He was irrelevant for years before his death
To me he's just the strange man from my childhood that dangled a baby out the window. That's what became of him long before he died.
His actual career was in the 70's and 80's and perhaps the early 90's. The biggest part of his career was the 80's though. He's technically an 80's artist. Even despite all his scandals I think his career just naturally declined as with other artists from his era really by the 2000's. No one was talking about his music in the 2000's.
It was only after he died did his music get talked about again. He was irrelevant for many years before he passed.