David Johansen

David Roger Johansen (born January 9, 1950) is an American rock, protopunk, blues and pop singer, as well as a songwriter and actor. He was a member of the seminal protopunk band The New York Dolls and also achieved commercial success under the pseudonym Buster Poindexter. Johansen was born in the New York City borough of Staten Island, New York, to a librarian mother and an insurance sales representative father. Johansen's family was Catholic; h... more

David Roger Johansen (born January 9, 1950) is an American rock, protopunk, blues and pop singer, as well as a songwriter and actor. He was a member of the seminal protopunk band The New York Dolls and also achieved commercial success under the pseudonym Buster Poindexter. Johansen was born in the New York City borough of Staten Island, New York, to a librarian mother and an insurance sales representative father. Johansen's family was Catholic; his mother was Irish American and his father Norwegian American. When his father was arrested in the fall of 1967 for smuggling 15 pounds of marijuana into the country, David found solace in the music of MC5 and the hope of one day following in the footsteps of his idol, Mick Jagger. Johansen became an iconic musician in the early period of punk rock, creating a new style that anticipated and helped inspire the punk revolution. Originally influenced by Mick Jagger and by Rob Tyner of MC5, Johansen began his career in the early 1970s as the... less