News Archive May 2010
From: The Observer
by Kevin McKenna
Posted: May 10, 2010
Not even the threat of eternal damnation was enough to make me ditch Gene Simmons and his friends.
My first encounter with an American Christian evangelist began to turn sour when he urged me to throw away all my heavy rock albums. It was around 25 years ago and I had been persuaded to attend by friends who thought it might change my life, though, being merely 21, I was still just getting acquainted with my bad habits and wasn't about to abandon them so early in our relationship. The American had a jaw like Arnold Schwarzenegger and a GI haircut. A shiny suit jacket was clearly having difficulties clinging to his gridiron shoulders. Like many of his kind, this otherwise blameless college jock was having a daily and exclusive conversation with his own Jesus who had given him a message for Scotland's feckless youth.
Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Judas Priest… none was spared as the big chap laid into them with a witch-finder's zeal. This was the Devil's music and infamy would engulf those beguiled by their sinister charm. If you slowed down some tracks or played them in reverse, he insisted, you would hear diabolic chanting. My immediate thought was that simply by playing them normally you could easily hear these vile incantations. Songs such as Bring Your Daughter to the Slaughter and Children of the Grave tended to give the game away.
The Lord himself only knows how many tons of vinyl were collected by the bin lorries in Glasgow that week. I felt it was churlish not to join in and took the opportunity to jettison some of my more unwise purchases such as April Wine, REO Speedwagon and Molly Hatchet. But Deep Purple, Led Zep and AC/DC were the real babies and so the road to perdition rose to meet me.
Special scorn was reserved for those old vaudeville rock'n'rollers, KISS, which the young Yank claimed was an acronym for "Knights in Satan's Service." Until then, I had naively believed them merely to be four, nice, middle-class lads from New York who had perhaps dropped some acid on a visit to a paint factory. Had they not also penned a song called God Gave Rock'n'Roll to You, a short exegesis influenced by themes from the Book of Genesis? Indeed they had.
Tonight KISS are in Glasgow for a sell-out show and I shall be there. I must decide, though, whether to have my face painted in the style of Gene Simmons's demon or Paul Stanley's star child. I shall also raise a glass to my young evangelist and hope that he stopped having the nightmares.
