David Johansen passed away yesterday (Feb 28th) at the age of 75.
I actually got to meet him once. I lived in Mission Valley and the only bar that I liked that was nearby was the bar at the DoubleTree Hotel about 2 blocks away. So I would hang out there. The San Diego Street Scene was going on this particular weekend. And it was at Qualcomm Stadium, which was just about a mile away. Tickets were something like $75 and I didn’t feel like paying such an exorbitant price just to see one band, which was the only good band on the whole lineup. And that band was the New York Dolls.
So I’m sitting in the bar at the DoubleTree with my wife (she was my girlfriend back then) and the place is completely empty because everyone was at the Street Scene. There was a new bartender subbing for my regular bartender and we were talking about music. She was telling me how Guns & Roses was her favorite band. A few minutes later, I see a rough looking guy out of the corner of my eye and my first thought was “oh man, they got homeless people coming inside here now”. Then I hear this really gruff voice say “What do I have to do to get a cup of coffee around here?” Not even a second later, my next thought was “Oh my God!”, and I turn around and my wife smacks me on the arm at the exact same time (as in “hey look!”). It was David Johansen!
I said “We got this! Your money is no good here!” and ordered him a coffee. The bartender had no idea who he was, but could see that we were both in awe. A little starstruck. How could you not be?! David was kind enough to talk with us for a little while. He was wearing a dirty jeans jacket with a half eaten Hershey’s chocolate bar stuffed into the front pocket. What sucked was that we basically struck out on everything he asked us. I said “I’d ask for an autograph, but I just bought your new album for my girl (Amy) and it came autographed from the Tower Records website.” David goes “Oh! What do you think of it?” I had literally just got it in the mail that day and given it to Amy before we went out for the night, so we didn’t get a chance to hear it yet. Then he asked “Well are you going to see us at the Street Scene?” No. I told him we wanted to, but tickets were too expensive to see just one band. I was hoping he’d put us on the list, but I didn’t want to ask and put him on the spot. We talked a little about things like Sirius radio (he had a show there on Little Steven’s Underground Garage) and then he asked our names, shook our hands, and took the coffees and said he had to get back to Mara. He couldn’t have been more nice and I couldn’t have been more starstruck. lol.
Afterwards, the bartender asked who he was. We had to tell her that without him, there would be no KISS, Motley Crue, or Guns & Roses.
You can read more about this meetup here.
I’ve actually seen the reformed NY Dolls twice. Once at the Belly Up Tavern and the other at the House Of Blues. Got a ton of pictures at the Belly Up show. Can’t find them as of yet, but once I do, I’ll post some!
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