David Johansen Is 'Very, Very Sick' but 'With Us Mentally, Emotionally,' His Daughter Says in New Interview (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

Leah Hennessey, Mara Hennessey, David Johansen, in New York in 2023.Photo:Rob Kim/Getty

Rob Kim/Getty

Leah Hennessey — the daughter of trailblazing punk iconDavid Johansen— is giving a health update on her father’s condition, days after revealing that he’s been battling a brain tumor and 10-year cancer struggle.

“He’s very, very sick, but he’s reading all the messages and he’s getting in touch with people he hasn’t talked to in many years,” Hennessy tells PEOPLE exclusively. “The connection is probably the best thing for him right now — as it is for all of us.”

As Hennessy shared on Feb. 10, her father had a bad fall on Thanksgiving, which left him bedridden. “He was just walking down the stairs and he slipped,” she told PEOPLE. “The fall is really when things turned. It really accelerated things.”

David Johansen in Los Angeles in 2023.Matt Winkelmeyer/Deadline via Getty

Matt Winkelmeyer/Deadline via Getty

Still, she says, “he’s totally with us — mentally, emotionally” but “he’s physically incapacitated. He’s bedridden. He can’t walk and hasn’t been able to since Thanksgiving.”

Beyond that, her father and mother, Mara Hennessey, “want to keep medical details private for now — that’s up to their discretion,” Hennessey, 36, said.

“I’m just so grateful that I could help in a way that was within my skill set.”

David Johansen in New York City in 1987.Ebet Roberts/Redferns

Ebet Roberts/Redferns

Hennessey teamed up with theSweet Relief Musician' Fund— which provides financial assistance to artists and those in the music industry struggling with health challenges — to raise funds for his care with a specially designed shirt in his honor and straightforward donations.

“Fame does not equal financial security,” Hennessey tells PEOPLE, saying the money will go towards “the mountain of medical debt that has accrued over the past ten years,”  as well as round-the-clock care for her father. Right now, Hennessey says her mother is in “a 24-hour state of devotion. Their love is mythological,” she said. “They are so in love every moment of the day and it’s an incredible thing to be part of and see.”

The funds raised already, she says, will make a “significant difference… in terms of the quality of care.”

“It’s really making me cry because almost all of the donations are under $100. It’s the kind of money that people are happy to spend on a musician they love.”

The New York Dolls perform in 1973.Gijsbert Hanekroot/Redferns

Gijsbert Hanekroot/Redferns

Beyond the fundraiser, she encourages people to continue sharing their memories of her father, explaining, “We love seeing all the different perspectives and the celebrations of his life — [it] really is a big part of the fundraiser.”

Along with the protopunk outfit theNew York Dolls, Johansen is also renowned for his alter-ego solo personaBuster Poindexter. In 1987 he scored aBillboardhit with single, “Hot Hot Hot” as the outlandish character, a year before his scene-stealing turn as the Ghost of Christmas Past in Bill Murray-led hitScrooged.

“The truth is that his fans, they’re always gonna have David. They’re always gonna have the David that they know, and we’re not going to have our David," Hennessey tells PEOPLE. “The man, the real guy at the kitchen table, that’s who’s gonna be gone.”

“But what he’s created and the impact he’s had on the world, and what he’s given over and over again, that’s not going anywhere. He’s part of the city, and he’s part of the culture, and he’s part of history. That’s gonna live on no matter what.”

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source: people.com