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, 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.

In the 1970s, he and the transgressive Dolls were proto-punk pioneers. He later refashioned himself as the pompadoured lounge lizard Buster Poindexter.