Cretin Family | Travis Barker's Ramones supergroup
Travis Barker joins Billie Joe Armstrong, Tim Armstrong and CJ Ramone as Cretin Family for the Ramones 50th anniversary show on 30 August.
Every so often a one-night-only line-up gets announced and you just think: yes, obviously.
On 30 August 2026, Travis Barker plays the Official Ramones 50th Anniversary Tribute at Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles, as part of a band called Cretin Family.
The line-up
- Billie Joe Armstrong (Green Day)
- Tim Armstrong (Rancid)
- CJ Ramone (Ramones, 1989–1996)
- Travis Barker on drums
That is four decades of Californian punk in one place, playing Ramones songs, with an actual Ramone in the band.
The evening marks 50 years since the Ramones’ debut album, and it is a special edition of the annual Johnny Ramone Tribute. John Travolta hosts. There is a double-feature film screening and a Shepard Fairey DJ set. All proceeds go to cancer research at the Ellison Institute.
Tickets sold out, which will surprise nobody.
Why Travis is the right call
Ramones drumming is deceptively hard. It is fast eighth notes with no dynamic hiding places, and the whole thing lives or dies on whether the drummer can hold a tempo dead flat for two minutes without flinching.
Travis has been playing that kind of part since Feeble and The Aquabats, and his marching-band background means his singles are ruthlessly even at speed. He is also, by a comfortable margin, the most famous drummer the Ramones’ descendants produced.
Final thoughts
A punk supergroup playing a graveyard for charity is about as Los Angeles as it gets, and we would love to have been there. Fingers crossed somebody films it properly.
Read our full Travis Barker feature or see his full rig, era by era, in the Rig Vault.