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Excuse me.

Excuse me.
If I could have your attention

for just a moment.

Uh, we're going to have
to move the party inside

pretty soon. Rock 'nRoll
Fag Bar is starting.

So if anybody wants anything
else to eat, grab it now.

Take it inside.

We're getting some complaints
from the neighbors,

so we're going to go in
and start partying...

- Just like last year.
- ...just like last year.

But The Weenies will be on
in about an hour or so.

Every man has a little
bit of a woman inside of them,

and every woman
has a little bit of a man.

And the people
who are well-adjusted

are the ones who don't feel
threatened by it.

And the people
that are repressing

part of their desires

are the ones
that react most violently

toward any kind of variation
from the norm.

And, there's a whole lot
of repression in this country.

We've got to be the most,
I mean, repressed country

in the Western Hemisphere.

It's just pathetic.

So, do I think
America's ready? No.

Here he is,
Dean Johnson!

Dean was,
if nothing else,

a complete original.

He took everything
to a different level,

and he still is.

That's what's so crazy.

The people don't even know it.

Dean was a musician.

Dean was a lyricist.

Dean was a stylist.

He was really defining
how the East Village

gay considered
themselves other.

He was kind of an AIDS
activist, drag queen.

He was doing original
rap songs

full of anger, full of wit.

New York was the
epicenter of the AIDS crisis,

and the East Village
was the epicenter of New York.

The 80s were not a time
for openly gay rock stars.

There are hardly even any now.

This was at the height
of heil Reagan and Bush,

and AIDS was in full force

and people were dropping
like flies.

People were afraid
to be around gay people.

It was very important
for people to know

that he was gay, and that this
was gay music for gay people,

and that it wasn't wimpy.

We're here
with Dean Johnson.

Hi! It's Dean Johnson.

America, I love you. Mwah!

♪ You want the big Johnson ♪

He's a very
important person.

And it's very important
to tell his story.

45-year-old Dean Johnson

was one of the most
well known people

in Manhattan's gay community.

So well-known
was the six-foot-six

party planner rock band,

front man and porn actor

that his death under
mysterious circumstances

in Washington, D.C., headlined
the New York Post's Page Six

gossip section this morning.

So the phone rings.

And...

It's someone on the other end

asking me
if I know Dean Johnson.

And I say,
"Yeah, what's... what's up?"

And they're like,
"Well, you know, he's here.

He spent the night

and can't wake him up."

According to the New York Post article,

Dean Johnson's friends say
he had a history of drug use,

and he told at least
one friend he came to D.C.

regularly to set up
weird sex parties.

The mystery around
the whole thing was

really heartbreaking
to not have an answer.

And I don't think we do now.

Really, if you were going
to do a story of my life,

you'd have to talk
to everyone else

because I couldn't
tell it to you.

I just, too much burn out.

Dean's diary,
1979 to 2004.

1979.

"I arrive in NYC at NYU

and practice being fabulous

at Weinstein Dormitory
Cafeteria."

Dean was one of the people
that I remember,

you know, from that early period

in the East Village.

It was really a neighborhood.

It was really community.

The East Village back then

was still burned out,

it was still very scary.

But I loved it like that.

I got a little
apartment on, Avenue C,

and I used to get robbed

all the time and mugged
and held up at gunpoint,

and, and there were,
like, people dying

outside my apartment

and just crazy, crazy shit.

Past Houston
was the most dangerous.

I mean, you would just run

to your friends'
houses down there.

I used to tell people,
"Well, there's Soho,

there's Noho

And I live in Uh-oh.

I was so swept up
in just the magic

of everything that I didn't
even notice the danger.

You have
an artistic scene

because you have
one third artists

to two thirds people
living an artistic life.

When I moved there,
there were still hookers

and heroin on the street.

And personally,
I feel way more comfortable

in a neighborhood
when there's still hookers

and heroin on the street.
It doesn't make me feel unsafe.

It makes me feel safe

'Cause I know
that my people are out there.

You knew everybody
on Avenue A, we were,

you know,
in each other's audiences

and going to each
other's events.

The East Village
was just wild.

I mean, it was
just full of characters.

I mean, everywhere you went,
there was characters.

I mean, every single person
had a look and a story,

and nobody had any money,

but they all had a look.

You could be anything
that you wanted to be.

And the more eccentric

your choice was,

the more space
was given to you.

Really.

And the more out there
you became,

the more people would be like,

"You know what?
That's an important person

in this community."

Pat, he's wearing
the muscle Dean tank.

Fernando is wearing
the butch Dean Muscle

And of course, Matt is wearing
Dean on acid.

I was working
one night graveyard shift,

and Dean come in
and I said, "Man,

who is that big bald guy?"
He looked like the guy.

The dude in The Hills
Have Eyes, you know.

And then so I said,
"Oh, that's Dean Johnson,

the gay party promoter."

I said, "Boy, that is
literally the biggest queer

I've ever seen in my life."

The bald head,
the hoop earrings,

the little black dress,
combat boots.

It was sexy.

We're here with Sinead O'Connor.

You know, he knew
he was never going to leave

CBGB's or the pyramid, and
have someone go whistle at him

like he was a woman.

It was an FU to be,
like, in a stretch dress

with drop earrings on
and be his size.

I loved his look just because
it was so completely different

than what was kind of happening

in most of the drag
circles of New York.

When I first
saw Dean, I was like,

"Oh, that bitch
isn't even trying.

This is just a big old
fucking man with a baritone."

And there was something
so threatening about it.

Lipstick, a boner and heels.

At the time,
things were really rigid,

segregated, gay or straight.

It was less queer.
But Dean was always queer.

Dean was always queer.

Dean was always,
like, gender fucked.

When I was,
I was probably three.

And so Dean
would have been six.

And mother heard this gasp,
you know, like...

you know, coming from upstairs,

and was wondering
what the hell is going on.

So she was like, "Dean,
what's going on up there?"

And he came
to the top of the stairs.

He goes, "I'm trying to teach
Beth about show business,

or at least everything I know."

You know.

From the day he was born,
he was, you know,

in the show business.

So Dean grew up
in a small New England town.

He had one sibling, Beth.

His father was
a Presbyterian minister

and his mother
was a psychologist.

He talked about,
you know, his father being

a very conservative, normal,

you know, "Happy Days"
type of household, you know,

and I think that's one
of the reasons

that probably fueled him
to want to rage really hard

and just go wild
in every direction.

My father would mumble
and be very quiet.

And then when he would preach,
he was very clear

and very loud. And Dean
was sort of the same way,

you know, he wasn't
real loud in his life,

but when he performed,
he became this persona.

My mother's presents,
you want to see what they are?

A picture of me on the dunes
when I was eight years old.

My favorite stickers
from childhood.

They say, "War is not
healthy for children

and other living things."

I used to put them
all over my room.

And my very first little fork.

Isn't that cute?

All from mom.

My mother
is extremely sentimental,

but it's the thought
that counts.

Plus soap.
She always steals soap

from the hotels
and gives them to me.

I met Dean,

uh, in 1979.

We were freshmen at NYU,

and we all lived pretty much

within the same two floors
of Weinstein's dormitory.

It was impossible
not to meet him.

He was tall.

I'd say he was pretty shy.

We had the same
circle of friends.

It was a buzzy kind of dorm.

Jean-Michel Basquiat used
to sneak in, do his graffiti.

Samo.

The desk clerk was Mr. Rick

who's in a Beastie Boys song.

I kind of went out
with the boyfriend

of Bridget Fonda.

"Had sex
in the dormitory rec room

behind the bleachers

while Rick Rubin
and the Beastie Boys

were rehearsing
in the same room

and didn't know we were there.

Saw Richard Lloyd
of Television perform

high on dope
in his pajamas at Hurrah.

Madonna is working
the coat check."

It was always
something's about to happen.

Just a bunch of kids
who had been outcast with,

as it turned out,
great talent and wit

and, a snarkiness
that we shared,

maybe, all of us, but, uh,

but no agendas.

I met Dean at NYU

in 1980, and actually,
while we were at NYU

living in the dorms, Dean shot
the porno movie Daddy Dearest,

which, you know, come on,
that was fucking intense.

Insane. I mean,
that's how that's how bombastic

and radical Dean was.

"I shot a porno movie
called Daddy Dearest.

Dear Daddy, my name is Brad.

I go to school at NYU.

I'm 20 years old, horny,
and I need a daddy.

"It was fun for a minute,

but by the second day
of the shoot, I was bored.

Some poor girl from my
father's church in New England

saw the ad in the paper and
thought it was a real movie."

She showed up for the opening
and had to sit through

two hours of my butthole,

spread 20ft across
the screen."

Fuck me, daddy.

Yeah, Daddy Dearest.

That's a classic,
have you seen it?

In today's terminology,

Dean is a perfect example of
someone that was sex positive.

Sex was his thing.

He built movements around that
and organized around that.

We had joy in being outside

the system
of heteronormativity.

He helped crack that shit open.

Stonewall happens in 69.

And obviously
there was gay liberation

or a gay rights movement
before that.

But it's really the beginning
of the flowering of it.

And, and so, the whole 70s was,

was this eruption
of the availability of sex.

Bathhouses proliferated,
back rooms in bars,

you know,
all sorts of ways that people

could get together
and have sex.

Dark rooms are part
of queer history.

There was a time where there
was actually a necessity

for these places.

These were
where we could find our folks

and the only places
we felt comfortable

connecting with them.

Which is why public queer spaces

for sex are part of who we are.

They were a necessity,
but it's also kind of

a dark, seedy,
sexy turn on as well.

Yeah, he a lot of sex.
Dean had a lot of sex.

Sex with multiple people
in a day.

That was part of his routine.

So he'd go to the gym,

got maybe asked
to leave or something.

And then there would be,
like, the cable guy came over

and he had sex with a cable guy,

and then it would
be somebody out at night.

He was particularly
interested in sex clubs

in the context of nightlife.

He writes about
being at the piers

when he was young.

When he went to NYU,

he discovered the piers.

1980.

"I was
with this cute French guy

and he took me into
these huge, empty buildings

that were full of guys
walking around, cruising,

and then sex would start
and a crowd would gather.

Frenchie took me
into this one room

and we started having sex.

A huge crowd
gathered to watch,

and it was the first time
I ever had sex

in front of an audience.

He started to get
a little self-conscious.

I was loving it.

Then he took me
up to the roof.

And everywhere you looked

there were naked men
sunbathing,

laughing, playing,
sucking cock.

It was like a gay paradise.

We fucked in the sun
and the circle line

tooted its horn at us

as they cruised by
up the Hudson.

The tourists looked happy."

Everybody was fucking
all the time.

And, it was such
a trivial thing.

You could literally
just walk down the street

and the person
next to you could be like,

you know, "Let's fuck!"

Dean and I crossed swords
a couple of times.

And he's a beautiful man,
I'll tell you that much.

Dean embodied liberation.

I mean, not only
because of the sexuality

and the partying,
but because it was wonderful

to be a seven foot bald queen

in silver lamé
platform stilettos.

"My roommate walked
in this morning

with a copy
of The Village Voice

and said,
'There's a new cancer

that only kills Gays.'"

Scientists
at the National Centers

for Disease Control in Atlanta,

today released
the results of a study

which shows that the lifestyle

of some male homosexuals

has triggered an epidemic
of a rare form of cancer.

The cause
of the Acquired Immune

Deficiency Syndrome, or AIDS,

is unknown,
and there is no known cure.

It is not only
the name for a disease,

it is another name for fear.

You know, originally
it was called the gay cancer.

Everybody thought that they
were going to get infected

because you were gay.

Back then AIDS
was a death sentence

It was devastating watching
your friends die.

It was just, you know,
in their early 20s.

I have friends
that didn't make it to 30.

They called it the gay cancer
that it came from monkeys.

And Haiti. My mom lost it

when they said Haiti,

because she's like,
"See, they're still trying

to blame it on black people."

You know, I mean, well, yeah.

It's almost unimaginable

how much homophobia
there was in the culture.

The vast majority of homosexuals

were in the closet at the time,

and there was this incredible
discrimination.

There was still
this kind of 1950s

biblical attitude

about how we were
kind of the... the things

that didn't matter in the world
because we weren't producing

families or having
two car garages.

This was happening
to a very specific

part of the population.

You know, it was gay people.

It was injection drug users.

It was people of color.

These guys had been
thrown out of their homes

anyway.

And then
they got sick and died,

and their Christian
parents said,

"That's what they get
for being homosexuals."

People really thought,
"Well, I'm going to be dead

in a few years."

It was such a climate of fear.

It made you want to live every
day like it was your last.

"I moved to a studio
on Ludlow Street,

where I lived for the next
ten years for $300 a month."

We dropped out of NYU together.

We left and went
to Lower East Side,

and that's when shit,
you know, hit the fan,

and became fun.

We were both bald.

That was part of our shtick.

We went around being
bald friends together.

"My friend Perry
shaved her head

and I thought
it looked so cool,

so I shaved mine too.

The next day,
the housing police arrested me

for being bald.

I like being bald.

Now I never have to worry
about how my hair looks.

I'm keeping it
this way from now on."

Perry was kind
of like the girl version,

if that even makes any sense,

because, well, they were
both so androgynous, you know?

She was boyish for a girl,

but she was kind of like
the female counterpart

to his image.

He was one of the first
sort of famous people

that I became friendly with.

You know, a New York nightlife
celebrity was just the same

as Divine or Deborah Harry
or Cher or Elton John to me.

You know, they were all stars.

♪ A kissy, kissy, kissy,
yeah, yeah, yeah ♪

1984.

"A bunch of kids
from the Pyramid

went to Tompkins Square Park
late last night,

and put on a show.

They want to start
doing it every year

and calling it Wigstock."

♪ I did it every day ♪

♪ But every night
I would deposit ♪

♪ The suit and tie
Into the closet ♪

♪ Wearing trousers,
What a bore ♪

♪ Ties and Cufflinks ♪

♪ What a chore ♪

Wigstock was an outdoor
festival, which I organized.

I was working
at the Pyramid at the time

with a bunch
of other drag queens,

and the idea was to do
a big show outdoors.

Now, this next entertainer

you may have
seen him on the cover

of the The Village Voice

or you may have seen him
in an old porn movie.

Here he is Dean Johnson!

I was gonna wear a wig,
but the glue kept melting off

my head so...

let's just sing!

♪ Do the drag! ♪

The first year
where a few homeless,

you know, some stragglers
from the Pyramid.

It had very inauspicious
beginnings,

but it did grow
by the end of the day.

And then every year after that.

And Dean was one of the big
headliners at that point.

Thank you.

Want to say something first?

How many years
have we done this together?

Two too many!

Too many.

Wigstock was always my favorite

when it was
at Tompkins Square Park

The East Village was just like
taken over with drag queens

and wigs and music,

and everybody was just
a love fest in the park.

It was free
and all the drag queens

would come out and perform
with their big wigs,

and we would all gather
and just be ourselves.

Dean was there,
reigning over everyone.

Like, seriously.

Wigstock to me it was
like better than Halloween.

I worked all year on my costume.

It was like all
the drag queens I idolized.

So it was just
one big crazy blur.

And I was probably
drinking Wild Turkey

the whole time too so...

Back in our day,

you weren't a drag queen
because you wanted to get rich,

or because there you might
be able to get on a show

or, you know, whatever.

They were a special kind of
person that wanted to do that.

It was a subculture,

and they were saying something

and there
was like an edge to it.

I mean, none of them
could be mainstream.

It actually used
to be dangerous.

It actually used
to be revolutionary.

It used to take courage
to fuck with gender

and be very in people's face.

When he performed at Wigstock,

it was something really
different for the crowd.

It wasn't someone just
coming out and doing a number.

It was a six foot six
bald drag queen

in hoop earrings doing
an angry rap song.

This is the community
that invented double fisting.

Do you know how hard it is
to shock people?

Do you know how hard it is
to get a rise out of people?

But he did it.

"A friend took me
to the gay pride parade,

and I hit my head
on one of those awnings

on Fifth Avenue.

Knocked me out cold.

Regained consciousness,
surrounded by gay men

and choking on the smell
of Perry Ellis cologne,

Wrote a song called
'Bourgeois Boys.'"

"The Village Voice
named me one of five artists

to watch this year.

Started a band called
Dean and the Weenies.

I'm teaching myself
to write music

by using a Casio to dissect

the hits on the radio.

It's not that hard,
but everything I write

has the same structure
as 'Material Girl'

and 'Footloose'.

Tonight we're proud to
present Dean and the Weenies!

♪ Want your salami ♪

♪ Want you to shove it ♪

♪ Roast beef ♪

♪ Extra lean ♪

♪ Hold my pickle ♪

♪ You know what I mean ♪

So I play
the electric mandolin

in Dean and the Weenies
and sang backup.

So, so it was kind of like
an avant garde role

in the band

On bass Ms. Eunice Holland

I thought that
I was going to go off

with my journalism degree.

And then one day Dean said,
"Eun, I'm starting a band.

You've got a bass
in your closet don't you?"

And that was that. It was
like, "Bye, journalism."

On saxophone
Mr. Lloyd Goldberg.

Dean didn't give a rat's ass
about, like, your background,

who you were or what you were,

you know,
this Jewish kid from Queens.

You know,
I was going to be a dentist.

I think it amused him
more than anything.

I go, "You know how I sound.

I sound like a drunk sax
player at a bad Bar Mitzvah."

Dean just looks back at me
and goes, "Lloyd,

That's the sound
I've always had in my head."

Oh, we played Pyramid a lot.

You know,
we played at the Palladium.

The Limelight, Danceteria.

♪ That's on demand! ♪

I was a backup singer.

My sister Perry was an original
Weenie and at a certain point,

she got sick for one gig
and I jumped in and filled in.

And then I just
joined the Weenies.

1986.

"I shot something for MTV

called "Andy Warhol's 15 minutes".

Andy,
don't you love Drag Queens?

Drag Queen is such,
it's a down word

it should be an up word, like,

like, you know, Neo-Geo.

Neo drag is what we call
the drag of the 80s.

I got into drag because,
I was, I had no money

and they were having
a beauty pageant

here at the Pyramid Club.

So I came down
and I entered and I won.

I'd like you to meet
my friend Teri Toye.

♪ Teri Toye I'll do your
make-up, wanna do your hair ♪

♪ I wanna dress you up
and take you everywhere ♪

♪ Teri Toye, I'm gonna
take you to a cool venue ♪

♪ I'm gonna save all my drink
tickets to give to you ♪

♪ Teri, there ain't
a woman who is scarier ♪

♪ Teri, can you get me
into Area, Teri? ♪

"We ended up with about
ten seconds of screen time,

but it's amazing
how many people recognize you

when you've been on MTV
for ten seconds

Yeah. Onstage,
he was uncompromising,

really nasty.

Under the layers of his rage,

there was a sweet guy
who just wanted to be hugged.

He kept
his boyfriends very private,

so I rarely met them.

I met like, very few,
and if I met them,

to me, that meant that they
weren't really that boyfriendy.

I remember dozens of boyfriends

during the time
we knew each other

like boyfriend was,

it was a term, you know,

these people
were his boyfriends

and it lasted
as long as it lasted.

I think the love of his
life was Christopher Hook.

He was living with Chris
when I moved to New York.

And, I think they had a very
dysfunctional relationship.

I met Dean

not too long after
I moved to New York City,

and I remember being
so grateful that I, like,

you know, sort of migrated

into this group of people,

this sort
of a gaggle of misfits

where I can just be myself.

Dean's generosity

and what he exposed me to,
he had such notoriety.

And, and that was
really exciting to me,

even if I was the person
on his arm, like,

you know,
I still felt like a star,

like, you know,
just being next to him.

BBC, Dean Johnson,
how are you doing?

I'm fine.

What's your name? Chris.

Chris and Dean.

Hello, London!

- Yeah.
- I never liked you

The first time I even knew
who Dean Johnson was

was in the movie
Mondo New York.

Mondo New York,
home to outcast,

misfit, reject,
pervert lunatics.

It's before I moved
to New York City,

and I was kind of obsessed
with that movie.

I was like,
"Oh, that's what I want to do.

And when I got here and then
I got to meet Dean Johnson,

I was like, "Oh
my God, it's Dean Johnson

from Mondo New York."

This is art

The theme of Mondo New York
was: what is art?

So I really set upon myself
to try to have an unlimited

vision of what was happening
in New York at the time,

And to really document it,
because it does disappear.

I remember we went
to see Mondo New York

in a movie theater,
and people, like,

chased him down the street.

That was really exciting
for the both of us.

Obviously, his quintessential
song was "Fuck You."

♪ I cannot remember your name
and I could not care less ♪

♪ I could have more fun
Talking to the IRS ♪

♪ Why don't you take
Your problems to analysis? ♪

♪ Take your foot out of your
Mouth and suck on this ♪

♪ Fuck you! ♪

That was, uh,
quite the achievement

"Fuck you"
was like the swan song, right?

He listed everything he hated

♪ Everybody now ♪

♪ Fuck! ♪
♪ The telephone company ♪

♪ Fuck! ♪

♪ National security ♪

♪ Fuck! ♪

♪ The prime interest rates ♪

♪ Fuck! ♪

♪ The Secretary of State ♪

♪ Fuck! ♪

♪ The Union Carbide ♪

♪ Fuck! ♪

♪ Third world genocide ♪

♪ Fuck! ♪

♪ Thermonuclear war ♪

♪ Fuck! ♪

♪ Mary Tyler Moore ♪

Just to see that lanky big
weirdo singing, "Fuck you,

Mary Tyler Moore."

It was. It was pretty,
pretty revolutionary.

"Fuck Mary Tyler Moore,"
I mean, come on.

That's great.

♪ Fuck you! ♪

"Fuck you,"
the horn part was just me.

I can hardly think of a time
that Dean ever told me

what to play, but when
we recorded "Fuck You"

he goes,
"Drunk sax player Bar Mitzvah."

He wanted that mood.
He really wanted that.

So I tried to deliver.

There was one night,
Dean and I were sitting

at the edge of the bar
at a place called Boy Bar,

and they were
playing house music,

which I'm not a big fan of.

Neither was Dean.

So I said, "I wish
someone would open up

a rock and roll fag bar."

And he said,
"That's a great idea."

"Went to the owners
of The World

and asked them
to let me have Tuesdays

since the club was
open that night anyway.

In four weeks,
Rock n'Roll Fag Bar

was the hottest party
in New York City

and dominated the club scene
for the rest of the decade."

Rock n'Roll Fag Bar
at The World

was one of those things

that sort of changed
nightlife in a way,

cause it was the AIDS times.

Reagan was president

and the AIDS crisis
was definitely decimating,

you know, so many people

♪ You got something
to smile about ♪

But it was weird because,
like, when you're in the club

with like, it was like...

It was like nothing was
going on like that outside.

The genius
of Rock n'Roll Fag Bar

was, first of all,
it was in this kind of decayed

ballroom. It was like
a great venue for this party.

The world was falling

to pieces
as the party was going on.

Every time there was even
moderately loud music there,

the whole chandelier

would look like it was just
going to come down

on everyone's heads.

That place was such a dump.

A magic, magic dump.

♪ Two, three, four ♪

We were the house band
in the crystal room,

and we played with, like,
all these different people.

He had great performances.

I remember that's one
of the first places

that a lot of people
saw Deee-lite

and David Bowie's Tin Machine.

They performed there.

When you're kind
of growing up gay

and trying to find your way,

the type of music
I always associated with

was like The Village People
or Sylvester,

and the fact that
at The World you could have

a thousand gay men dancing
to The Ramones

just blew my mind.

Because at the time, you know,

it was all disco and show tunes

and we were very
much rock n roll.

♪ Have a little bit of fun ♪

♪ When 17 is ready,
Willing and hung ♪

♪ He's Chicken! ♪

What kind of crowd?
do you like here

on Tuesday's at The World?

Oh, everyone here
was just so good looking

that I get dizzy.

Um...

And it's really fun.

We have lots of pop stars

and drag queens
and half naked boys

running all over the club.

And we all have
such a good time.

We would do
all sorts of drugs,

lots of hallucinogenics.

We were totally
into tripping and, you know,

He'd come over and we would,
you know, do bong hits,

you know, during the day.

That was what life
was like for years.

Everyone was dressed up
and dancing

and it was great.

It brought drag in a way,

and rock and roll,
which usually didn't mix.

And activism,
defiant open queerness.

And it was sexy.

It was the first time we sort
of started feeling sexy again

in a long time.

I want everybody to take their
clothes off for this next song.

Yeah!

At some point there
became a back room

and it was like, "Oh, clubs
are doing back rooms again.

This was, we had assumed
that was a lost art form.

You know,
I knew Dean was the person

that kind of brought back
the back room sex party,

in the sense
that he went backstage

and put a light bulb
in a room, and got a curtain,

and, ah! Suddenly radical
sex could be had again.

"I put out invites
saying we were having

a wild sex party.

I just darkened the back room
and put a box of Kleenex

and a 10 pound jar
of Vaseline under a pin light.

I hung a sign that said,
"This way to the Testosteroom.

Thinking it was a big joke.

About an hour later,
I looked up

and was surrounded
by people fucking.

That was how Rock 'nRoll Fag
Bar became a sex party."

It was a big orgy as
most of Dean's parties were.

When AIDS started
hitting in the early 80s,

everyone thought, "Oh,
we can never have sex again."

Sex was really scary
at that point.

Nobody knew how to navigate
the new rules of sex.

But as it became clearer,

people did started
having sex again.

Because it's a natural impulse.
It's human.

And Dean was at the forefront

of bringing sex
back to nightlife.

Dean was very big
on safe sex in his day.

There were, like,
thousands of condoms available

for people to use.

Was everybody safe?
Absolutely not.

What really set Dean apart

and what made Dean important

was Dean's focus on sex.

I don't think Dean
was trying to be provocative.

Dean was responding
to the kind of,

judgmental attitude
towards people

that happened during
the AIDS epidemic.

His entire take

was to fly in the face

of that judgment.

Strip!

And that's part of us

throwing these
sex positive events

and why we were so in your
face with the sexuality

as we were trying to tell

our community
that we are still

sexual beings
and that it is innate in us.

It is healthy
and it's a beautiful thing.

Those of us who
were pro sex positive

in the 80s, that came
out of a real fuck you

that no, we're not going
to like crawl into a hole

and say, "Yes, you're right.

Oh my God, I'm going
to do three Hail Marys

and I'm not going to be,

you know, the sexual
entity that I am.

For some of us sex is private

and kind of our relief
from the rest of our lives.

But for Dean,
it was public and a part

of the rest of his life.

It was an extension,
a ten inch long extension

of the rest of his life.

This is Rock 'nRoll Fag Bar!

1988.

How am I doin'?

"'Fuck You'
was the most requested video

on Rock America's Club chart
for six consecutive months.

Dean and the Weenies is flying

all over the country
doing shows."

Dean and the Weenies
got so popular

that they did get signed
by Island Records.

I'd like to announce since
we're celebrating tonight,

that Dean and the Weenies
has just landed a contract

with Island Records

You might actually
be seeing a drag queen

on MTV who's willing to admit
that he's a drag queen.

"The day after
I signed the contract,

I found out I'm HIV positive.

All of a sudden, nothing
seems to matter very much.

I'm having a lot of trouble
dealing with the press junket,

knowing this is hanging
over my head,

and I'm getting a reputation
for being difficult."

We all assumed
that we would get AIDS.

We all assumed
that we would die

because it was
a death sentence,

and we saw our friends drop.

So, amidst the partying,
there was this real

specter of death
and, you know, loss.

There is a really
big difference

between being in the downtown

art scene in the 80s,

when every
other person you knew

was sick or dying,
and you were waiting

to become positive.

It devastated
the East Village.

It devastated the art world.

It just changed New York.

It destroyed
an entire generation

or two generations,

um, of queer people.

Ronald Reagan didn't care
about the AIDS crisis.

This is not our problem.

You know, we don't care.

Being apolitical was not an option.

You had to speak up.
You had to go to rallies.

You had to go to marches

Health care is a right!
Health care is a right!

You know,
you had to raise hell.

How do you
feel about [inaudible]?

The issue of AIDS?

Well, I mean, it's not...

I mean, when you say how much
of the issue, you know,

it's not really an issue,

it's, it's,
it's much more than that.

It's a holocaust.

It's people dying all around us.

You know, my friends are dying

ACT-UP
did a demonstration

in Washington
where they had...

They were throwing the ashes
of their loved ones

on the White House lawn.

I cried through the whole thing.

I mean, that's,
you know, it very powerful.

It's a tragedy that we're
just beginning to experience

the loss of, um...

And I hope this record
will do something,

I don't think
it is going to do much,

But it's better
than sitting around

and doing nothing at all.

1989.

"Island is not liking me

because I won't shut up
about being gay.

Apparently,
they didn't realize how vocal

I intended to be
on the subject

when they signed me.

In fact, they didn't seem
to realize I was gay at all.

To make matters worse,
my A&R guy

is in the closet
and dying of AIDS.

He hates me."

He had a shot
of fame with "Fuck You"

and Mondo New York,

and the industry was
all over him for a minute,

and they were like,
"Oh, wait a minute.

You're like a six and a half
feet tall gay drag queen?

I don't think
we can market that."

Dean was getting ready to try

to put together a tour,
to go on tour

with The Weenies,

and then they said, "Oh,
no, no, we're dropping you

from the label.
We really were trying to go

in a different direction.
We don't want all

this queer music."

And then somebody called him
on the phone and said, "Hey,

did you give this homeless
man all your albums?

Because there's a homeless
man out here on, like,

Fourth and Lafayette
selling all your CDs,

and he was like, "What?"

And so he ran down
to Island Records,

and sure enough,
in the back alley

there was a dumpster,
and there was just thousands

and thousands of Dean
and the Weenies CDs.

He didn't even have, like,
the courtesy to even call him

and say, "Hey, listen,
we where you can have these."

We had a contract with Island.

But we're right
now we're unsigned.

It was disheartening,
because it was,

you know, it was something
that he was working towards

and something
that he really wanted.

And they just wanted him
to completely be

something that he wasn't.

He hit his head up
against the wall

with the music industry,

But he's one of those pioneers

that had to bang on the door
for it to break open.

He wanted
to continually tell the story

that he was an important
rock star, and that,

you know, that it was
somehow stolen from him.

We had a showcase
at The World

with David Bowie's manager,

and the Weenies
showed up at The World.

We did our soundcheck.

No Dean.

No... Showtime, no Dean.

No Dean.
Where was Dean? In jail!

"I started doing
a lot of heroin.

On Halloween I was booked
to play at The World.

David Bowie's manager was
coming to check out the band.

I stopped to cop some dope
on my way to the show.

It was a set up,
and I got busted.

The fact that my arresting
officer was a fan

and an obvious closet case
didn't help me

get out of trouble.

For a while, the van was
parked in front of The World,

and I could watch fans
lining up for my show

while I was handcuffed
in the back.

That was pretty much the end
of Dean and the Weenies.

I spent the next
two years doing dope

and being shipped off
to various rehabs."

There was
a heavy heroin period

where things dissolved

for the rest of the members
of the band.

Devastation for sure.

We kind of had
this rule that we weren't

gonna do heroin

because we recognized
our addictive personalities.

Later, I started doing heroin
and we didn't tell each other.

By the time we had a crying
confession where he said,

you know, "I fucked up
and here's where I'm at."

I thought, "Fuck, so am I."

But at that point it was,
we were in it.

I would leave because
I felt like, you know,

"Oh, I can't take this anymore."

And then I would come back
because I wasn't able

to take care of myself.

There was something broken
in us, in a weird way.

We were like two ships
crashing in the night.

1990.

"I'm delivering Mexican food
and shooting lots of dope.

Tried rehab,
escaped from mental hospital.

Long story.

Then my best friend
died of a cocaine overdose.

Somebody put him out
with the trash,

and they found him the next
day behind the garbage cans."

We both got really
fucked up in the 90s.

Very, very fucked up on drugs.

I was holed up at Chelsea Hotel
and I called up Dean

and I'm like, "Do you want to
come over and help me clean?"

And I had a ton of coke,

and he had some heroin.

And we came over it and, like,

I don't know, we hung out
for like four days

You know, cleaned my house
and then wrecked it again.

I think any artist in America

that is doing anything

that's off the mainstream
radar has a lot of obstacles,

and it's not surprising to me

that we seek out
coping mechanisms

that might be looked down upon

or can eventually become fatal.

"Got fired from Webster
Hall for being a junkie.

Ended up turning tricks
with Vietnam vets

in an alleyway
in Jersey City for crack.

Back to rehab."

Then it was Giuliani time.

Oh, boy. Here it comes.

New York City is
poised for dramatic change.

The era of fear has had
a long enough reign.

The period of doubt
has run its course.

Giuliani took over,

and he made it his mission
to crack down on nightlife.

Which is absurd, because
nightlife pumps tons of money

into the city,
and tons of energy

and creative excitement.

But he wanted
to make the city safe

for tourists and co-op owners.

You know, they were
particularly adult themes

places, places
with people of color,

and all the queer bars.

So, we would have
the cops coming in

in the middle of the night
and, you know,

the entire club would
have to shut down

and everybody would leave.

And then there was,
of course, the cabaret law,

which was the antiquated
law that they were utilizing

to shut down whatever
club they wanted.

If there were three
or more people moving

in a rhythmic fashion,

then it was considered against
the law and it was illegal.

Unless you had
a cabaret license,

which none of us had.

The Palladium
had to come down.

Squeezebox had to come down.

The Boy Bar
had to be torn down.

People from all different
economic classes

and races and sexual
orientation

or whatever, they could all be
in here, mingling around.

This is dangerous.

Suddenly, everything
got a lot less fun.

1994.

"Finally quit doing heroin

and started taking
anti-depressants instead.

Gave up on club life.

Got a boyfriend and a job,
and settled down.

And then one day I met
little Mary Feaster,

the bass player
for the Velvet Mafia,

and asked her if she wanted
to start a band.

Mary and I started
writing new material

while I went to work
getting us gigs."

He taught me
a lot about performing,

like bringing it.

You know, if you're going
to get up there, like,

don't stand there
and look at your shoes,

you know, like, bring it.

I guess
you would describe it

as kind of glam rock,

but queer glam rock.

The term Velvet Mafia

came from this description
of powerful,

like players
in the entertainment industry

who were closeted gay men,

and they were called
the Velvet Mafia,

that they controlled
everything.

He really was unique
in his presentation,

the way he really
staged his shows.

The characters
that were within the band

had a performance art aspect.

I was Trixie
the Times Square hooker

I'm Dixie the Orlando
crack whore.

I was in male drag, always,

as Bruno Bettlehiemer
and all these guys

were winking at me and...

The male drag
was really a fun experience.

The whole layer of protection
of having an on stage persona.

You never felt compelled
to take yourself seriously.

You know, it's like
it's you're doing it

for the spectacle of it all.

Hello, we are the Velvet Mafia!

1999.

"Decided the queer music
scene needed a new home

and opened Homocore at CBGB

as a monthly queer music
showcase celebration."

The whole idea
for Homocore,

which is the event that
you're attending right now,

came to me,

when Lady Bunny decided to quit
doing live music at Wigstock.

Actually, the next four artists
are all Wigstock refugees.

We've all been kicked
out of the show

for being too rock and roll.

Homocore! I love Homocore!

He approached Hilly,
the owner of CBGB's,

and said,
"I want to do Homocore.

I want to do a once-a-month
rock and roll gig

for gay and lesbian
and trans people.

And Hilly was full on,
on board, like, definitely.

"Rufus Wainwright
really helped us

put the night on the map,

And celebrities
start slinking through

the door on a routine basis.

Parker Posey shows up
in her best in-show braces,

and Kirstie Alley
wasn't too big to scale

the amplifiers for a better
view of the stage."

I saw so many acts
for the first time there.

I saw Cazwell
for the first time there.

Gay hip hop people,
young gay punk bands,

rock bands.

It was like a real activist
move on Dean's part

to get the community out
of the marginalized fringes.

Dean asked me
to come and perform at CBGB's,

and I said, "Okay," not really
knowing exactly CBGBs,

what it meant. But then
I realized what it meant,

and it was very, very major.

Through rock and roll.

He brought all of us together.

Queers like lesbians,
fags, straight people,

Hot people, not so hot people.

I will always get like,
mostly straight audiences.

And they loved us, you know?
But I was like, "Well,

gay people would like my music,

but they were too afraid
to go to CBGB."

There's something about punk
that's really intimidating

to a lot of gay men

because it's so
testosterone fueled,

you know, like they're afraid
they're going to get, like,

like, slammed,
danced into by some,

like, vicious skinhead.

I made my living doing sex
parties for several years.

And for the only difference
is that, you know,

at the sex party,
their pants are open.

It's really the same energy.

It's so homosexual.

CBs was mainstream.
The Ramones played there,

Patti Smith played there,

and the Velvet Mafia
played there as well.

I'm here to sing as best I can.

I'm not very good at it.

But I can bellow, so I guess
that's what I'll do tonight.

He came to me
for voice lessons.

He was very shy
and kind of self-effacing.

He said, "You know, I've been
recording and performing,

but I don't really sing."

And meanwhile I listen
to the recording,

I said, "Yes, you're singing.
That sounds good.

You know, you're good actor
like, yeah, you're singing."

He couldn't sing
and he knew it.

So he's just kind
of scream out his songs,

it was sort of rap, sort of not.

But the lyrics are fantastic.

The lyrics are
from one verse to the next,

uh, melodically it resembles,

but rhythmically,
it's a brand new thing.

And then closing,

it's never like, "Let's sing
the chorus and let's ad lib."

No, he's got
a brand new structure

to keep it new and exciting,

and they develop things.
And that's why all the songs

are so fresh.

♪ I'll cringe at your touch
But I'll take it in the end ♪

♪ Why don't you ♪

♪ And you've got the car
but I've got the drive ♪

♪ Every little thing you're
Going do for my career ♪

♪ If you want to make it big,
You better know how to whore ♪

So, and then the chorus.

I love that verse
because it's such a...

incredible commentary
about New York at that time.

In our band
you would think that,

"Oh, he's like this phenomenally

wild front character,"

but he wasn't an egomaniac.

And, I can just cry
when I think about that

For such a queen.

He really loved women.

I'm sorry to all the queens
that might feel offended

by me saying that, but...

he was one gay man
that you didn't have

to negotiate sexism with.

And of course,
rock bands, traditionally

it's supposed
to be all male, why?

There's no reason for that.

Dean just wanted
the best musicians

and the people he got
along with in his band.

One thing about the ACT UP
AIDS activism era

is that the community
came together.

When I walked into
my first ACT UP meeting,

I saw gay men and lesbians
and others.

They were never
in the same room together.

Dean was feeding off
that energy and saying,

"I'm putting them together
in a club. We're all queers.

We're all
in the family together,"

and that was a revolutionary
thing to do.

Along with the other
revolutionary things he did.

Ladies and Gentlemen,
Ms. Jayne County

Queer Rock started.

It was really a response
to the AIDS epidemic.

Just like ACT UP was.

I mean, the Queer Nation
grew out of ACT UP

and, Queer Rock kind of, like,
sprouted up at the same time.

It had a political agenda.

Glam rock
had no political agenda,

was all about hedonism, drugs,

makeup, and, you know,
you know, running around

in cute outfits, you know,

whereas we were
fighting for our lives.

We're fighting
for our rights, you know,

and we're fighting it to,
to change people's minds.

And, so that if queer rock,
if the music isn't doing that,

then I don't think it really
can be defined as queer rock.

It's got to have
a political agenda.

It's got to be part
of the broader movement

for queer rights.

In the early aughts,
Dean was really starting

to do some of his big, like,
what we might call sex parties

It wasn't like he was
just throwing sex parties.

He was really trying
to create culture in New York,

which I really respected,

because I thought that's kind
of what I wanted to do.

That was part of our
mission, to put sex out there

and have a blast.

It really has sort
of changed the face

of how people throw parties.

He wanted sex to be visible

because it was part of gay
people's identity,

and so he wanted to do
these things that were sexy,

and he wanted people
to still have sex.

Lots of it.

Lots of it.

We did this party
called Magnum,

where we paid the dancers
by the inch,

We were the only game in town

because we were the only ones
had balls to do it.

I was really proud of Dean
for taking his vision bigger.

I had a philosophy
at the time,

which was
that you want to run the ride,

you don't want to ride the ride.

But Dean was fine
riding the ride.

So, I would walk
into the room and look

just to see where he was,

and I would look
through the room,

and see all these people
having sex

and whatever, and his bald
head would pop up

like a whack a mole,

and he'd be like, "Hey,
did you check the register?"

It was a space
to have lots of sex

with lots of random people,

and Dean being among them,
you know?

And I was like, was like,
"Oh, Dean," because, you know,

because the Johnson.

Apparently he had a huge dick.

Yeah, I want to talk about
his dick for a little bit.

He had a beautiful dick.

He really did.
It was so beautiful.

It was, it was a very beautiful
penis, I have to tell you.

And he made bank off that dick.

I'm sure he made
very good money.

He probably charged
by the pound.

And it didn't look overused.

Some of us,
slutty friends that we have,

their penises look
a little over used.

I seen the Dean peen
quite a bit.

The size of Dean's penis never
came up in conversation.

I mean, I just kind of assumed

by looking at him,
like, I can do the math.

Yeah, you can see
his bulge through his dress

whenever he was on stage,
which was so great.

You know, backstage,
we had to do it

at every show,
like get his big dick

shoved in pantyhose.

And I sometimes I think,
like, Dean did that on purpose.

Like that was some kind
of funny thing he did to us.

Just get me in it.

It brought us all really close.

Should I show you my dick
and be done with it?

There you go, baby.

It was almost a funny
part of the whole character

of Dean Johnson
is that many gay men

are hypnotized by large penises,

and the fact that he could
be a dork in a dress

with drop earrings on
and still have something

they wanted.

2004.

Dean's last diary entry.

"Took my sex party earnings

and recorded
'Cheap But Not Free'.

The new CD
from the Velvet Mafia.

Best work we've ever done.

Record company informed us
that they wouldn't be

releasing our CD after all.

Decided never to waste another
minute on record companies.

A week later, the police
raided my sex party

and now I am unemployed.

But I did make this great CD.

So if you want one,

look for me
with the other homeless people

down on Saint Mark's Place.

I even managed to turn
a good trick last night.

43 years old and still
getting paid for sex.

Is this a great
country or what?"

Dean threw parties, right?

Dean was a rock n roller.

But Dean couldn't make a living.

Couldn't earn a living wage
without being a hooker.

Don't we all do some
sort of sex work though?

I mean, sex work is like,
whatever, you know,

good for him.

Get yours, honey.

I mean, if you got it,
flaunt it, sell it, buy it,

tie it up, do what you gotta do,

make that thing ching ching.

He had tried working
a 9:00 to 5:00 job

and he could not do it.
He just could not stand it.

And so I think prostitution
really was his only choice

for making money at that point.

This is what he said,
"I used to throw parties,

but now I am the party."

This was the early 2000s.

And, you know, like, New York

had all sorts
of escorting scenes

for men and for women.

And he was a late
in life escort.

I had also turned
to escorting late in life.

So we kind of bonded over
that common experience

of being, like,
sort of the old bulls

in the stable
full of younger guys.

He was so excited
about this escorting thing

for a while.

The money
that was coming from that

was very impressive to him.

He was getting flown
all around to do sex.

He was like a really
high end escort.

Thousands of dollars
in a day or, you know,

like, you know, $600 an hour.

Sometimes he would
show up at a call

and the guy would
open the door

and he would say, "Oh my God,
you're Dean Johnson,"

and slam the door shut.

And then sometimes the guy
would say, "Oh my God,

you're Dean Johnson,"
and welcome him in.

He really did get
emotionally involved

with a lot of his clients.

Like, I remember there was
this one married dentist

from Syracuse that he decided
that he was in love with.

I am not that dentist.

For the record, America.

It was not me.

Well, I heard that

he paid a visit to a member
of the Royal Saudi family,

and when he showed up
at the hotel,

there were two armed guards
with machine guns

standing in front of the royal
family member's door.

I think a lot of the clients
that Dean had as a sex worker

was just paying him
just to be around him.

So, in this place where
sex workers are disposable

and murderable,

and, uh, at best
condemned, right?

Here was Dean, so visible

and huge in his joy

of being like,
"Here's my body.

It is like a holy service,
that I'm offering."

And that's
how he walked with it.

He was like, kind of
right on, "I'm a sex worker.

I'm 40 something years old
and I can still do it."

He was a six-foot-six bald guy

in his mid-40s,
who, by all accounts,

was doing pretty good business
and more power to him.

I mean, he was a rebel.

He was subversive.

He did have a very
defiant punk attitude

about it, but it also was
kind of a comment on ageism.

He would start telling
his hustler tales.

He would say Dean Johnson's
Hustler Tales

today on Myspace.

This piece

is called Cocksucker...
Otherwise Engaged.

Reading for Filth was

this salon that he threw
at the bookstore Rapture.

He'd like to bring together,
high and low,

downtown celebrities.

And then somebody like me,

like his, his hooker friend
from down the street.

"And then I hear the bing
of the instant message bell

and I go over and it reads,

'26 five foot ten, 165.

Very good looking,
straight, engaged and meeting

my fiancée in the city,

been obsessing over big dick
all day.

Need to suck horse cock so bad

No reciprocation.

You just sit back
in your favorite chair.

Let me eat your load
before I meet my girlfriend.

I'm going crazy for dick here.'"

He was doing readings,

uh, more so.

And his writing was becoming
more and more important to him.

And he was willing
to drive in from Jersey,

so I didn't have
to get out of bed

you know,

20 minutes later, this guy,

this dude this like Mets fan,
you know, walks in.

He's a great writer, you know?

And the stories
were so much fun.

But, you know,
even with my dick in his mouth,

I wasn't really
getting a gay vibe.

You know?

That was what was
really exciting about Dean.

I'm not saying Dean didn't
feel shame, but that shame

was getting channeled,

uh, into art.

Survival is survival.

The fact that we have sex
work as a tool to survive

should never
be shunned against.

Sex workers have been
around forever,

but until the politicians
start getting caught,

people actually gave a damn.

We are therapists.

We are doctors.
We are psychologists.

We're a nannies.

We are nannies
to your punk ass men.

We are nannies to,

uh, just so much.

Anywhere in the world
where people are having

to sell sex to survive,

it needs to be better
plans for protection.

Because we're not
doing this for kicks.

It's survival.

It's self-autonomy.

Dean was
very honest with me

about being a prostitute.
He told me everything.

He always told me
when he leave town,

whether through email
or on the phone,

we talked almost every day

because of his size. I really
wasn't worried about him.

I figured he could
handle anybody.

I mean, if someone
tried to not pay him,

he was going to get his money,
you know?

Are there dangerous situations
for male sex workers?

Of course. You know,
you're potentially showing up

somewhere,
you can't be in full control

of the circumstances.

So the phone rings and,

it's someone
on the other end asking me

if I know Dean Johnson.

And I say, "Yeah,
what's... what's up?"

And they're like,
"Well, you know, he's here.

He spent the night

and I can't wake him up."

And I'm like, "Well,
then you need to hang up

this phone and call 911.

That's what you should do

if you if you really
can't wake him up."

He's like, "Oh, I'm
a little nervous about it

because I had an incident here

a week ago," and I'm like,
"Well, regardless, hang up

and you just go get him
some help and I'll call back."

And so that's what I did.

I hung up.

I waited like five minutes,

which seemed like forever,
and called back and he answers,

and mind you this,
it's Dean's phone calling me,

so I don't know who this is.

They don't tell me
who they are.

But he answers and I say,
"Hey, what's going on?

Did you call?"
You know, "is he okay?"

And he's like, "Yeah, he's okay.

We're just wiping his
face off with a washcloth."

And I said, "All right, well,

if he's not okay, you'll, you
know, call 911, or whatever,"

And he's like,
"Yeah, yeah, yeah."

And I,

uh, I felt weird about it.

It was just too bizarre
a situation.

So I started to call hospitals

to call the police,

and nothing,
I don't hear back.

And then he doesn't
come to band practice,

and everybody starts
to get nervous at that point.

I remember people were gathered
outside the rehearsal studio,

and I came down because
it's right across the street.

And that's when we all started
putting timelines together.

When did you last
hear from Dean?

The phone rang and
it was one of Dean's friends

telling me that he had not
come back from D.C.

and he had missed
a band rehearsal,

which he never would do.

And so could I call D.C.
and try to find out,

you know, what had happened.

A female cop came on

and I said, "Hi,
I'm looking for information

about my brother, Dean Johnson."

You know,
"do you know anything?"

And she said, this is still
an active crime scene.

I can't tell you anything.

And I was like,
"An active crime scene?"

you know, I'm like,

"Can you just tell me
if he's alive?"

And she said,
"I'm really sorry.

I can't tell you anything.

I'm going to give you
my home phone number.

And if you need anything,
call me."

So, I sat around
waiting until midnight,

and then the phone rang
and I picked up the phone.

He said, "All right,
I got your brother's

autopsy report."

I don't really remember
what happened after that.

My girlfriend said
I dropped the phone

and started making
this wailing noise.

D.C. police will say
only that Johnson's body

was found at 10:00 a.m.,
September 20th,

in a second floor apartment
at the Envoy

on 16th Street northwest,

and that the discovery
is the subject

of a death investigation.

I had access
to Dean's email account

because at some point he had
asked me to do a favor for him.

So a lot of what I know about
Steve Saleh comes directly

from their correspondence,

Steve's initial contact

with Dean was for an S&M call.

So Dean went
on a call with him

and they got along and they
kind of became fast friends.

Like I was saying,
Dean became emotionally

involved with his client.

I remember Dean telling me
that this man

had a whole pharmacy
in his bathroom,

like dozens of bottles of pills,

and the dosages
were all different.

News 4 has learned,

amazingly, another man
had been found dead

in the same apartment unit

four days
before Dean Johnson died.

Then, of course, as soon as
I heard about the other guy,

then you knew, "Okay,
this is like, super weird."

Dean got a phone call,

and Steve described
the death of this young man

in his apartment
and his accidental overdose

on these pain pills.

He was horrified
that this has happened,

and he was very emotional.
"Oh, my God, this guy

died in my apartment,
he took my drugs,"

and Dean agreed
to go down to see him.

Not on a professional call,
but out of friendship to, like,

comfort him
and spend some time with him.

According to a police affidavit,

the man who rents
that apartment

is identified
as Stephen Saleh.

They say he's
cooperating with investigators

and that he told police
he invited the two men

to his home.

He told police
he gave one of the men

some medicine.

Mr. Saleh, who is said
to be disabled,

told one
of the investigators, quote,

"What is the media
going to call me?

The gimp Black Widow?"

As I started
to report the story,

I just looked at the information

we had around the person
whose apartment Dean died in.

two deaths in his apartment.

He didn't even call
the police right away.

He called a friend of Dean's.

What exactly did he give Dean
or did Dean take willingly?

When they took his body
out of Steven Saleh's

apartment, he was naked.

Except for his
Pentagram necklace.

I never got the story
from the police

exactly how that went down.

But what I hear
is that Steven Saleh

pretended to not
know who he was,

that he was just some
prostitute he had picked up.

That was not the truth.

He knew exactly who he was.

He paid for his train ticket
to go there,

and Dean would have
had to have I.D. on him

to take the train.

And so either Steven
hid all his stuff

to pretend he didn't
know who he was

or kept it,

but his necklace
was the only thing

I got back from that trip.

First of all,
Dean was very experienced

as a prostitute,
and he'd gotten clean.

So as I started
to hear the elements,

I was like, "No,
this is not possible."

How the police could
let this guy get away

with two deaths
with exactly the same M.O.?

And then him lying

in a morgue as a John Doe?

We come to find out
later that it was the calls

looking for him
that identified him.

And he had been dead

probably before
I got the phone call.

The next morning,
a detective called me.

He said,
"Don't talk to the press

or you're going to screw up
our investigation.

I'm looking everywhere else
that Steven has lived.

I'd really like
to get this guy, you know.

So I need your cooperation."

He had been calling me,
like, every week.

At the end of eight months,
he stopped calling me,

and I started calling him,

and said,
"If you don't call me back,

I'm going to start talking
to the press."

So I got a phone call back
from him with their captain,

I guess, and they were like,

"We're dropping
the investigation.

Nothing's going to happen.

And I'm like,
"Qhat are you talking about?"

The guy at the very least
shared his prescription drugs

with Dean,
that's got to be a crime.

And they were like, "Well, we
don't know about your state,

but it's not here."

I felt, you know, I have
no proof, but I felt like

somebody had told them
to drop it.

We were all
such stellar chemists

that I don't think
that could have happened

unless he was slip something.

♪ I had to kiss
my baby goodbye ♪

I believe that Dean would
take the drugs voluntarily,

you know, but because
of the situation,

I'll never know whether Steven
slipped them the drugs.

and it killed him because
he was already on drugs.

That was enough
to push him over the edge.

I'll never know
what happened exactly.

Only one person knows,
and he's not talking.

I don't think the D.C. police

have a sterling reputation
when it comes to handling

issues around, like,
gay people, queer people,

or sex work.

Would the police
have treated it differently

if he wasn't a gay prostitute?
Probably.

When it comes to whores,

when it comes to gay people,

it's not going to be
investigated in the same way.

I think if you're
looking for fishiness,

fishiness is there.

Fishiness
is all over this, you know.

Criminality? I'm not sure.

There wasn't like
a real investigation.

And, and that is this world.

That is this broken,
broken world.

It is like a worst
nightmare scenario.

And the last thing you want
to ever have happen

to your friend.

Well, right now it's somebody
else's turn.

I passed my rite of initiation.

His death hit me, obviously,

it hit me really hard.

Harder than,
than I thought it would

because it kept lingering.

You know, there's not...

When you grow up with someone,

there's not a part of your life
that they weren't a part of.

No matter what,
he was a survivor

living all
those years with HIV.

He was able to punish
his body the way he did

and yet come right back
up from the mat.

And I think
that was also the shock

of finding out he left us.

There are certain people
you always think, you know,

"It's bad, but they'll
come back," you know,

because they do all the time

until they don't.

♪ Oh, oh, oh ♪

♪ Oh, oh, oh ♪

♪ Oh, oh, oh ♪

Young people,
I'll tell you right now,

you're standing
on his shoulders.

It really was a death of a lot
of the New York nightlife

that we know.

There are parties
and stuff now,

but with Dean
it was more of a spectacle.

It really
was a three-ring circus.

It did feel like the end of
an era, in a way, losing Dean,

you know, he was part
of this renaissance

of the East Village,

and we lost our,
you know, our king.

I had to get
a gravestone for him.

It's in a little
family plot in Maine.

Right behind my mom.

So, of course, everybody
wanted me to put "Fuck You"

on it.

Which I think
would have been great,

but in this little family
plot, you know, so I put,

"He gave a voice
to the voiceless."

Because I feel like he did.

If you knew Dean,
you knew that, like,

there was very little time
that you were with him,

that you didn't just melt
into a human with him.

That's the thing about him.

He just undid you.

He will always
have a place in our history.

As somebody
who showed the world

that you can have a good time

and you can be
out of your mind.

You can be strange,
you can be an alien creature,

and you can live
the fantasy, man.

Express yourself
however the hell you want to.

Play the game on your own terms.

He couldn't have been
in New York at a better time

for a person like him
to take over,

and so if there
is any poetry to his life,

I think he was on the planet
at exactly the right moment

Underneath all of this outrageousness.

And just like this,
like, flamboyance

and also
this sort of confidence

and everything, there was just

he had this like deep desire,
like all the rest of us,

just to be loved.

Just like he never stopped
trying to believe that.

Like he could find
that true love.

And I think it led him
down these pathways

that just weren't,

he wasn't seeing clearly.

♪ I'll find myself a lover
Who is old and fat ♪

♪ And they'll all
Tell my lover ♪

♪ Hey, your boyfriend
Is all that! ♪

♪ You're a heavenly body ♪

♪ And your face
Is like a dream ♪

♪ But loving you
Is damaging my sense ♪

♪ Of self-esteem ♪

He took some risks, so that
I could take some risks.

And then I'm taking risks,
so these other queens

can take risks.

Way back when, like Stonewall,

when people first busted
through that wall,

they got all cut up
and it was really fucking hard

getting through that wall

because it was
such a solid wall.

And then people started
squeezing through after that,

and it wasn't quite as hard,

you know, you got cut up,
but not as badly.

So it's just really important
to keep that history alive,

you know, so that wall
doesn't go back up.

You could say he wore a dress

or he was HIV positive,

or he was a
rock n roll singer.

But none of those things really
explain what he was doing.

It was,

he was like, uh,

like he was just
throwing a party,

and he was, like,
inviting everybody

to join it.

The real Big Johnson
was his heart.

Dean Johnson was
a downtown legend.

A queer core, glam, punk

drag queen, party king,

porn performer,

and hustler on drama-therapy
reenactmenting.

We are here to celebrate

Dean Johnson.

We are to show
our love and respect.

♪ You make me feel
Like Coco Chanel ♪

♪ But loving you I know
I'm going through hell ♪

♪ Coco Chanel ♪

♪ Oh ♪

♪ You make me feel
Like Tammy Faye ♪

♪ Praying to God that
You won't go away ♪

♪ And now I'm addicted
To Mary K ♪

♪ You make me feel
Like Tammy Faye ♪

♪ Tammy Faye ♪

♪ Tammy Faye ♪

♪ Tammy Faye ♪

♪ You make me feel
Like Hillary ♪

♪ Now all of my friends ♪

♪ Letting you treat me
Shallowly ♪

♪ You make me feel
Like Hillary ♪

♪ Hillary ♪

♪ You make me feel ♪

♪ Hillary ♪

I think I respect
Dean's sweet spots.

And I think we made out.

Yeah, I remember,
"When are we gonna fuck?"

It was really sad.

Please
put your hands together

for master illusionist

Chunky Jones!

Hi, everyone,
I'm Chunky Jones.

Welcome to the show.

And tell me what's inside.

Licorice and a syringe.

Licorice and a syringe?

Mom, is that you?

♪ You make me feel
Like Happy Lee ♪

♪ I was a parrot
Full of dignity ♪

♪ Until you came along
And made a fool out of me ♪

♪ You make me feel
Like Happy Lee ♪

♪ You make me feel
Like Mary Jo ♪

♪ You are such a heel
And I'm the last to know ♪

♪ I wanna leave you
But I can't let go ♪

♪ You make me feel
Like Mary Jo ♪

♪ You make me feel like... ♪

Jackie, come here
and stand judgement.

Dean Johnson...

Harry Smith.

They took it on themselves.

They took it on themselves.

They took it on the,
they took it on the,

took it on themselves.

Please, welcome to the stage.

The Weenies.

I know how to handle
an audience, honey.

I had one in my bed last night.