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New York Dolls frontman David Johansen’s stepdaughter Leah Hennessey revealed the rocker’s decade-long cancer battle and brain tumor diagnosis in a call for support after a debilitating fall.
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David Johansen and his family are opening up about his difficult health journey.
The New York Dolls frontman has been going through treatments and setbacks following a cancer diagnosis nearly a decade ago and is in need of assistance, according to his stepdaughter Leah Hennessey.
“As some, but not many of you know, David has been in intensive treatment for stage 4 cancer for most of the past decade,” she wrote in a statement on fundraiser Sweet Relief Musician Fund’s website, which she shared to her Instagram Story Feb. 10. “At the beginning of the pandemic we discovered that David’s cancer had progressed and he had a brain tumor. There have been complications ever since.”
Leah—whose mom Mara Hennessey tied the knot with David in 2013—said that he has been unable to work for most of the past five years, explaining, “He’s never made his diagnosis public, as he and my mother Mara are generally very private people, but we feel compelled to share this now, due to the increasingly severe financial burden our family is facing.”
Though Leah didn’t note what type of cancer her stepdad is fighting, she explained that the rocker’s health has declined since a severe fall around Thanksgiving that required a medical procedure and subsequent care.
“After a week in the hospital and a successful surgery,” she shared, “David has been bedridden and incapacitated. Due to the trauma, David’s illness has progressed exponentially and my mother is caring for him around the clock.”
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Leah added, “As hilarious and wise as David continues to be, he is physically debilitated and his care exceeds what we are capable of providing without specialized professional help.”
For his part, David also provided an update, emphasizing that the severity of the situation supersedes his desire to handle his health difficulties on his own.
“We’ve been living with my illness for a long time, still having fun, seeing friends and family, carrying on,” David said in a statement published in Rolling Stone Feb. 10, “but this tumble the day after Thanksgiving really brought us to a whole new level of debilitation.”
He added, “This is the worst pain I’ve ever experienced in my entire life. I’ve never been one to ask for help, but this is an emergency. Thank you.”
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