Dee Dee that he was right, commenting that he "had the right look". When the Ramones were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame original Ramones drummer, Tommy Ramone, credited Ward with "keeping the band young". Ward was the youngest member of the Ramones when he joined, by nine years. He also shared a birthday, October 8, with bandmate Johnny Ramone. While Ward's first live show with the Ramones was on September 30, 1989, in Leicester, England, his official debut with the band was actually three weeks earlier on September 4 during the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon that aired on WWOR-TV in New York. Ward played with the band until they disbanded on August 6, 1996. Equipment Ward used Ampeg SVT amplifiers for most of his career, having inherited several amps from Dee Dee Ramone. However, he has since switched to Fender Bassman amps, stating that the Ampeg amps had "substantial historical value" and he wished to preserve them. Prior to joining the Ramones, Ward played an early '70s Fender Jazz Bass and always played with his fingers (he actually explained in a 2015 interview with Fender that on his way to first meet the band, he had to stop at a music store and buy picks in order to play like Dee Dee did before him). When he joined the Ramones, they gave him a black Mexican Fender Precision Bass, with a white pickguard and a maple neck and that was his main bass for the first gigs with the Ramones. He also had two cream Fender Precision basses, one with a white pickguard and another with a black. (These basses can be seen on various backstage photos.) He then bought a white American Fender Precision with a white pickguard (later switched to a black to make it look more like Dee Dee's bass guitars). Then he finally got a vintage 1979 Fender Precision, like the basses that Dee Dee used to play. He would use that bass mainly the rest of his time with the Ramones. While with the Ramones, Ward had a custom-made Mosrite Bass made for him by Semie Moseley, white with a tortoise shell pickguard. He used it while with Bad Chopper and has since sold this bass. He then used a Mosrite bass that he designed with Mr. Yuasa of the Filmore Company, the Mosrite copyright owner in Japan. It was white