The Brief

David Johansen, the chameleonic and charismatic vocalist who fronted the New York Dolls and found solo success under the moniker Buster Poindexter, died on Friday, his publicist confirmed to NPR. He was 75.

Last month, his family revealed that he had been in "intensive treatment" for stage 4 cancer. The punk pioneer "died of natural causes after nearly a decade of illness," according to the publicist's statement.

Johansen died at his New York City home "holding hands with his wife Mara Hennessey and daughter Leah, surrounded by music, flowers, and love," it read.

Born in 1950, Johansen grew up on Staten Island with five siblings and parents who met while working at a Barnes & Noble. "My father was a Norwegian tenor and my mother a New York Irish librarian," he told The Independent.

As a teenager, Johansen started performing in rock 'n' roll bands and at a weekly hoot night at a local Jewish community center; at the latter, he sang the Delta blues songs he grew up loving.

"Some people would do, like, Kingston Trio-type stuff and the Greenbrier Boys," he told Fresh Air in 2001. "I was more into, you know, Lightnin' Hopkins and things like that."

He also joined the Ridiculous Theatrical Company in the West Village in the years preceding the formation of the New York Dolls.

That band rose to prominence in the first half of the 1970s, associated with the glitter-rock movement spearheaded by Alice Cooper, David Bowie and T. Rex, among others. Led by Johansen, the Dolls stood out from even their most colorful peers thanks to striking stagewear and androgynous looks — various combinations of skintight pants, sky-high platform boots, makeup, loud animal prints and women's clothing.

The New York Dolls perform at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York on Oct. 31, 1973. At right is lead singer David Johansen, with guitarist Sylvain Sylvain.

(

Richard Drew

/

AP

)

"We didn't consider ourselves glitter rock; we were just rock & roll," Johansen said in the book Please Kill Me, an oral history of punk music. "And we thought that's the way you were supposed to be if you were in a rock and roll band. Flamboyant."

Johansen was a lithe onstage presence who strutted and peacocked with the confidence of Mick Jagger, but possessed earnest insouciance that was rough around the edges. The Dolls' lack of polish was a major part of their charm, as they traded in raucous glam riffage and ragged takes on early rock 'n' roll and R&B. But, in a nod to his foundational sonic texts, Johansen pointedly noted that the band covered Otis Redding, Archie Bell & The Drells, and Sonny Boy Williamson.

Produced by Todd Rundgren, the Dolls' 1973 self-titled album featured songs written or co-written by Johansen. (The lone exception was a slipshod take on Bo Diddley's "Pills.") New York Dolls ended up a proto-punk masterpiece: shambling bar-band boogie ("Personality Crisis"), swaggering glam ("Looking For A Kiss"), hot-rodding garage-punk blueprints (the Johnny Thunders co-write "Jet Boy") and deconstructed rockabilly-soul (the howling "Trash").

Johansen's lyrics were vivid and hungry, capturing the restless energy of both the band's New York City hometown and the political and societal fissures rupturing America.

"We were really such a gang, and it was like us against the world," he told Fresh Air host Terry Gross in 2004. "And we were really trying to evolve music into something new, and it was, you know, very kind of almost militant to us."

But while many of their glammy peers went on to enjoy great commercial success, the Dolls remained a cult favorite, albeit one that had an enormous influence on '70s and '80s rock. The '80s hair metal scene owes a sartorial debt to the band, while Duran Duran, Morrissey and R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe are avowed fans. In the book Please Kill Me, music impresario Malcolm McLaren, who briefly worked with the group, even admitted, "I was trying to do with the Sex Pistols what I had failed with the New York Dolls."

The Dolls broke up in 1976, with Johansen citing "inertia" and "factions in the group that were, you know, more interested in drugs than in playing music" in the 2004 NPR interview.

He subsequently went solo, releasing a swaggering, Rolling Stones-esque 1978 self-titled album with singles like "Funky But Chic." Future records continued to refine his shimmying, bar-band glam, with the Mick Ronson co-produced 1979 LP In Style, occasionally dabbling in disco. Johansen also toured heavily and landed opening slots for Pat Benatar and The Who.

In the 1980s, Johansen revisited his love of the blues — and had an unexpected career resurgence — under the moniker Buster Poindexter, a childhood nickname.

"On the street, they called me Buster," he told People in 1988. "Then they'd catch me with books and call me Poindexter, so it's kind of an intellectual punk or something."

As Johansen told Fresh Air in 2004, he shaped this musical persona during a low-key Monday night residency at an Irish bar in Manhattan's Gramercy Park, a "barrelhouse kind of roadhouse show" where he performed music he had been listening to, like jump blues songs and Camelot's "The Seven Deadly Virtues."

This intimate engagement eventually led to him fronting a big band in the guise of a louche Las Vegas club performer, complete with a pompadour, fancy suit, and accoutrements like cigarettes and martinis.

"By the time it got to the national awareness, it did have this kind of Vegas-y kind of idea to it," he said in 2004 of his act. "But it started off more kind of like the Louis Prima days in the '50s of Vegas."

Buster Poindexter became a regular presence on Saturday Night Live and earned an unexpected hit with 1987's horn-peppered "Hot Hot Hot," a cover of a tune by the soca artist Arrow. The song was the "bane of my life," Johansen told Terry Gross in 2004, after asking her not to play the tune during the interview.

Over the years, Buster Poindexter toured with a group dubbed the Banshees Of Blue and released four studio albums, encompassing vintage R&B, blues, salsa and merengue.

"I know some people think, 'Oh, Johansen puts on a tuxedo and thinks he's somebody else,' " he told People in 1988. "But it's me, really. Sometimes I've found that by getting into a certain drag, or a certain feeling, you can cast off your mortal coil and really do something. I don't know if it's important, but it's something. It's entertainment."

Outside of music, Johansen acted in a number of films, including Married to the Mob and Scrooged. And in the early 2000s, he formed a band called the Harry Smiths to perform his childhood favorite blues songs (including by Lightnin' Hopkins) and tunes by the group's namesake, folk archivist Harry Smith.

Somewhat improbably, Morrissey convinced the New York Dolls to reunite in 2004, a performance that was documented on Morrissey Presents the Return of the New York Dolls (Live from Royal Festival Hall 2004). This led to three more studio albums — the first, 2006's One Day It Will Please Us To Remember Even This, included guest vocals from Michael Stipe — and tour dates that included Alice Cooper.

According to a statement posted by his daughter Leah Hennessey, Johansen had navigated serious health challenges since 2020, including a brain tumor, but kept this news private and remained busy. He kept up his hosting gig at his weekly SiriusXM radio show "Mansion of Fun," opened for Morrissey in 2023 in London, and did a heartfelt cover of Phil Ochs' "There but for Fortune" at a late 2023 celebration of 1960s Greenwich Village.

He also helped promote Martin Scorsese's and David Tedeschi's 2023 documentary on him, Personality Crisis: One Night Only. The loving chronicle of Johansen's life and career was anchored by footage from a January 2020 set at the cozy Café Carlyle. Sporting a sophisticated take on his trademark Buster Poindexter look (a wolfish pompadour and a sparkly suit jacket), he entertained the crowd with stories and songs from his career, his voice as comfortable and weathered as a worn-in leather jacket.

After a 2022 New York Film Festival screening of Personality Crisis, a panel discussion with Scorsese, Johansen and others involved in the film evolved into some lighthearted back-and-forth about making the film, with Johansen's daughter Leah Hennessey noting how much her father disliked looking back and telling stories about his past.

"It's a beautiful objet, and I'm very appreciative," he protested lightly, referring to the film.

In response, Johansen's wife, Mara Hennessey, gently backed him up with a touching clarification: "The first time David and I saw the penultimate screening, he said, 'Well, that's a version of myself I can live with.'"
Copyright 2025 NPR

This story first appeared on The LA Local.

Since 1977, Richard Santillan has been to every Opening Day game at Dodger Stadium. 

“The tradition goes from my father, to me, to my children and grandchildren. Some of my best memories are with my father and children here at Dodger Stadium,” Santillan told The LA Local, smiling under the shade of palm trees near the entrance to the ballpark Wednesday morning. He was there to protest the team less than 24 hours before Opening Day.

Santillan, like countless other loyal Dodgers fans, is grappling with his fan identity over the team’s decision to accept an invitation to the White House and owner Mark Walter’s ties to ICE detention facilities.

More than 30 people joined Santillan on Wednesday morning for a press conference held near 1000 Vin Scully Drive to convey a message directly to the team. 

“We are demanding the Dodgers stop participating in funding of inhumane treatment of families and do not go to the White House to celebrate with the criminal in chief,” Evelyn Escatiola told the crowd. “Together, we have the power to make a change.”

Escatiola, a former dean of East Los Angeles College and longtime community organizer, urged fans to flex their economic power by “letting the Dodgers know that we do not support repression.”

Jorge “Coqui” Rodriguez, a lifelong Dodgers fan, spoke to the crowd and called on Dodgers ownership to divest from immigration detention centers owned and operated by GEO Group and CoreCivic.

Jorge Coqui H Rodriguez speaks at a press conference outside Dodger Stadium on March 25, 2026, to demand the Dodgers not to visit the White House following their 2025 World Series win.

(

J.W. Hendricks

/

The LA Local

)

In a phone interview a day before the protest, Rodriguez told The LA Local he did not want the Dodgers using his “cheve” or beer money to fund detention centers. 

“They can’t take our parking money, our cacahuate money, our cheve money, our Dodger Dog money and invest those funds into corporations that are imprisoning people. It’s wrong,” Rodriguez said. 

Rodriguez considers the Dodgers one of the most racially diverse teams and said the players need to support fans at a time when heightened immigration enforcement has become more common across L.A.

The team’s 2025’s visit to the White House drew ire from the largely Latino fan base, citing the Trump administration’s ongoing attacks on immigrants. 

In June, the team came under further scrutiny when rumors swirled online that federal immigration agents were using the stadium’s parking, which immigration authorities later denied in statements posted on social media accounts.

The team again came under fire after not releasing a statement on the impacts of ICE raids on its mostly Latino fan base at the height of immigration enforcement last summer. The team later agreed to invest $1 million to support families affected by immigration enforcement.

When he learned the Dodgers were pledging only $1 million to families in need, Rodriguez called the amount a  “slap in the face.” 

“These guys just bought the Lakers for billions of dollars and they give a million dollars to fight for legal services? That’s a joke,” Rodriguez said. “They need to have a moral backbone and not be investing in those companies.”

According to reporting from the Los Angeles Times, former Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershawsaid last week that he is looking forward to the trip.

“I went when President [Joe] Biden was in office. I’m going to go when President [Donald] Trump is in office,” Kershaw said. “To me, it’s just about getting to go to the White House. You don’t get that opportunity every day, so I’m excited to go.”

The Dodgers have yet to announce when their planned visit will take place. 

Santillan sometimes laments his decision to give up his season tickets in protest of the team. His connection to the stadium and the memories he has made there with family and friends will last a lifetime, he said. On Thursday, he will uphold his tradition and be there for the first pitch of the season, but with a heavy heart.

“It’s a family tradition, but the Dodgers have a lot of work to do,” he said.

A local favorite mom-and-pop bookshop in Eagle Rock is facing displacement due to a steep rent hike. The owners say theirs is just one of several small businesses along Eagle Rock Boulevard struggling to keep up with lease increases.

Over the past 19 years, many in the neighborhood have come to love READ Books for its eclectic collection of used titles and shop dog Florence.

Co-owner Jeremy Kaplan said it’s been a delight to grow with the community over the years.

“Like seeing kids come back in, who were in grade school and now they’re in college,” Kaplan said.

But the building where Kaplan and wife Debbie rent was recently sold, and the rent increased by more than 130% to $2,805 a month, Kaplan said. He told LAist it was an increase his small business simply could not absorb.

Kaplan said he originally was given 30 days notice of the rent increase. After some research, assistance from Councilmember Ysabel Jurado’s office and some pro-bono legal help, Kaplan said he pushed back and got the 90-day notice he’s afforded by state law.

California Senate Bill 1103 requires landlords to give businesses with five or less employees 90 days’ notice for rent increases exceeding 10%, among other protections.

Systems Real Estate, the property management company, did not immediately respond to LAist’s request for comment.

What can small businesses do? 

Nadia Segura, directing attorney of the Small Business Program at pro bono legal aid non-profit Bet Tzedek said California law does not currently allow for rent control for commercial tenancies.

Outside of the protections under SB 1103, Segura said small businesses like READ Books don’t have much other recourse. And even then, commercial landlords are not required to inform their tenants of their protections under the law.

“There’s still a lot of people that don’t know about SB 1103. And then it’s very sad that they tell them they have these rent increases and within a month they have to leave,” Segura said.

She said her group is seeing steep rent hikes like this for commercial tenants across the city.

“We are seeing this even more with the World Cup coming up, the Olympics coming up. And I will say it was very sad to see that also after the wildfires,” Segura said.

Part of Bet Tzedek’s ongoing work is to advocate for small businesses, working with landlords who are increasing rents to see if they are willing to give business owners longer leases that lock in rents.

What’s next 

After READ Books posted about their situation on social media, commenters chimed in to express their outrage and love for the little shop.

While he looks for a new spot, Kaplan says he’s forming a coalition of local businesses and activist groups to see what can be done to help other small businesses facing similar displacement. He wants to address the displacement issue for businesses like his, which have made Eagle Rock the distinctive neighborhood that it is today.

Owl Talk, a longtime Eagle Rock staple selling clothing and accessories in a unit in the same building as READ Books, is facing a “more than double” rent increase, according to a post on their Instagram account.

Kaplan said he’s been in touch with the office of state Assemblywoman Jessica Caloza and wants to explore the possibility of introducing legislation to set up protections for small businesses like his, including rent-control measures or a vacancy tax for landlords. Kaplan said he also reached out to the office of state Sen. Maria Durazo.

By his count, Kaplan said there are about a dozen businesses within surrounding blocks that are at risk of closing their doors or have shuttered due to rent increases or other struggles.

When READ Books was founded during the Great Recession, Kaplan said he knew it was a longshot to open a bookstore at the same time so many were struggling to stay in business.

“It was kind of interesting to be doing something that neighborhoods needed. That was important to me growing up, that was important to my children, that was important to my wife growing up,” Kaplan said.

“And then somebody comes in and says, ‘We’re gonna over double your rent.”

Topline:

Frozen budget: Most of the city’s Bureau of Street Lighting budget comes from an assessment that people who own property illuminated by lights pay on their county property tax bill. The amount people pay depends on the kind of property they own and how much they benefit from lighting. A typical single-family home currently pays $53 annually, and in total, the assessments bring in about $45 million annually for the city to repair and maintain streetlights. Changing the amount the Bureau of Street Lighting gets from the assessment requires a vote among property owners who benefit from the lights.

Ballots: L.A. City Council’s vote gives city staff the green light to prepare and send out those ballots. Miguel Sangalang, who oversees the bureau, said at a committee meeting earlier this month that he expects to send out ballots by April 17. Notices about the ballots will be sent out prior to the ballots themselves.

Near unanimous vote: L.A. City Councilmember Monica Rodriguez was the only “No” vote Tuesday, saying she wanted to see a more current strategic plan for the bureau. Sangalang said the bureau developed a plan in 2022 that lays out how money will be spent. Councilmember Imelda Padilla was absent for the vote.

Vote count: Votes will be weighted according to the assessment amount. Basically, the more you’re asked to pay yearly to maintain streetlights, the more your vote will count. Ballots received before June 2 will be tabulated by the L.A. City Clerk.

How much more money: According to a report, the amount needed in assessments from property owners to meet the repair and maintenance needs of the city’s streetlighting in the next fiscal year is nearly $112 million.

Use of the money: Sangalang said at a March 11 committee meeting that the extra funds would be used to double the number of staff to handle repairs and procure solar streetlights, which don’t face the threat of copper wire theft. That would all potentially reduce the time it takes to repair simple fixes down to a week. Currently, city residents wait for months to see broken streetlights repaired. The assessment would come with a three-year auditing mechanism.