Kim Fowley

Kim Fowley had a knack for showing up at significant moments in pop music history, producing and writing early works for acts who would go on to major fame: Warren Zevon, Modern Lovers, Kiss, Slade, Cat Stevens, and scores of others. And though this punk Phil Spector also recorded his own quite striking and sui generis garage rock albums over the years, his major source of fame was as an impresario and manager, most notably of the '70s proto-punk band the Runaways, in which Lita Ford and Joan Jett got their start. A gruff, controversial, and eccentric character, Fowley memorably appeared in the Rodney Bingenheimer documentary THE MAYOR OF SUNSET STRIP.