"Welcome back to the DETROIT ROCK CITY world premiere broadcast. I'm Arthur Penhollow, and addition to some great new versions of vintage 70's rock songs, The DETROIT ROCK CITY soundtrack also includes well known songs by Van Halen, Black Sabbath, David Bowie, Cheap Trick, Thin Lizzy, and of course KISS. And here to tell us about the soundtrack, which is by the way out on Tuesday, and the film that opens Friday, August 13th, is our good friend, Gene Simmons."

GS: You know if I looked half as good as you do - I'd get laid twice as much. Is that good aritmitic?
AP: That's why I'm here in LA.
GS: So, anyways, the soundtrack is going to be alot of fun. Anybody who likes new music, old music - but mostly music that has spirit. Music that stirs...
AP: Was it all your input, or did people come to you and say "I want to be on the album"?
GS: Both! DETROIT ROCK CITY, the soundtrack, is really a combination of politics, A&R, New Line Cinema, and we - KISS, the guys that refuse to look like any other band. Through thick and thin, through fashion - we don't care.
AP: The songs that appear on the soundtrack from what I've noticed, appear to have a certain rebel attitude of that 70's rock music scene. Is that for a reason?
GS: Uh..the movie, DETROIT ROCK CITY, takes place in the 70's. It's about four young guys, led by Eddie Furlong - he of Terminator 2 and Pecker.... It's really about a trip down the yellow brick road. These four characters on their way to Detroit Rock City, to see their band. Along the way, all kinds of crazy things happen to them. So the movie is less a movie about the 70's and more about us against the world. You know, us against them. And so the music reflects that, and the one thing that early Van Halen, KISS, and some of the bands in the 70's have in common with Manson, Everclear, and some others is a shared kindred for a spirit. A certain approach to music which has to deal with a certain tilt to lyric and melody..that is basically uplifting, as opposed to making you want to jump off a building and commit suicide. So, it's more about `Life is good - I want to get laid - and I love money'
AP: And always have a party.
GS: That's right!

AP: The first single from DETROIT ROCK CITY features Everclear doing the Thin Lizzy song, "The Boys Are Back In Town". Art from Everclear told us about the KISS albums that made his collection while growing up.
ART: I had every record from KISS Alive II onto, probably, The Elder. I bought The Elder - and didn't dig that too much. But I loved everything else.
AP: And here's the story on how Everclear ended up recording "The Boys Are Back In Town"
ART: They asked us to do a song. We had a cover of "American Girl" by Tom Petty that we did. And Tom Zutot, the A&R guy for Mercury, had heard that and was really excited about that. And I was driving around LA with my top down. Me and my wife, we had a rent-a-car, and it was a sunny, beautiful day - like three months ago, and "The Boys Are Back In Town" came on - and I'm like, "Man...this is the perfect song". The video, 90's and 70's - I came up with the whole idea right there in my head, and my wife's like "Insane. That's not on the list that they sent you." I spent like two weeks convincing everybody it WAS the song. Got the ok to do it, from Capital. Recorded it. It came out better than I thought. They loved it, and everything just fell into place.

["The Boys Are Back In Town" by Everclear plays]
AP: ......Gene, you make an appearance in the video, don't cha? And I've seen proportions of it, and there is alot of well known porn stars also appearing in the video? I know you must have something to do with that!
GS: Well, look - always believe....
AP: ..in a man of wealth and means.
GS: Always believe in spreading love. There should be more love around the world, whether it's physical, mental, or done with human beings, farm animals - take your pick. I think if all of us would spend more time with porno queens or... I mean, what's the difference between a porno queen and your girlfriend? They both take their clothes off, they both enjoy love - except the girl on the screen gets paid for it. That's the only difference. You know, we all have our different point of views, ethically, morally, and so on, about what's right or wrong behavior. Your mom may think that her little girl's dress is a little too high and she thinks that that's unacceptable behavior. And you may think that somebody doing it in front of a camera and showing what we can do physically.... you know, we all do..
AP: I personally prefer it that way
GS: I don't mind that. I think it's all good. A beautiful girl is a beautiful girl! And I don't mind them myself, how bout you?
AP: I love them!
GS: Yep!
AP: Absolutely, and it goes without saying..and I don't even know why I'm bringing it up myself...
GS: They put a smile on my face, how's that? They get a rise out of me.
AP: In a former life, I was a scent of a woman. And for the rest of my life, I'll be chasing it.
GS: (laughs)And my problem is that I came out of there, and ever since - I've been trying to go back.
AP: (laughs)
AP Although Detroit's favorite son, Ted Nugent, doesn't appear on the soundtrack - his song, "Cat Scratch Fever" does. With the great version done by Pantera. Did you want to make that Detroit statement or something?
GS: Well, the guys - Pantera - and KISS have toured together. I like the band, tons. They really get up on stage and no holds barred. Diamond Darrel has Ace tattooed on his chest for God's sake, and has for years...
AP: Now, that's a fan...
GS: That's a fan. You know, you tattoo something on your body - it's not this year's fashion, because that guy's gonna stick with you forever. So - when you do it, it comes from the heart - it's not like a fashion statement. And, what can I say - Pantera's been beating lots of people up repeatedly, and may I say, in a manner in which they've been accustomed to.

AP: And Vinnie Paul, from Pantera on KISS right here. "Cat Scratch Fever" and more.
Vinnie: Yea, man - as Gene said - we toured with KISS before and it was just an unbelievable experience! It's something that we've always dreamed of as kids, and for it to come true - was just an amazing thing. And then we heard about this DETROIT ROCK CITY soundtrack thing that they were putting together and a guy by the name of Tom Zutok contacted us and said that he heard Pantera doing a version of "Cat Scratch Fever" live, and asked us if we'd be interested in doing it. And with us being Nuge fans, we said HELL YA - that's right up our alley. So we hauled the gear down to the studio, plugged it up, did it Pantera style, and here it is - coming at you live - "Cat Scratch Fever"

["Cat Scratch Fever" by Pantera, is played]
AP: Wow! Kicking the dog and petting the pussy - "Cat Scratch Fever", Pantera. By the way, this is the world premiere... Is this an idea that you and the band had, or did someone come to you with this idea?
GS: I was developing a different KISS motion picture - a big special effects laden sort of movie. That kind of combined KISS as super heroes with the stuff of dreams, nightmares and so on. A guy name Floyd Mutrix, was a screen writer in Hollywood, and a guy named Jeff Burg, who's the chairman of ICM - a big agency that handles talent, and I was developing it along those lines. At the very same time, Barry Levine - who started out as our photographer, came to me and said that he found a script called "Detroit Rock City" that he wanted to make into a motion picture, and would KISS mind if I would let them use makeup, and the rights and songs. I said "No, you can't do that - cause I'm developing a different motion picture, and I don't want to compete against myself" Having said that though, we were ready to start our tour - the Psycho Circus tour, and it became very clear that I wouldn't have time to work on the movie...none of us would. The easiest thing would be to kick up the DETROIT ROCK CITY script into a feature and kill the other version, cause the other version would of taken two years. And so DETROIT ROCK CITY happened very fast. The president of New Line Cinema...he and I have been circling each other for years, talking about a KISS feature. It wasn't until he read and heard about DETROIT ROCK CITY - that the movie was green-lit, like, faster than you can say your last name. From the time it was pitched in July, to the time is ready to be shown as a nationwide motion picture, took about seven months. New Line did some test, which means they played in front of people to find out what's good and what's bad, and so on. The reaction was so good that they decided that this wasn't just a regular motion picture - this looks like a hit so let's push it into a summer release, which is why it's coming out Friday the 13th - August, 1999.
AP: That had to be your idea.
GS: No - I'd like to take credit for it, but things happen like that.
AP: You like that superstitious kind of stuff.
GS: I don't mind it.
AP: It's a good thing. How much do we get to see KISS in the movie, in all actuality?
GS: We don't appear alot at all. Although, the movie is all about KISS.
AP: ...people going to see KISS
GS: Yea, it's interesting - we don't really appear, though every breath that any character takes is all about KISS. They live, breathe, and eat KISS. And it's really more about the fans. Which is what I've always contended - KISS without it's fans is nothing! And DETROIT ROCK CITY has a lot in common with The Wizard Of Oz. In the sense, that the Wizard hardly appears in The Wizard Of Oz - it's really about those four characters on the yellow brick road - and that's what DETROIT ROCK CITY is about.
AP: And the DETROIT ROCK CITY soundtrack features a brand new KISS song as well, which we'll hear later on in the show. A cover of "Strutter" by a band called The Donnas..some girls that you know....
GS: ...Very cool....
AP:...very intimately. Also "Detroit Rock City", which opened the show - what we opened up in the show, today. And there's this one right here:

["Shout It Out Loud" by KISS get played]
AP: "Shout It Out Loud", KISS. And of course, Paul's in Toronto right now doing The Phantom Of The Opera.
GS: Paul IS the Phantom.
AP: And he is doing a FANTASTIC job!
GS: The reviews are off the wall.
AP: The reviews are so good, that people are telling me that I have to go up there to see it.
GS: He's killer. Everybody that's gone - the fans....
AP: ...take a train, drive a car, take a plane - just go see him. He's absolutely marvelous.
GS: (singing) I might take a train,,,[AP joins in]....I might take a plane...[GS solo]....Paul Stanley is in Phantom again.
AP: (singing) I want to get up there, just the same.
GS: That's right.
AP: How many KISS songs are actually in this movie right here, DETROIT ROCK CITY?
GS: You know, I was the guy that was given the responsibility to talking to a guy named Cas Horey, who's the president of Horey Publishing in Japan. Who bought out the publishing years and years ago. And the guy was a complete gentleman, because every time a song is used in the movie most people don't know, you got to pay the publisher. So, he was a real gentleman about it, and that's why I gotta mention the guy's name. And initially, there was something like ten KISS songs, and it probably wound up...probably eight, sprinkled through out - but that doesn't count Cheap Trick doing "Surrender", that mentions KISS, and lots of other secrete KISS messages. And play the movie backwards, you'll never know what you'll hear.

["Iron Man" by Black Sabbath starts playing]
AP: Welcome back..... Black Sabbath's "Iron Man" is one of the original 70's monster hits that are on this album. Also included is David Bowie's "Rebel Rebel", "Surrender" by Cheap Trick, Thin Lizzy's "Jail Break", Van Halen's "Running With The Devil", and more. I'm Big Daddy Arthur P., and he is Gene Simmons of KISS.
GS: This music sounds like the coolest of the cool. It's like the best tunes of all time.
AP: You got a double hit on you hands. A hit movie, and a hit soundtrack.
GS: It doesn't suck.
AP: A matter of fact - you're one of the film's co-producers. Was it a job you like, or was it a labor of love?
GS: Actually, out of a necessity - truth was that since this movie was so near and dear to our hearts, because it's about KISS fans, and more specifically about their fight to maintain the dreaded disease disco, because the movie's sub-plot is "death to disco". These four guys have a belief in what they believe in, and so on. It's about them and some other disco guys, which they call The Guedos. Those are the bad guys of the movie.
AP: So I probably shouldn't bring up Donna Summer then?
GS: No, Donna's cool...the point is - to do things right, sometimes you just got to be there. So my role as producer, and there were two others. My role was to make sure that the director was allowed to make the kind of movie he wanted to make, once he understood, and once we all agreed, that there was gonna be a movie with alot of heart and soul. We don't want any Hollywood version of a KISS movie. These fans have to be real, and they had to speak from the heart. Because I've seen movies that come out of Hollywood that try to capture a spirit, and they are basically done by some people that don't have the same heart in it. So my responsibly is to make sure that the director was gonna do the job - he did! The art director was gonna reinvent the wheel. Because, in essence, the 1977 Love Gun tour was rebuilt from scratch. It had to be real. And there was a guy on the set, his name was Tim Sullivan, who was very cool, paid attention to detail and all the stuff. Anyway, lots of care was taken to make sure the movie not only entertains from a visual level, but also has heart.
AP: Well, having not seen the film - but having seen some of the trailers - the film has heart and soul.
GS: You bet it does. And the other thing is that you laugh your head off. These four guys will do anything to get to Detroit to go see their band. And they will stop at nothing. No one can stop them. AP: Alot of us has been there...
GS: I went through the same thing. I wanted to see The Beatles, no matter what. And you skip school, you do whatever you have to do. One of our guys loses his virginity. Another guy gets in trouble in a confessional. All kinds of weird stuff. And of course, there's a highway scene where the guys are being chased by the disco brigade. It's a hilarious movie. It's got tons of heart. And of course, the movie is the best of the lot.
AP: Absolutely. Speaking of highways, Marilyn Manson covers AC/DC's "Highway To Hell." And certainly, put his spin on it..his own spin on the song. Doesn't sound much like the original at all. Here's what Marilyn Manson had to say about being a part of this project:

MARILYN: I like the idea of kids today going through the same trouble that I went though liking KISS. It was more about the attitude of the film, I think that appealed to me most. And I picked the song "Highway To Hell" cause I remember taking that to music class at Christian school. They told us to bring in a song that we wanted to discuss and I got thrown out for bringing that in. That's an over-the-top, ridiculous song, that people would find very predictable about heavy metal. That's what makes it cool.
["Highway To Hell" by Marilyn Manson starts playing"]
There's something about AC/DC, that what they do - they can only get away with. And when you try to imitate it, or cover it, it sounds ridiculous - I found that the song sounded really kind of stupid and lame, when we tried doing a straight version of it. It sounds great they way they did it, and you can't really try to imitate it in any way. I just thought we would try to attempt it, they way we would do one of our songs - I thought that was the best way to look at it.

"Hi, this is Anna - from Drain STH. We are so happy to be on this DETROIT ROCK CITY soundtrack, because we recently got a chance to see the film and it was awesome..totally killer - you have to see it. It brings you back to when you were like 15, and you did everything to get to the show for the bands you loved. And this is our song we recorded, it's an old T. Rex song called "20th Century Boy". Here it is."

["20th Century Boy" by Drain STH is played]
AP: "20th Century Boy", originally done by T. Rex, redone by Drain STH. I just heard that the lead singer from Drain STH got engaged to Tony Iommi from Black Sabbath.
GS: I keep telling Tony and anybody else: "love em, but don't marry em"
AP: It's an institution, right?
GS: Well, you gotta be nuts to be in an institution.
AP: I've been there four times.
GS: Well, so, see what I mean?
AP: The DETROIT ROCK CITY soundtrack is out on Tuesday, August 3rd, the film open on Friday, August 13th.

["Strutter" by The Donnas starts playing]
AP: Welcome back.....And there is a brand new song from KISS, called "Nothing Can Keep Me From You" written with Diane Warren, who also wrote "I Don't Want To Miss A Thing" for Aerosmith. She's pretty hot right now.
GS: Here's the real low-down: The music that you heard coming into this segment, was not KISS, but The Donnas, doing "Strutter". And that's a real incredible version, got lots of heart and soul - you should dig that. Diane Warren actually wrote "Nothing Can Keep Me..." all by herself. It was not co-written by the band or Paul. But Paul sings the begezzus out of this song. Paul actually knew Diane Warren way before she became the huge songwriter that she is. She keeps winning songwriter after songwriter awards every single year.
AP: She's huge right now.
GS: Huge! She's written for everybody from Cher to KISS. You know, there's a connection there...so, uh, the most important thing is though that friendship is one thing and songwriting is another.
AP: I saw the tattoo
GS: The reason why we decided to do the song, is quite frankly, the tune knocked us out. And when Diane heard Paul sing the song, it's just one of the best vocals he's ever done. You should check it out.

["Nothing Can Keep Me From You" by KISS gets played]
AP: You weren't lying Gene.. "Nothing Can Keep Me From You" -it's a brand new song from KISS. It's on the soundtrack to the film DETROIT ROCK CITY, which opens on August 13th. The soundtrack album is out Tuesday, August 3rd. And that song, is simply marvelous.
GS: Yea! If I was a girl, I would want to be on Paul Stanley's lap. In fact, I've made arrangements, in case I ever go to jail - there's a reservation for Paul, right next to me.
AP: (laughs)
GS: I mean that in the nicest way.
AP: I'm not going there. A final question before we say good night. KISS is now available to be nominated for induction, I know your costumes are in there, into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in the year 2000. What's your take... will or will not happen?
GS: Don't care, really. I don't mean that to be flippant. We've gotten all kinds of awards: People's Choice awards, that's always appreciated. We're gonna be getting the Hollywood Walk Of Fame - you know the star. And the same night, in August, we'll be christening the KISS constellation - four stars right next to each other on the solar map. So, our awards are under "K" in your record stores. If you go under "KISS" - that's where are awards are. Everytime somebody buys one of those records, that just as much validation as I would ever need.
AP: Ok, any last words for the folks listening at home?
GS: You know what? Everyday above ground is a good day. Peter Criss told me that - he's right! That's what I have for you guys.
AP: Well, god bless you, Gene.
GS: And you the same..
AP: And thanks for having me out here.
GS: You bet'cha!

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