The death of legendary record producer and music business icon Kim Fowley following a long battle with bladder cancer was the top story on this Day in Rock on January 16, 2015. He was 75.
Fowley was best known for his work with the Runaways, the all girl rock group that featured Joan Jett, Lita Ford and Cherie Currie, as well as cowriting songs with KISS and Alice Cooper.
Back in late 2012, antiMusic's Morley Seaver conducted an in-depth interview with Fowley and one of the topics they covered was his health battles. Here is an excerpt: antiMusic: You've had many health crises and yet describe yourself as "hard to kill" and "slow to die".
Kim: I'm a bladder cancer survivor. I go every six months for the next 2� years. It's the fastest growing male cancer so in between the treatments, it can come back. I'm a skin cancer survivor. Basal cell and prostate cancer. Positional vertigo. Bit by a West Nile spider. Then I had polio twice and pneumonia 9 times. Plus I've been shot. I've been knifed. I've been bricked and I've been bottled. And I've been in the Air Force of America so"
antiMusic: To what do you owe your ability to triumph over less than favorable odds? Are you a secret health freak with a magic tonic? Is it good genetics or are you just plain lucky?
Kim: Common sense within insanity. Good genetics and luck. My dad was 87 or abouts when he died and my mother was 82. So I guess I have between 9 and 14 years to go. Unless somebody's dad murders me for making love to their daughter.
The wide ranging interview touched on his entire career from his days at Motown, as well as working with the man who coined the term rock and roll, to the Runaways and writing songs with KISS and Alice Cooper, to a very interesting story about Guns N' Roses frontman Axl Rose. You can read the very entertaining and enlightening interview, here.
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