Forty years after the release of their debut album, KISS have finally made the cover of Rolling Stone. Marking the band’s upcoming induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the cover image is a classic 1975 photo of the band’s original lineup: Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons, plus Ace Frehley and Peter Criss.
The cover story, by Rolling Stone senior writer Brian Hiatt, tells the sad, hilarious and triumphant story of one of the biggest rock bands ever, taking an in-depth look at the founding members’ lives and careers. Hiatt hung out with all four original members in their homes (in San Diego, Beverly Hills and Monmouth County, New Jersey) where they shared fond memories and, inevitably, some intense backbiting. “I keep thinking about Ace and Peter,” Simmons admits. “”What are they doing now? Where are they?’ It’s gotta be close to the end. How do you make any money? How do you pay your bills?”
Even Stanley and Simmons have had their differences. “We’ve always seen each other as brothers,” says Stanley. “What we seem to be at odds at is how you treat your brother. Gene’s priority, by far, has always been himself. And he’s not one to let anyone else’s feelings or contributions get in the way.”
They also explain precisely why they won’t be reuniting for a performance at the Hall of Fame induction ceremony. Stanley and Simmons offered to allow the former members to jam with KISS’ current lineup, featuring guitarist Tommy Thayer and drummer Eric Singer, but Ace and Peter found that proposition deeply insulting. “I won’t be disrespected,” Criss says. “How can you put me in the Hall of Fame and then tell me to go sit over there in the corner while another guy puts on my makeup and plays? That’s an injustice. To the fans, too.”
Simmons counters that Frehley and Criss “no longer deserve to wear the paint.” “The makeup is earned,” he adds.”Just being there at the beginning is not enough… And if you blow it for yourself, it’s your fault. You can’t blame your band members. ‘Oh, look what happened to me. Oh, poor me.’ Look at my little violin. I have no sympathy.”
Frehley suggests another reason for the current members’ reluctance: “The reason they don’t want to perform with me and Peter is because the last time they did, they had to do a reunion tour. We play three songs, the fans go crazy. They don’t want to open up a can of worms.” Frehley, meanwhile, says he licensed – rather than sold – the rights to his Spaceman makeup to the band, and suggests that he’s due to get the rights back sometime soon.
Also in the story, Simmons says his touring days are almost done. “I’m 64 now,” he says. “Three more tours. Two, if I have a life change of some kind.”
KISS’ Rolling Stone cover story goes on sale Friday, March 28th and online tomorrow, March 26th.
source: rollingstone.com
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158 Responses
Gene and Paul need to stop putting their 7 inches heels in their mouths…and zip it! You can’t run and re-write KISSTORY.
Paul and Gene are brilliant!
They have topped EVERYONE – including Guns & Roses and Van Halen – in the amount of buzz they’ve created for KISS in the lead-up to the R&RHoF. Is anyone talking about Hall & Oates (a great band!) also being inducted? Paul/Gene and KISS (including Ace/Peter) are literally crashing into an elitist club that doesn’t like them, and all the while giving the elitists the finger by claiming to hate them. How calculatedly rock & roll! How very KISS!
Not only that, the media coverage that the KISS soap opera is generating is also great advertisement for Paul’s autobiography, KISS’ summer tour, Ace’s upcoming album, the Varvatos campaign, and all things KISS past and present. Ace and Peter should thank Gene and Paul for all the exposure because, before the induction announcement, who (aside from hardcore Ace/Peter fans) even cared what Ace and Peter thought anymore? They’ve gone from obscurity to relevance in the space of a single obnoxious tweet from Paul/Gene.
Wake up, people! You’re ALL participants in KISS’ latest marketing campaign (so keep taking sides and keep commenting)!
(A very real possibility: we’ll get to see all four members of KISS playing on stage at the same time as they will probably participate in the annual all-star jam at the end of the HoF ceremony. They might be jamming to an E Street Band song, but the collective monster ego of Gene, Paul, Peter, and Ace is probably not going to let them sit on their hands and watch from the audience.)
I totally agree.
Awesome brotherJoe respect you and your thoughts but I’m of MY opinion that GENE,Paul,Eric,and Tommy are being a great band and they are continuing on with new stuff. Yes they play a lot of fan favorites from old days but LIVE many bands play heavy into past catalog. However on Sonic Boom they released all new songs .( not saying u have to like album just saying new studio tracks) and designed NEW outfits for that tour. Then they wrote and recorded another studio album MONSTER and again designed new outfits and eventually an innovative NEW stage design with the Spider rig. Fake bands are not doing things like that. There are many bands living ONLY on back catalog and never record anymore. Proud Kiss is active.
Chad, sorry to say, but isn’t that post of yours here the fifth or what with the same message, even the same sentences?? I think your point, being OK as it is, has finally come across 8sigh).
Best article i’ve ever read about the band and sad to say it shows how bitter Paul has become. Don’t play at the induction with the original line up is one of the worst mistake in the entire Kisstory !
It’s unthinkable that KISS was never on the cover of Rolling Stone until now. Whether you hate them or not, they were still a huge part of popular culture and that’s what RS is about – at least these days. I remember going to record stores and half the posters they sold were KISS. Of course they sold a lot of bubblegum stuff too, but way more KISS stuff than just about anyone else.
In the 1970s RS was about “serious rock journalism” as well as politics. It’s been about popular culture and fluff for the past 30 years. I love how they give credit to all these hip hop “artists” and people like Kei$ha who have nothing to say of substance. I quit subscribing in the mid 80s. Hard to believe anyone still takes them seriously.
There’s no reason to keep going back and forth as we IDIOT fans have. There’s fault on all sides of the original four.
In the end it’s sad that their ONE AND ONLY INDUCTION night will be more soap opera than reality.
Contrary to what Gene & Paul say, the ONLY reason they are where they are today IS because of what the four ORIGINAL members did back in those beginning years.
There may be some kids growing up today with KISS rooms, but back in the seventies EVERY kid who loved R&R had a KISS room or at least a wall in their room. These days it’s probably a home office wall occupied by some forty or fifty something. lol
I prefer to remember the good ol days & this whole RNRHOF deal has turned into the childish debacle that Van Halen & GNR induction ceremonies were. SO SAD! 🙁