Emerson is best known as a Warhol superstar and as a member of the seminal glam punk group the Magic Tramps.

Emerson starred in other Warhol films, most notably Lonesome Cowboys, San Diego Surf, and Heat.

The band, which began in Hollywood in 1969, relocated to New York City in 1971 after Emerson joined as lead vocalist.

Later that year, Emerson appeared in Jackie Curtis' play Vain Victory: Vicissitudes of the Damned, with Ondine, Holly Woodlawn, and Candy Darling, and music by the Magic Tramps and Lou Reed.

[3] When the debut album of The Velvet Underground and Nico was first issued, the main back cover photo (taken at an Exploding Plastic Inevitable performance) featured an image of Emerson projected upside-down on the wall behind the band.

[4] Rather than complying, MGM recalled copies of the album and halted its distribution until Emerson's image could be airbrushed from the photo on subsequent pressings.

Following a weekend-long wake hosted by Max's Kansas City owner Mickey Ruskin,[9] Emerson was buried in Wharton, New Jersey.

In the book Making Tracks, Debbie Harry provided an account of the circumstances surrounding Emerson's death: One night we were over at Eric's apartment working on a tape of "Heart of Glass" on his Teac four-track tape recorder, when he suddenly staggered out of the kitchen looking ashen.

He used to go out jogging every day, and did feats of physical endurance like strapping twenty-pound weights to each ankle and then bicycling up to the Factory.