David Johansen, the skinny, raspy-voiced singer and last surviving member of the glam and proto-punk band the New York Dolls who later performed as Buster Poindexter, his flamboyant, pompadoured alter ego, has died aged 75.
Johansen died Friday at his home in New York, Rolling Stone magazine reported, citing a family member.
In early 2025, it became known that he was diagnosed with stage four cancer and a brain tumor.
The New York Dolls were pioneers of punk rock, and their style—with bouffant hair, feminine clothing, and heavy makeup—launched the glam movement that would influence heavy metal a decade later with bands like Faster Pussycat and Motley Crue.
“When you're an artist, the most important thing is to inspire people, and when you do that, it's a joy,” Johansen told The Knoxville News-Sentinel in 2011.
Rolling Stone once called the Dolls “hydrogen age mutants,” while Vogue described them as “boa-clad, heeled darlings of the urban style.”
“The New York Dolls weren't just musicians; they were a phenomenon. They drew inspiration from classic rock 'n' roll, urban blues, show tunes, the Rolling Stones, and girl groups, to name just a few,” wrote Bill Bentley in Smithsonian Rock And Roll: Live And Unseen.
The group failed to achieve commercial success and suffered from internal conflicts and addictions, disbanding after releasing two albums by the mid-1970s.
In 2004, former Smiths frontman and Dolls fan Morrissey convinced Johansen and the remaining members of the band to reunite for the Meltdown festival in England, which led to three more studio albums.
In the 1980s, Johansen took on the persona of Buster Poindexter, a pompadour-wearing party boy whose hit “Hot, Hot, Hot” became popular in 1987.
He also starred in Candy Mountain, Letting Go, and Married to the Mob, and had a memorable role as the Ghost of Christmas Past in the Bill Murray comedy Scrooged.
Sourse: breakingnews.ie
