In the Fall of 1992, Dee Dee Ramone arrived in New York, from London and checked into the Chelsea Hotel. A long time bastion for famous artists and musicians, the Chelsea provided a place of solitude and introspection. For Dee Dee, this was a time for much needed recovery and a period of solace.

During the summer of the following year, I met Dee Dee one evening in an East Village bar. During the conversation, (over a glass of Coke), Dee Dee spoke with excitement of his life, free of the Ramones, and of an autobiography that he was in the process of writing. Seeing a great opportunity for a photographic essay, I asked if I could come to his room at the Chelsea to photograph him. He eagerly obliged.

Over a three month period of photo sessions and lots of "hang out" sessions, Dee Dee revealed his inner most thoughts of life with and without the Ramones. At the time of these photo sessions, Dee Dee completed the first drafts of his book that would eventually become Poison Heart (Surviving The Ramones). To my knowledge, these are the only intimate images of Dee Dee depicting his period of recovery at the Chelsea.

Photographing Dee Dee Ramone was quite a pleasurable experience. Dee Dee is probably the most unpretentious rock star that one will ever meet. There is an enormous degree of honesty in the way he lives his life. I think these photographs reveal this quality.