- Music
- 16 Jan 15
Hot Press is saddened to learn of the death of Kim Fowley, the 75-year-old American musician, producer and pop Svengali who worked with everyone from Kiss and Helen Reddy to The Runaways and Alice Cooper.
He also pitched up during the 1990s in Dublin where, on Hot Press' recommendation, he fell in with Pugwash man Thomas Walsh.
"My friend and inspiration Kim Fowley has passed," Thomas writes. "I cannot really say all I want to say yet as I woke up to pee and I just heard the news so I'm genuinely shocked. Was planning to visit Kim and Kara in February but sadly now that will not happen. I wrote many songs with Kim. Some were released, most weren't, but boy did I learn so much and didn't we have such fun. I played with Kim in a dentist's waiting-room once so he could get cheaper dental care. It worked. Hahaha! I'll be back when I fully absorb this tragic news. See you mate."
Also paying tribute is film director Paul Duane who proffers, "It was a privilege knowing that insane, psychotic, genius maestro even for a short while. I was possibly the last - but definitely not the first - filmmaker he fooled into believing he'd allow a film to be made about him. He had bladder cancer and didn't kick it, but he kicked everything else's ass!"
Hot Press met Kim on several occasions and, boy, was he a character! Opinionated, sometimes fanciful but desperately in love with rock 'n' roll, we will not see his likes again.
The bottom clip finds Kim joining rock promoter Bill Graham, LA Times critic Robert Hillburn and Tom Snyder in 1977 to talk punk rock. It still makes us laugh lots!