KISS bassist/singer Gene Simmons, who is currently in Australia on a solo tour, apparently took a swipe at his bandmate Paul Stanley while onstage.
Video posted to YouTube by fans who attended one of Simmons’ recent solo concerts, which featured Ace Frehley, shows the bassist calling “Bulls**t” on his fellow KISS co-founder before bringing some VIP fans on stage to sing Rock and Roll All Nite.
“We need some help though; we can’t sing the song by ourselves,” Simmons told the audience, before adding sarcastically. “‘Cause I’m 69 and I’ve lost my voice.”
What’s more, this wasn’t even the only time on this tour that Simmons called out Stanley — who, by the way, had surgery in 2011 to help fix “recurring vocal cord issues.”
“I’ll sing everything,” Simmons said in another video. “Because my voice always works. I don’t lose my voice. I don’t lose my voice…Paul Stanley.”
After a long pause, and some surprised oohs from the crowd, he added, “No, I love him.”
Simmons’ apparent amusement with Stanley’s vocal cords comes off as more than a bit caustic.
Hear Eddie’s thoughts below, as well.
[Dana’s note: Thank you, to Robert Davenport, for alerting me to this news].
additional source: iheart.com
18 Responses
I don’t think Gene and Paul get along as well as they try to make everyone believe. Paul seems to see himself as more of a professional musician, not making off-color jokes and calling out past bandmembers for their lack of professionalism. Gene totally embraces the whole 70’s and 80’s ultra-male Rockstar persona, minus the drinking and drugs, and adding the whole ultra-capitalist thing. I believe Paul still resents Gene for abandoning him during the 80’s, while Gene flirted with Hollywood. Paul basically ran the whole KISS organization during that time. Paul has taken shots at Gene in the press before, as well. Gene and Paul both know that KISS is on it’s last legs. I doubt that they will remain close after the band finally calls it quits.
I think Gene & Paul have discussed Pauls vocal problems numerous times privately, they have downtuned songs and changed their set list etc.. so that makes it easy for me to believe they had that conversation at least once – and it would not surprise me if Gene might have gone so far as to say to Paul its time to step away – his comment in Australia addressed the huge elephant in the room publicly now the fans know gene feels and thinks the same way about Pauls singing voice – Paul would never speak about it in any detail and probably avoids it like the plague – Paul is hyper sensitive and has a lot of professional pride and might still honestly believe he can still do it well enough to continue touring – so if they had a conversation like that it probably didn’t go well – this is all just speculation on my part – I see the end for kiss coming real soon
im glad gene called him out,was it in poor taste yes,but paul has been doing it to bith peter and ace for years,its ok for him to say they both are not in the band anymore because they cant play well anymore ect.and if someone is not pulling their end,then they dont deserve to be in kiss.but it seems ok for paul to go out and sound like total shit ,so im glad he was called out,hes a pompas asshole .and he should not be in the band anymore.
Whether it’s right for Paul to expect his audience to continue to pay to see him struggle through KISS songs is up for debate. What’s not up for debate is that it’s totally not cool for his partner to mock him publicly. Funny how Gene doesn’t have a problem with Paul’s voice when the prospect of a money-making KISS tour comes up…
RT ,
I would never publicly throw a friend/partner under the bus no matter how I felt about someone , that’s me-
but I have seen this type of thing happen – especially when you want to be rid of someone or when your done/burnt out angry etc.. – you can’t really back away or back pedal from what Gene said, the damage is now done who knows what the fallout will be – Kiss was / is a once in a generation band influencing everyone and they are now simply too old to be doing this at a high level, running the stage jumping around ,screaming vocals , basically being rock gods ,being well…Kiss -it would be semi passable if Paul still had his voice intact, but he doesn’t – and they have 2 copycats on top of it- I think part of it might be that Gene wants ace back and Paul doesn’t ?? tommy is a great guy so there has to be major friction there if that is true and Gene might be really angry and frustrated that the kiss legacy/brand and all they have done is being tarnished because of pauls attitude and his voice issues and he is fed up with it all – just my opinion but it rings true for me-
Seem like Gene has held back the dirt on Paul for a long time. Paul has publicly insulted Gene many times publicly. Now, that Gene aired out his feelings on Paul, Paul will now go to war. Paul is the guy who can give it but cannot tolerate getting dirt thrown his way. It is like a husband and wife with Gene / Paul. Paul is the nagging mom who throws negative comments at everyone and expects to walk away untouched and Gene is the crazed, money hungry, cheating husband. Ace and Peter are the two teenage kids that cannot be tamed. The real show with the original KISS now is more off-stage then on.
Spot on