David Johansen, the former lead singer for the New York Dolls, whose unvarnished sound and flamboyant style helped inspire punk and glam rock in the 1970s, has died at age 75, his wife Mara Hennessey said on Saturday.

David Johansen, who segued from being the New York Dolls frontman to his Buster Poindexter alter ego and back again, has died at age 75.

David Johansen, a genre-shifting musical nomad who roared to fame in thrift-store drag as leader of the proto-punk New York Dolls and later donned a tuxedo and took the name Buster Poindexter with lounge-style swing that included a hit remake of the calypso-themed “Hot Hot Hot,