David Johansen, the versatile, multitalented lead singer and final surviving unique member of the seminal proto-glam-punk band New York Dolls who additionally discovered fame within the Eighties and ’90s because the throwback crooner Buster Poindexter, has died at 75.
Johansen died on Friday afternoon in his bed room, surrounded by flowers and music and holding palms together with his spouse, Mara Hennessey, and stepdaughter Leah, Hennessey confirmed to ABC Information.
“We had a fabulous journey of a life collectively. He was a unprecedented man. So grateful we went public with information of his sickness earlier than his passing because the previous couple of weeks have been stuffed with messages and love from household, pals, & followers,” Hennessey advised ABC Information in an announcement.
Johansen’s stepdaughter, Leah Hennessey, revealed in February that Johansen had “been in intensive therapy for stage 4 most cancers for a lot of the previous decade,” which had unfold to his mind 5 years earlier. She stated Johansen had additionally damaged his again in two locations in a fall down stairs the day after Thanksgiving 2024.
David Johansen of New York Dolls performs on stage at The Discussion board in north London.
Yui Mok/PA Photographs through Getty Photographs, FILE
“Because of the trauma, David’s sickness has progressed exponentially and my mom is caring for him across the clock,” Hennessey wrote on the web site for the Candy Reduction Musician’s Fund, the nonprofit charity that gives monetary and different help for musicians in want.
“We’ve been residing with my sickness for a very long time, nonetheless having enjoyable, seeing family and friends, carrying on, however this tumble the day after Thanksgiving actually introduced us to a complete new stage of debilitation,” Johansen stated in a statement to Rolling Stone. “That is the worst ache I’ve ever skilled in my whole life. I’ve by no means been one to ask for assist, however that is an emergency.”
Born Jan. 9, 1950 within the New York Metropolis borough of Staten Island, Johansen carried out with native bands earlier than becoming a member of what was then generally known as the Dolls in 1971 as their singer and songwriter. Altering their identify to New York Dolls, the band made a singular splash on the New York music scene with their stripped, hard-driving sound, coupled with an androgynous, over-the-top stage presence boasting massive hair, make-up, excessive heels, velvet and spandex.
On this Feb. 10, 1974 file photograph, members of the rock band New York Dolls are proven. L-R: Arthur Kane, Jerry Nolan, David Johansen, Sylvain Sylvain, and Johnny Thunders.
Bettmann Archive through Getty Photographs
New York Dolls by no means achieved widespread business success throughout their Nineteen Seventies heyday and disbanded in 1976 after years of tumult and personnel modifications, having recorded solely two albums – “New York Dolls” and “Too A lot Too Quickly” – each of which featured Johansen on lead vocals and with nearly all of the tracks both written or co-written by him. But regardless of their abbreviated tenure, New York Dolls exerted a galvanizing, incalculable foundational affect on early punk and glam rock, with artists as numerous as Blondie, Aerosmith, Intercourse Pistols, KISS, the Conflict, David Bowie, Morrissey, Billy Idol, R.E.M., Joan Jett and lots of others citing them as inspiration.
The Dolls’ visible aesthetic specifically helped delivery the Eighties hair steel scene, with their look emulated by bands like Poison, Twisted Sister and Mötley Crüe.
Although they have been by no means inducted, New York Dolls have been nominated thrice for inclusion within the Rock and Roll Corridor of Fame: in 2001, 2021 and 2022.
On this Feb. 19. 2016, file photograph, singer Buster Poindexter, a/ok/a David Johansen, performs at Metropolis Vineyard in New York.
Bobby Financial institution/Getty Photographs, FILE
After a number of years as a solo artist, Johansen rebranded himself within the Eighties because the tuxedoed, pompadour-topped throwback lounge singer Buster Poindexter. Along with his band The Banshees of Blue, he scored a modest Billboard Sizzling 100 hit together with his 1987 jive-infused cowl of the dance music “Sizzling Sizzling Sizzling,” Johansen’s solely hit single.
Johansen recorded 4 albums because the ebullient Poindexter, turning into within the course of a frequent late-night speak present presence. He additionally carried out as Poindexter with the “Saturday Evening Stay” home band for the present’s 1986-1987 season.
Johansen continued in later years to carry out and report each solo and with numerous different bands, together with his personal blues outfit, The Harry Smiths, within the early 2000s. He briefly reunited across the similar time with former New York Dolls members, recording three extra albums and performing occasional stay gigs and excursions.
Johansen additionally loved a profession as an actor, together with a memorable flip because the cigar-chomping, wisecracking, cab-driving Ghost of Christmas Previous reverse Invoice Murray within the 1988 hit comedy “Scrooged.”
David Johansen because the Ghost of Christmas Previous and Invoice Murray are proven in a scene from the 1988 movie comedy “Scrooged.”
United Archives through Getty Photographs, FILE
In 2023, Johansen’s half-century of affect on music was celebrated in a documentary titled “Persona Disaster: One Evening Solely,” directed by Martin Scorsese and David Tedeschi, which featured footage of a January 2020 efficiency of Johansen’s cabaret present on the Café Carlyle in New York, in celebration of his seventieth birthday.
“Vegetarian, straight, homosexual, no matter,” Johansen stated of his legacy within the movie’s trailer. “I simply needed to deliver these partitions down and have a celebration.”
On this Dec. 4, 2009, file photograph, singer David Johansen performs stay on stage on the Kentish City Discussion board in London.
Jim Dyson/Getty Photographs, FILE
Johansen was married thrice and divorced twice. He is survived by his spouse, artist Mara Hennessey, whom he wed in 2013, and their daughter.
