Guns N’ Roses remember David Johansen with live debut of ‘Human Being’

Guns N’ Roses have paid tribute to the late David Johansen by performing their cover of New York Dolls‘ ‘Human Being’ for the first time ever.

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Back in 1993, Guns N’ Roses recorded their take on New York Dolls’ ‘Human Being’ for their covers album ‘The Spaghetti Incident?’. Since then, the band have never performed the track live, until Tuesday (May 27) at a concert in Abu Dhabi.

While the band did not share a speech about Johansen or New York Dolls, their performance comes after Johansen’s death in late February. The New York Dolls frontman’s death was confirmed by his daughter, and came five years after he was diagnosed with stage four cancer. He was 75.

Watch Guns N’ Roses cover New York Dolls’ ‘Human Being’ below.

Just weeks before his death, David Johansen thanked his fans for their fundraising support following him publicly sharing his cancer diagnosis. Revealing his diagnosis earlier in February, he described the illness as “the worst pain I’ve ever experienced in my entire life.”

As the singer in the New York Dolls, Johansen was fundamental in the shaping of the aesthetic that would go on to define punk rock, merging elements of glam and hard rock with a distinctively anti-establishment attitude and resonating with an emerging generation of music fans.

Johansen went on to lead a successful solo career, opening for The Who, before swerving in the late ‘80s into the alter ego Buster Poindexter, a louche lounge singer that performed regularly with the Saturday Night Live band. He had a hit under that name with ‘Hot Hot Hot’ in 1987.

He also embarked on a semi-regular acting career, appearing most notably alongside Bill Murray in 1988’s festival classic Scrooged. Other credits included Let It Ride, Mr. Nanny and The Adventures of Pete and Pete.

Following the news of Johansen’s death, Stevie Van Zandt described him as “one of the most unique legends of our business and a very good friend. One of a kind.” Morrissey, an early fan of the New York Dolls and later a friend of Johansen’s, posted an image of the late singer on his website under the headline, ‘ALL HOLLOW’.

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