Amazing response to last nights premiere of the Peter Criss episode of That Metal Show. I was live tweeting last night with many while it was on. The end was real emotional it seemed not only for Peter but also for many fans. Peter is a guy that wears his emotions on his sleeve, and I always respected him for that. He always just lays it out there as he feels and that is so rare in today’s world. I love giving people that you don’t usually hear from on TV and radio a voice and platform. It is so great to get differing views and stories. Mick Mars this season also comes to mind as falling in this category and also had tremendous response. The episode with Peter ran very long, so due to time constraints of TV we cut some things, but they are now available online. Links in the News section of this site. The episode replays all week on VH1 Classic and online as well. Just check your grids for days and times. Look forward to seeing all your comments to the episode here. Many have posted here and on Twitter already. Thanks to Peter and also drummer Richard Christy for doing a great job in our latest episode. Was a great one!
PS: Be sure to watch all the way through the credits. There is a shot of me and Peter when we first met from around ’82 at the very end of the show. Great memories!
138 Responses
Eddie, obviously only the original 4 are being inducted, but do you know if the other past living KISS members (Kulick and Vincent) are invited to the Hall of Fame (As is the case with former Nirvana drummer Chad Channing)? If so, do you know if either, or both, plan on attending?
Invited if someone asks them and pays for a seat. VERY expensive at tables and inductees only get a plus one. Bruce tweeted he will be there.
why are meet & greet packages so damn expensive? over a thousand dollars for a t-shirt, photograph, autograph & 5-10 minutes with the band (if your lucky) yes for most fans it’s a once in a lifetime experience, but do they really have to charge that much? I mean aren’t they all already rich enough? even gene & paul? after all we the fans are the ones who made you rich in the first place, remember? no we don’t have to attend meet & greets, but it would be nice to be able to afford that option. of course their time is limited, but today, so is our money, for most of us!
According to an interview with Paul Stanley in Classic Rock they are only for people that can afford it. The truth is if they weren’t priced high many more would buy them, meaning the artists would need to be with the fans longer, which in truth most don’t want to do. So it thins the amount of people as well to only the people that can afford it or MUST be there..
I paid nearly $2,000 for a meet and greet with a popular singer once. I was amazed at the amount of people w/that kind of cash.
I got about 5 minutes with him and was so flustered I hardly remember any of it.
True what Eddie says about pricing. If they made it cheaper they would have such a turnout, they’d have to spend all day with fans- not that that’s bad for us, but really ties up their time. It is a shame though, that fans who REALLY want to meet them and can’t afford just end up disappointed.
I did a speaking engagement in Houston a couple months ago. 500 people turned up. I was on stage 2 hours and spent over 3 after signing and taking photos because there was no paid meet & greet for me. That’s just me, you can imagine if it was someone major. You kind of either have to not do them or find some way to control the amount of people. Tommy Lee won’t do them at all. When I do live shows with Don & Jim we will do a meet & greet VIP but it is very cheap by comparison and we limit it to 100 total sold.
I understand all of that, especially about the time, but it’s still not fair to the fans who just want a chance to meet some of their heroes without having to spend a month’s or two mortgage just to be able to do that. I wonder if any big names ever had a free or almost free meet & greet?
Believe it or not – the non-performance – is really appropriate; I’d hate to see Ace and Peter sit while the replacements did their parts; it would be heartbreaking. I am attending the event, and plan to applaud Ace and Peter alone, ( while my friend and I wear Ace and Pete’s makeup ).
But the thing is; if Peter Criss is in fact interested in performing, he should do so. He really hasn’t doen anything since Eddie’s party a few month’s ago. I’m sure there are plenty of players who be honored to be in his band. Just speradic shows here and there.
In spite of it all – it may very well be a night to remember. Do you think Peter will speak his mind about Gene and Paul ?? and will Ace ???
Stay tuned !
There’s a lot of uncertainty surrounding this event. I don’t believe it’s been announced what Nirvana will do performance-wise (Personally I’d love to see Eddie Vedder sing a couple of Nirvana’s songs), there’s people wondering if Bruce Springsteen is going to get up there with his band (I’d be surprised if he doesn’t show), and of course Kiss’ perfromance looks to be a no-go (although I guess if they act fast they could probably fix that, but since Gene and Paul don’t seem interested in anything that doesn’t involve Tommy and Eric, and Peter and Ace don’t seem interested in doing anything involving Tommy and Eric, a perfromance of any kind seems unlikely from Kiss)….I wonder if any of the other artists would consider doing anything to honor Kiss? I believe Dave Grohl is a fan of Ace’s- Can you imagine if he wore Stanley’s makeup, Krist Novoselic put on Gene’s make-up, and they invited Ace and Peter on stage (as the Catman and Spaceman) to perform a Kiss song or two? (Nirvana had covered Kiss’ “Do you love me” back in 89, before Grohl even joined the group)….I’d love to see the looks on Paul and Gene’s faces if something like happened….
Sal I agree with you about the nonperformance. Obviously performing with the current lineup (in full make-up) would’ve been disrespectful to Ace and Peter (it’s one thing to purchase the rights to those “characters” and then go on a world tour, but a completely different thing to throw it in their faces on a night in which they are being honored), but (and I’m probably in the minority here), I had no interest in seeing the original 4 get up there and do “rock and roll all night” for the 4 billionth time….The only “performance” I would’ve been interested in seeing is maybe something that paid tribute to all former members of Kiss. I know only the original 4 are getting inducted and the height of Kiss’ fame was 75-79, but if it weren’t for Eric Carr, Vinnie Vincent and Bruce Kulick (and I guess to a lesser degree Bob Kulick, Mark St. John and Anton Fig), Kiss wouldn’t be getting into the HOF. All those guys played a part in keeping alive a band that was nearly on life support at a few stages, and to completely gloss over them and act like it’s only been Ace, Paul, Gene and Peter for the past 40 years would’ve been wrong. I would’ve loved to have seen them start with the current memebers for a song (maybe say yeah, which stands up to any Kiss-era song), then had Thayer step aside and bring out Kulick and Vincent to play on one of the 80’s era songs (Heaven’s on fire, crazy nights or perhaps lick it up?), and then have Kulick and Vincent step aside and, as the crowds going nuts, bring out Ace and Peter for a couple 70’s era songs….(maybe have them all on stage by the end for a rendition of God gave rock and roll to you or something like that….Now obviously this presents several problems, including the fact that Vincent would probably decline anyway, and this would have to done without make-up and Paul would never agree to that because as Eddie has stated- it undermines what he’s trying to sell as “KISS” now, but this would be a great way to honor the fans that have supported them over the past 40 years and really helped get them into the Hall in the first place….
Chris- I can appreciate where you’re coming from in acknowledging the members of the KISS “family” that kept the band alive after Peter and Ace, but the HOF president even clarified that it was the music from the original 4 that got them in.
“With Kiss there wasn’t one person here who didn’t agree that the reason Kiss was nominated and is being inducted was because of what was established in the 70s with Ace (Frehley), with Peter (Criss), with Paul and Gene (Simmons). That’s what put them on that map.”
Paul and Gene kept KISS going after Ace and Peter, but even by the time Dynasty came out they had already become a nostalgia band, churning out average music with a rotating band just to keep the money train on the tracks and their setlist that’s focused 90% on the early stuff proves it. If the music made after Peter and Ace were gone is so crucial to KISStory, more of it would be played on tour.
Regarding the performance at the Induction, maybe it’s been overlooked but despite Gene’s comment that Ace and Peter were offered to be allowed to perform with the current lineup, Eric and Tommy were not invited to play by the HOF. Whether that means “not allowed”, people seem to think there was ever a chance that Ace and Peter would have ended up in the crowd watching. According to comments made by Gene LONG before the announcement they were being inducted, he was never going to play with Ace and Peter anyhow so it seems that a performance with the original 4 was doomed long before it was ever a possibility.
Thanks for the reply Jason. We both agree that 70’s Kiss (Paul, Gene, Ace and Peter) is what put them on the map and why they’re going into the HOF. My point was that if they disbanded in, say 79 or 80, what they had accomplished up to that point, would not have gotten them into the Hall. The fact that Gene and Paul were able to keep this thing going for 40+ years, inclusing numerous platinum albums after Ace and Peter were gone, I think definitely helped “the cause”.
As for the HOF- eventhough it’s only the original 4 getting inducted, the Hall leaves it up to the band to decide what to do performance wise (and who to perform with). It sounds like Gene and Paul invited Ace and Peter to join them in a song or two AFTER the current Kiss lineup played. That’s a way that Gene and Paul can try to take the high road and say “Ace and Peter chose not to play”, but in reality that offer is garbage because a) having two catmen and spacemen in full make-up would be an embarressment to Peter and Ace, and for them to get up there after Singer and Thayer just played songs that they’ve been playing for years night in and night out would be a tough spot for Ace and Peter. And then afterwards Gene and Paul could claim “see- Kiss sounded better with Thayer and Singer than with Ace and Paul”….So, that “offer” by Gene and Paul, to me, was never a legitimate possibility….It would’ve just been a no-win for Ace and Peter, so I don’t blame them for declining.
Hey Chris, I don’t understand…you’re saying that 70’s KISS music is what got them in the HOF but only because the band kept going after Peter and Ace were gone (despite what the HOF president said)?
Regarding the performance, that whole thing is a mystery to me, so many different stories and the way everything is worded is so muddy…I read that Tommy and Eric were not invited to play by the HOF people, and like I said I don’t know if that means they’re not “allowed” to or not. I completely agree with you that it would be ridiculous to have two guys with Ace’s and Peter’s makeup on and that’s why neither Ace or Peter wanted to be a part of anything but the original 4 performing, whether or not Gene or Paul honestly offered it or not.
Just as ironic as it was that the two guys no longer in Van Halen (Sammy and Mike) were the ones who performed at their induction, I think there’s nothing wrong with Peter and Ace getting up there with the house band or just the two of them Unplugged style and doing a couple of the songs that Peter sang on. I keep tweeting for them to do Beth and change the lyric to “Me and the Spaceman are playing, cuz they just can’t keep us down” but I’m sure that’s as much of a pipe dream as it was for any of the fans to think they’d see the original 4 up there. It’s obvious that the fans REALLY care, just a shame that Paul and Gene don’t, considering how much they ACT like they care about their fans.
I’m saying that despite the success they had in the 70s, without the longevity (and 5 platinum and numerous other gold records) that came after the 70s, I don’t think they’d have gotten in. I’d compare it to a baseball player who was great for 4 or 5 years but hàll of fame voters would discredit because of a lack of longevity. Kiss needed that I believe because they weren’t Nirvana (who despite being around for a short time had a diamond record and were the darlings of many music critics).
There’s a rule that KISS should establish – never have Tommy and Eric wear makeup in Ace and Peter’s presence!!