Kim Fowley dies

The late great Kim Fowley

Kim Foley, known for working with the Runaways and Ariel Pink among others, has died at the age of 75

im Foley has died aged 75. The legendary producer, manager and music svengali had long battled against bowel cancer, and leaves a wonderful legacy behind him. Having risen to prominence during the 1960s, Fowley went on to work with names of the lustre and calibre of Ariel Pink, Alice Cooper, Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers and Kiss. It is perhaps his work with Joan Jett and The Runaways for which he was most known though.

Fowley recruited the Runaways and their runaway star Jett by placing an ad in the LA fanzine ‘Who Put The Bomp.’ He went on to produce the band;s self-titled debut album, as well as co-writing their single Cherry Bomb. He was though dismissive of his influence on the band, passing the credit to them by saying, “I didn’t put the Runaways together, I had an idea, they had ideas, we all met, there was combustion and out of five different versions of that group came the five girls who were the ones that people liked.”

He also invented the ‘hold your lighters up’ tradition, which came when he brought John Lennon to the Toronto Rock And Roll Revival in 1969 and asked the audience to welcome him onstage by holding up their matches and lighters.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.