Kim Fowley, Runaways producer and LA-based rock artist, dies

[Fansome]

Kim Fowley, Runaways producer and LA-based rock artist, dies

Published Friday, Jan. 16, 2015 | 6:40 p.m.

Updated 1 hour, 31 minutes ago

NEW YORK (AP) — Kim Fowley, the colorful rock musician who produced for The Runaways and co-wrote songs for Kiss and Alice Cooper, has died after a long battle with bladder cancer. He was 75.

His wife, Kara Wright Fowley, said in an email Friday to The Associated Press that her husband died Thursday morning at their home in Hollywood.

She said, "Even from a hospital bed, Kim worked all the time ... (He was) one of the most caring people in the universe."

Fowley's career ranged from promoter to musician to manager to record producer. In the 1970s, he launched the all-female rock band The Runaways — a rarity at the time — thus introducing the world to a then-teenage Joan Jett.

Fowley was based in Los Angeles.