David Johansen, Frontman of the New York Dolls, Dies at 75

David Johansen, the frontman and last surviving member of the glam and punk pioneering band, the New York Dolls, has died at age 75.

David Johansen was also known as his pompadoured alter ego, Buster Poindexter, in addition to his work as the frontman of punk forerunners, the New York Dolls. Johansen died Friday (February 28) at his New York City home, a family spokesperson confirmed to The Associated Press. Earlier this year, the 75-year-old was revealed to have been diagnosed with stage 4 cancer, and had a brain tumor.

The New York Dolls were early pioneers of glam and proto-punk, and have inspired countless bands that came after. The band’s style of teased hair, feminine clothes, and lots of makeup became a staple in ‘80s hair metal a decade later.

“When you’re an artist, the main thing you want to do is inspire people, so if you succeed in doing that, it’s pretty gratifying,” said Johansen in an interview with The Knoxville News-Sentinel in 2011.

Unfortunately, the band never found commercial success, and was ripped asunder between infighting and drug addictions, breaking up after just two albums. In 2004, former Smiths frontman Morrissey (who has often said how much the New York Dolls inspired him), convinced Johansen and other surviving members to regroup for England’s Meltdown Festival. That reunion led to the band releasing another three albums.

“I used to think about my voice like, ‘What’s it gonna sound like? What’s it going to be when I do this song?’ And I’d get myself into a know about it,” said Johansen in 2023. “At some point in my life, I decided, ‘Just sing the […] song. With whatever you got.’ To me, I go on stage and whatever mood I’m in, I just claw my way out of it, essentially.”

Born to a large Catholic family on Staten Island, David Johansen filled notebooks with poems and lyrics from a young age. He enjoyed a variety of music, including Cuban and R&B, as well as artists like Otis Redding and Janis Joplin.

The New York Dolls — whose lineup included guitarists Sylvain Sylvain and Johnny Thunders, bassist Arthur Kane, and drummer Jerry Nolan — took their name from a toy hospital in Manhattan. The band was excited to take over the proverbial throne left by the Velvet Underground in the early 1970s, but neither of their original two albums (New York Dolls in 1973 and Too Much Too Soon in 1974) managed to chart.

But decades later, the Dolls’ influence would be felt across genres. Artists like Tommy Lee of Mötley Crüe and Chris Stein of Blondie both citing them as an early inspiration.

Their self-titled debut album was listed at No. 301 on Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. “It’s hard to imagine the Ramones or the Replacements or a thousand other trash-junky bands without them,” the publication wrote at the time.

After the New York Dolls first split up, Johansen started his own group, the David Johansen Band. He soon reinvented himself in the ‘80s as lounge crooner and camp icon Buster Poindexter. Johansen also formed the group The Harry Smiths, and later hosted SiriusXM’s weekly radio program, “The Mansion of Fun.”