Punk Royalty Assembles as Cretin Family for Ramones 50th Anniversary at Hollywood Forever

An unusually concentrated punk lineage gathers August 30th when Billie Joe Armstrong, Tim Armstrong, Travis Barker, and former Ramones bassist CJ Ramone share a stage under the name Cretin Family. The one-off group anchors The Official Ramones 50th Anniversary Tribute at Hollywood Forever Cemetery, an event hosted by John Travolta with tickets benefiting the David Agus MD Cancer Research at Ellison Institute.

The show marks five decades since the Ramones’ self-titled debut, a record that stripped rock to its essentials and redrew the boundaries for countless bands that followed. The lineup alone traces a direct line from that 1976 LP through punk’s commercial expansion: Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day, Tim Armstrong of Rancid, and Travis Barker of blink-182 each built careers on the speed, brevity, and melodic instinct the Ramones made irreversible. CJ Ramone, who played with the band from 1989 until their 1996 retirement, provides the living tether.

The evening extends beyond the music. Travolta presents a double-feature screening of his new film Propeller One-Way Night Coach and the 1976 horror Carrie, itself turning 50. Artist Shepard Fairey will DJ, and surprise guests are promised during the Cretin Family set. The cemetery’s history of outdoor cinema and concerts gives the tribute a stranger, more deliberate atmosphere than a standard venue show.

The Ramones anniversary is also being observed with a Punk Rock Museum exhibit in Las Vegas and planned reissues from Rhino Records. But the Hollywood Forever gathering, swapping arena scale for a lineup that carries the music’s DNA across four decades, lands less like a museum piece and more like a working meeting of the faithful.