Re-Writing NY Dolls History?

We get SPIN magazine delivered to our office. While I was waiting for the coffee to brew this morning, I was flipping through and this caught my eye. In a one-page interview, NY Dolls singer David Johansen is asked the question:

SPIN: Is it true that Blackie Lawless replaced Johnny Thunders as the Dolls' guitarist in 1975?

DJ: He was never in the band. We were someplace one time and didn't have a guitar player. And he was there, so he played guitar for this awful gig in some cowboy bar in Florida or something. All these people always say "Oh yea, I was in the Dolls" and "I saw the Dolls" It's like, get outta here.

So who's telling the truth? As much as I like Blackie & WASP, I'm inclined to believe David. Sounds a little more plausible, seeing that Blackie was never featured on any recordings (was he?). Anyone else think Blackie's stretching the truth here or is Johansen mis-remembering his past band-mates?

As far as I know, Blackie only played a couple of shows with them. I don't remember Blackie ever saying that he was with them more than a very short time. I'd bet Freddy has an old Hit Parader with a Blackie article in it where he discusses this topic.

Here's what Wikipedia has to say:

For about fifteen days, in May 1975, Lawless played guitar for the New York Dolls, replacing Johnny Thunders at two shows, during their tour through Florida. After the tour, he went to California with Arthur Kane and helped found the "Killer Kane Band", (Single "Mr. Cool", a song which then went on to become "Cries in the Night"), where Lawless was the singer. At that time his artistic name was "Blackie Goozeman." About a year later Kane went back to New York while Lawless decided to stay in Los Angeles.

So I guess that's 14 days longer than David remembers. By the way, did anyone know Blackie had a cameo in This Is Spinal Tap and also auditioned for the role of the 2nd terminator in Terminator 2? Well according to his Wiki page he did. Fascinating stuff.

SpectreFate wrote:

I'd bet Freddy has an old Hit Parader with a Blackie article in it where he discusses this topic.

You know me too well. But believe it or not I think I do have an ancient issue of Circus somewhere in the archives where Blackie talks about his brief tenure with The NY Dolls. If I remember when I get home tonight I'll see if I can dig it up.

Either way, like Spec sez, to the best of my knowledge Blackie has never made it sound like he was ever a mover-and-shaker with the Dolls, and has always mentioned that his experience with them was short lived.

By the way, MG, I'm surprised to hear that SPIN magazine is still being published. I haven't seen a copy of that mag in dog years.

Fat Freddy wrote:

SpectreFate wrote:

I'd bet Freddy has an old Hit Parader with a Blackie article in it where he discusses this topic.

You know me too well. But believe it or not I think I do have an ancient issue of Circus somewhere in the archives where Blackie talks about his brief tenure with The NY Dolls. If I remember when I get home tonight I'll see if I can dig it up.

Either way, like Spec sez, to the best of my knowledge Blackie has never made it sound like he was ever a mover-and-shaker with the Dolls, and has always mentioned that his experience with them was short lived.

By the way, MG, I'm surprised to hear that SPIN magazine is still being published. I haven't seen a copy of that mag in dog years.

Yea, my boss is a big music fan (more pop-oriented though) and he subscribes to a bunch of mags. We get SPIN, Rolling Stone, and a few British ones too. Always good to flip through while I'm killing time in the office, waiting for coffee to brew or microwaving my lunch. Beats, you know, actually talking to co-workers.

Spin magazine is utter shite, like an indie version of that horrid Blender magazine. They live in a world where the Strokes rock and Jimmy Fallon is funny............they even put him on the cover!

As for the Dolls it sounds about right, couple of gigs as a replacement live guitarist. Blackie features on a great compilation called "Sons Of The Dolls" which compiles songs from various spin off Dolls bands including the Killer Kane Band which he sings and plays guitar with.

I remember reading old interviews with Lawless and I seem to remember him making it sound like his involvement was a little more than just a "fill in" player. Of course I'm going off memory with that...but wasn't he the one that said "the NY Dolls were the only band that could sit in an airport and miss 3 planes in a row"?