The legendary creator of THE RUNAWAYS, Kim Fowley, spoke with antiMusic’s Morley Seaver recently to talk about a number of topics including songwriting for KISS, producing an early version of SLADE, as well as one of RITCHIE BLACKMORE’s first bands.

An excerpt follows:

Q: I’m a major KISS fan. Can you tell us how 'King of the Night Time World' and 'Do You Love Me' came to be recorded by them?

A: "'King Of The Night Time World', the first version of it, once again, the same as 'Nutrocker', somebody else did it, not as well. And that someone else was THE HOLLYWOOD STARS who self-destructed and that version was never released on Columbia. They’re on YouTube. You can hear their demo version. And the other one was 'Do You Love Me?', which was cooperative. The KISS producer, Bob Ezrin said, 'I have an idea for a song. Do you have any words?' And I did and ended up lucky on that one. Both of those songs have appeared on over 35 KISS merchandise... Unplugged, Greatest Hits, Live, Orchestral, the cartoon show, various television uses and in their live show for two or three years. So KISS has been very good for the pension."

Q: You also produced some tracks for the LANCASTERS featuring a young Ritchie Blackmore. Could you tell at that point that he was a person of great ability or was he just another guitarist getting started?

A: "Yeah, well just listen. He was god on guitar."

Q: 'Satan’s Holiday' has a bit of the riff of 'Hall of the Mountain King' by GRIEG in there. Was that due to your influence or was it...

A: "Of course it was my influence. I’m a musical encyclopedia."

Q: He’s said to be quite a forceful personality. What was he like to deal with?

A: "Pleasant. I’m a stronger personality. But you know, if somebody knows what they’re doing in the room, then there’s no problem. I mean, I didn’t find him to be judgmental or challenging. He was a pleasant guy. It was fun and we did it quick and see you later and have a nice life... which he did. His issues with other people later... I wasn’t there. I don’t know what happened or didn’t happen."

Read the complete interview at this location.