Steve Appleford of the L.A. Times reports:
The sideshow at Dodger Stadium is about to begin as Paul Stanley emerges from his backstage trailer, shirtless and in full kabuki drag: bright red lips, his face painted harlequin white, a black star over his right eye. The singer-guitarist is here to perform with his band KISS but hears his name and walks over to a crowd gathered at the fence.
“Arriba!” yells one fan, and Stanley reaches over to shake hands, as dozens of cellphones take snapshots. “Let me see your shoes!” shouts another, and Stanley half-climbs the fence to swing a tasseled silver-and-black platform boot over the top. “Thanks, Paul!”
In less than an hour, Stanley and his musical partner of four decades, Gene Simmons, will lead KISS through two short sets of hooks and hard rock riffs as halftime entertainment for an ice hockey game between the Kings and the Ducks. It’s another strange gig in the ongoing saga of KISS, which long ago evolved from band to lucrative brand, ready for high-profile special events, reality TV and cradle-to-grave business ventures in the form of KISS Hello Kitty Dolls, KISS comics, books, T-shirts, action figures and restaurants as well as KISS caskets and KISS urns.
In one more way, 2014 could be the band’s most surprising year since its initial 1970s pop culture explosion, beginning with KISS’ induction April 10th into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It welcomes the hard-rock quartet into the critical pantheon that has at times violently rejected KISS and acknowledges the band’s huge impact on rock spectacle.
“I still believe the heart and soul of this is a band. The music is imperative,” says Stanley, who has produced the last two KISS albums and next month releases an autobiography, “Face the Music: A Life Exposed.” “Maybe our horizons are broader because we have an opportunity to go other places. Why not? Whether it’s a football team or restaurants, people say that’s not rock ‘n’ roll. Let me tell you what’s rock ‘n’ roll: Winning is rock ‘n’ roll.”
Being voted into the Hall of Fame is a victory that comes 15 years after the band’s initial eligibility and annual outrage from fans. But next month’s ceremony at Barclays Center in Brooklyn also means dealing with old wounds and complications that began with the final exit of founding guitarist Ace Frehley and drummer Peter Criss more than a dozen years ago. In their place ever since are lead guitarist Tommy Thayer, 53, and drummer Eric Singer, 55, who both wear the makeup designs of their predecessors (designs owned by Simmons and Stanley).
“The naysayers, and some of them are loud, talk about Tommy or Eric being impostors. I think an impostor is a guy up there doing it for a paycheck,” says Stanley, back in his trailer and now dressed in his full stage regalia, with black feathers on his shoulders and medallions over his chest of a guitar pick, a feather, a star. “We’ve never been happier.”
Any hopes for a reunion in makeup of the four founding members at the Hall of Fame ceremony ended last week with a band decision to not perform in any capacity. A statement on the KISS website read: “This is understandably an emotional situation where there is no way to please everyone.”
Negotiations with the Hall of Fame stalled, say Simmons and Stanley, who wanted to include Singer and Thayer, while the Rock Hall wanted a reunion of the original quartet in makeup.
“Imagine getting onstage and playing with a lineup that does not exist,” says Simmons, 64, comparing the situation to a forced reunion with an ex-spouse. Both have bad memories of years of substance abuse by their former partners but say they are happy and proud to accept the award with the former members. Putting the original quartet in makeup was “a nonstarter,” says Stanley.
Simmons and Stanley questioned whether the former members were up to performing. Reached via email, both Criss and Frehley are working on solo albums and say their problems with drinks and drugs are behind them. Frehley has been sober for seven years.
“We should of been able to work it out as grown men; it’s a shame we couldn’t,” writes Criss, who also survived a 2007 breast cancer scare.
“My guitar playing, singing, writing, performing and producing skills are as good or better than the past,” Frehley writes. “For years, Gene and Paul have been trying to minimize my contributions to the band, even though I designed the famous KISS logo … and designed the trademarked makeup for the Spaceman character.”
All four said they were open to joining the night’s traditional jam session at the end of the night. “That’s what the celebration is all about,” Frehley writes.
Long before being voted into the Rock Hall as a band, Simmons and Stanley were outspoken critics of the rock institution and its rules. “We had issues before this happened. It doesn’t turn into a love fest now,” says Stanley, but acknowledged, “There are some people who are angry or hurt by this, and I don’t want to see that.”
The controversies over the Hall of Fame and newer members wearing classic makeup are issues mainly for older fans with an emotional attachment to the original band. [Bassist Gene] Simmons calls up a photo on his computer from a stadium show in Stockholm, then another from Lima, Peru. Both show ecstatic young fans in the front rows.
“Can you see the faces? That’s about 90,000,” he says of the crowd. “You see a bald head in there? You think they … about Ace and Peter? They’re going, ‘Who?’ We’ve been around 40 years, and only two members stayed there the whole time, never quit, no drugs, no booze. KISS is bigger than anybody in the band.”
Read more at the L.A. Times.
184 Responses
Another Animalixe? What another album hardly played on ny Gene,written and played with outside writers and musicians? No thank you. I love all the angry comments ripping the work of the current lineup. Eric and Tommy only wear the makeup and while initially Tommy was playing Ace like the current album Monster Tommy plays in his OWN style and I have never once mistaken Eric playing which imo is the blending of Carr and Criss yet his own style. The guy is a great drummer and if you actually watch his love performing mannerisms are his and compare exactly to how he BEHAVED on revenge tour and MTV unplugged. He is NOT an impersonator but a great Kiss drummer. Performing almost 17 yrs with Kiss and involved for more like 23 yrs! 23 yrs of kicking ass in our favorite band and hid most used description is one of impersonator?? Tommy co writes Kiss songs going back to Hot in the Shade,designs Kiss videos,creatively inputs and cowrote 9 songs on New album(which features his own style) yet he is only an impersonator??
this could backfire on gene / paul. if ace puts out a good strong new product quickly and promotes it with going on the road more people will support him now more than ever after all this bad publicly . Ace strike now while the iron is hot.
Ace has never done anything fast in his life….except for playing.
…and driving.
I really didnt think anamoly was all that great and he did next to nothing to promote it. Hardly any dates. Ace got lucky on his first solo record, 30 something years ago. He’s not gonna “show” kiss anything. Besides, he WANTED to be outta kiss. Let it go guys
Please understand, I love and respect Ace very much.
What I hate also is being spoken for by some fans as it is blanket statement truth that the two newest Kiss albums aren’t great. Whole it is true MANY fans do not like or prefer these albums and I respect that opinion, it is ALSO true however that MANY fans consider them outside of the original 6 studio albums tobe 2 of the best efforts. I myself rank them behind the original six albums. They worked hard on these records and I appreciate that ot was the band only that wrote and played on it only. Something that can’t be said about most kiss releases. I love hearing Gene’s bass lines, and Paul’s rhythm guitar,Tommy’s leads and having Eric be the only drummer on the albums . Imo this is refreshing and harks back to the way the first records were made. Even the “holy” Destroyer album wasn’t all performed by the band and personally I feel cheated learning later that other musicians were originally passed off as being played by the original band. So please realize you have all the right not to like the last two records but I like the dedication to New music and I for one totally dig the albums
Nice post man. Standing on their own, I agree both Monster and Sonic Boom were good, heavy rock albums. I believe they were focused and did an excellent job. They werent over produced and yes, featured those four members.
Soupy Sales type of pie action at the book signings “Dis is from Ace pal” (Thick Brooklyn accent). Man arrested for throwing a pie at Kiss’ Paul Stanley book signing at Barnes & Noble, details at 10 on Fox News. 300 pound guy dressed in an Eddie Trunk TMS shirt with a vintage Frehley’s Comet hat on. I’m sure Singer has tales of “all I wanted was 200 more a week”. I’d see Kiss double billed with a 1989 White Lion line-up. Vito rules.
Stupid post bro. Grow up.
Ace and Peter who? Seriously Gene? Thayer and Singer are doing it for a paycheck. Singer definitely. Thayer was their coffee boy, so he is probably thrilled to be an Ace imposter. That said, anyone who says KISS is a gimmick band, etc, needs to go and watch the Unplugged show. That show was a true indication of their talents. Paul was at his finest that night. Carnival of Souls? Another highly underrated record. How they went from that to this joke of a band now? Unreal. And Sonic Boom and Monster are awful.
How exactly do you know what is going on in Eric and Tommy’s brain? As for the “opinion” on what is awful or not is irrelevant; I personally thing Monster is a classic Kiss record from top to bottom, and may be in my top Five Kiss albums of all time (and easily better than half of the “classic” lineup’s output). If you want to talk about “doing it for the cash”? As good as CoS is, it was as pandering an album (to the grunge movement) as any album by any band ever. Kiss’s lyrics have been universally positive and about sex and rock’n’roll; then you get CoS with songs about death, hate, and angst. There’s twelve songs on that album; there aren’t twelve songs in the entire rest of the catalogue that are that dark.
You’d better do your homework on Tommy. He basically created Kisstory, the Second Coming and ALL of the Kissology’s he was wayyyy more than their coffee boy and was considered a 5th member for over a decade. Ace was f×cked up on their last tour including heroin and quit the band. So get your facts straight and act like a mature adult.
Tommy has indeed worked for Kiss on many levels before he assumed the lead guitar spot. I was a fan of Black n Blue also
Were they the ones who did that tune ‘Hold on to 18’?
Yes, that was them. Their singer, Jamie St. James, was also in Warrant for a short period of time.
Dana from EddieTrunk.com 🙂
That was a good tune. Hair Nation plays it now and then. Ahhhh memories….