eight months he toured the world as the guitar roadie for Johnny Ramone Sept. 15 at age 55.

“He was always good to me, but everything had to be perfect. That’s why the bass and drums roadie used to call him the Fuerher,” said William A. Borgioli, who now is a professional artist with a studio in Boston. “He never yelled, but you could tell if he was pissed by the look on his face.”

“In 1980, John Felice, the guy who had the job, returned to Boston and they must have heard that I had just left The Real Kids and wasn’t doing anything,” he said.

“My job was to tune the guitars, set up the amp and change strings as he needed,” he said. Ramone had three Mosrites, white, natural wood and blue.

During performances, Borgioli said he worked on the same side of the stage as Ramone to hand him his guitars and help out if there were any problems on that side of the stage. “One time in Germany, a kid threw a wad of gum that got stuck in his hair. It was one of those nights when the kids were throwing things at the band and it was really pissing them off. He motioned to me to come over and get it out. I came over and tried to pull it out while he was playing, but there was nothing I could do.”

Another of Borgioli’s duty’s was to keep the fans off the stage, he said. “They all wanted to be on the stage, just to be a part of the band, I guess.”

“I would throw them off in a nice way. One time in Australia, the stage was 15-20 feet higher than the crowd. The fans climbed on top of each other like ants to reach the stage. As I was pushing them off, one of them grabbed my leg and pulled me down onto the crowd,” he said.

“It wasn’t scary to fall, but when I hit the floor they all stepped away and formed a circle around me. These were all the people that I have been throwing off the stage, I thought they were going to beat me up. But, instead they helped me up and lifted me back on the stage. Maybe, they thought of me as one of the band because I was on the stage with them,” he said.

As a roadie, there was very little interaction with the band, he said. “It was like, they were the Ramones and we were the roadies.”

“They didn’t drink and they because they travelled with their girlfriends, after a show they would go to the 7-11, get some food and go back to the hotel. In their contracts, the promoters would provide a case of beer for the roadies and one for the band, and we would get their case, too,” he said.

Borgioli said he and the bass and drums roadie, Danny Zykowski, took turns driving the truck with Zykowski driving at night and Borgioli driving during the day. “I called him Bally because all he cared about was doing coke and getting laid.”

“What made made Ramone a great guitarist is that he kept everything simple. He created a unique Ramone’s sound by playing his guitar on top of the bass. It was a driving sound and it drove the kids crazy,” he said.