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"If you own a car, you change that every few years and that’s just what I’m doing with my appearance.” Hailing from England where he was raised as a hermit by his alcoholic and often suicidal mother, Pete Burns never considered his childhood to be harsh or strange because he simply didn’t know any different. Instead, he found comfort in his early years saying, “I had a secret world I shared with my mother… She gave me the power to dream, the power to remove myself from where I might not be having any fun, and go inside my head and be somewhere else.” That power came in handy after he dropped out of school at the age of 14 with the hopes of building his career as a singer.

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Earning a reputation as a transgender punk performer in the late 1970s—the same style that got him in trouble at school after he arrived with red hair, no eyebrows and an oversized earring—Burns cashed in on the growing popularity of New Wave music in the 1980s when he assembled his own band, Dead or Alive. First finding success with a cover of “That’s the Way (I Like It)” in 1984, Burns and the band enjoyed their only Top 20 international hit the following year with “You Spin Me Round.” By then, the popularity of New Wave and the band had already begun to fade.

Burns spent the next decade out of the spotlight only to return larger than life and louder than ever in the new millennium on the BBC’s Liquid News where his profanity-filled response to a question about the Michael Jackson trial ignited a series of network apologies and tabloid headlines. Years later, he reappeared as a contestant on Celebrity Big Brother in the United Kingdom with additional appearances on the reality television circuit before launching his solo career with songs like “Never Marry an Icon.” By then, the media was well-accustomed to reporting on Burns’ personal life from his health and legal problems to his obvious obsession with plastic surgery.

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And, speaking of plastic surgery… Burns built his reputation on his constantly changing and androgynous appearance enhanced by so much plastic surgery that he was almost unrecognizable from his early days as the lead singer of Dead or Alive. So, just how many surgeries did Burns have throughout his lifetime? Up until his death in October 2016 at 57 years old, it was estimated that Burns had over 300 cosmetic surgeries, which he often joked about saying, “I hope when I’m 80 that I get to heaven and God doesn’t recognize me.”

All joking aside, Burns’ addiction with his looks started long before he was famous when his nose was broken after he was knocked in the face during a punk rock concert. Opting for a rhinoplasty to fix the damage, Burns was so happy with the results he couldn’t stop there. “I realized I was going to be a visual entity and I had to look good,” he said. “When you’re young and you’re very self-conscious and you stand in front of a camera, if the photographer’s whispering, ‘Can we just turn his head to the left because he’s got a lump on his nose?’ you think, well, I’ll do something about it.”

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After finding mainstream success, Burns upped his plastic surgery regimen and spent most of his fortune perfecting his look. “I was having a major operation a week for two years,” he said. “What I’m trying to achieve with my surgeries is my own personal satisfaction. It’s narcissism, but it’s extreme.” Unfortunately, nothing could stop Burns’—not the harsh criticism from the media or the numerous blood clots and pulmonary embolisms that almost cost him his life.

Sadly, Burns never overcame his plastic surgery addiction nor did he see his 80th birthday after he suffered a sudden heart attack on October 23, 2016 and died at 57 years old. Although his death was sudden, it hardly came as a surprise after the eccentric Burns had long ago shared the news of his declining health. “I developed blood clots and pulmonary embolisms in my legs, heart and lungs” after the botched surgeries, he said. “My face might even fall off. [My doctor said] my lips were so bad they would need amputating.”

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While his death was a tragedy, Burns refused to give up what he loved even if it meant facing a lifetime of criticism over his looks and the harsh reality of his declining health. However, because he lived life on his own terms, he will always be remembered as one of the world’s greatest and truest eccentrics. “People redecorate their homes every few years and I see this as no different,” he once said when asked about his changing appearance. “Changing my face is like buying a new sofa.”