In his private life, much of Willis’ career was plagued by substance abuse problems.
“I got very depressed over the years and decided to just drop off the map,” he told the San Diego Union Tribune in 2015. “I spent the 1980s and ’90s… well, I got kind of drugged out, because I was disappointed with the way things were and got frustrated, and gave up for a bit, and decided I didn’t want to be a part of it.”
“So much had been taken away from me,” he said, “that I just turned to drugs.”
In 2006, however, a court-ordered substance abuse treatment and three years of probation helped him get back on track. It was around that time that he met his second wife, to whom he was married from 2007 until his death.
As for The Village People’s legacy, no song from their repertoire has endured within the pop culture lexicon quite like “Y.M.C.A.” and its accompanying dance.