NEW YORK DOLLS Singer Says The Band's Future Is Up In The Air

NEW YORK DOLLS singer David Johansen has told the New York Times that the band will soldier on with a replacement bassist filling in for late bassist Arthur Kane for the few gigs they have lined up. But after that, he said, the band's future is up in the air.

"We don't have any long-term plans or anything," he said. "We're honoring our commitments, and that's as far as we have any idea about. We've never had any kind of Maoist five-year plan anyway, nor have I with anything I've done. Everything I've done I've just fallen into.

"Most bands are commercial enterprises," he added. "But I'm not in one of those bands."

With regards to Kane, who died on July 13 from leukemia at age 55, Johansen said, "In a cosmic sense the reunion was something that he really wanted. Whatever his disease was, he was holding it in abeyance until he achieved that. If there's anything good about it, it's that."

As for himself, Johansen said that he was enjoying the reunion immensely, but that for him it was not a return to the past.

"I've been around the block a couple of times, and the guy I am now is the guy I like to be," he said. "That era is an element of who I am now. I'm doing it as a kind of devotion, some kind of quasi-religious experience for myself, a ceremony. Otherwise I can't do it."

"You try things on in life," he added. "You wear them for a while, and you see what's next."

NEW YORK DOLLS will perform at Little Steven's International Underground Garage Festival on Saturday (August 14) on Randall's Island in New York City.