David Johansen, the lead singer of New York Dolls, passed away at 75 after a long battle with cancer.
The legendary star’s death was confirmed by her daughter, Leah Hennessey, who shared that he died at home in New York on Friday, February 28th, as per New York Times.
Hennessey had previously shared that her father had been diagnosed with stage 4 cancer and had a brain tumour.
Revealing her dad’s illness, in February she said, “David has been in intensive treatment for stage 4 cancer for most of the past decade. There have been complications ever since. He’s never made his diagnosis public, as he and my mother Mara are generally very private people, but we feel compelled to share this now, due to the increasingly severe financial burden our family is facing.”
In an interview with People Magazine, she noted, “He’s very, very sick, but he’s reading all the messages, and he’s getting in touch with people he hasn’t talked to in many years. The connection is probably the best thing for him right now — as it is for all of us.”
However, she added, “He’s totally with us — mentally, emotionally, [but] he’s physically incapacitated.”
Johansen first found his longstanding career in music as the lead singer of the New York Dolls, one of the earliest punk bands. He later went off to start a solo career in the 1970s, and began performing cabaret under the name, Buster Poindexter, in the ‘80s.
