Sylvain Sylvain from 1998

magazine

This “David Johansen” you keep referring to, most people today would know him under his new stage persona, “Buster Pointdexter.” According to legend, things have been pretty spotty between you two.

Sylvain

Johansen was probably the most popular out of all of the NY Dolls. He's up there singing. He's the frontman. But him leading the band was self-appointed. He was not the leader, but he took it on like that, and his fame got bigger, and his ego matched it. He really believed everything that they said about him. We [the whole band] were staying at Jerry Nolan's mother's house, and Johansen was getting lushy drunk. He was sort of an abusive drunk. He would tell you that you didn't matter, and he was the singer, and he could go on his own, and he didn't need your hang-ups and your bullshit. Basically, he said that to us one day after dinner, and Johnny and Jerry, after they heard they could be replaced again and again, just walked out. And I drove them to the airport. We had offers to get back together, to make an album. We've been approached for documentaries. Last year, this huge management company called me up, offering me a million dollars, just to get together with Johansen. And my answer is like, “I've already said yes, back in 1984 when the first approach was. And everybody else said yes, the only guy who wouldn't even come to the phone and say ‘no, I'm not even interested' is David.” I happen to think that he fuckin' hates the NY Dolls. He hates to promote us and he hates to admit that he was once in there. Why, I don't know.