 |  | |||||
|
 All news should be considered an unconfirmed report unless verified, and all information published at KISS Asylum is attributed to the source from which it was received so that readers may judge the validity of the statements for themselves. All information is confirmed where possible, and all publication is governed by common sense.
GENE SIMMONS and NASCAR From: WashingtonPost.com by Dan Steinberg 
GENE SIMMONS and his tongue came to Richmond International Raceway last weekend to promote three KISS-themed NASCAR vehicles and a line of die-cast collectible replicas. You want to talk about NASCAR? Of course, I do. You're a NASCAR fan? Very much so. Why is that? When we were all little boys growing up, most American boys, what did we do? We bought cars and we put them together and we painted them. There's a great love affair with America and cars. Where else but in America is there this kind of love affair between — we're talking about the masses — and cars. And NASCAR pretty much brought the notion of everyman racing up to the front. Remember, these cars aren't built by Porsche or by some high-falutin' expensive notion. You go to the Indy 500, by the way, and you'll see gorgeous cars running around the track, but nobody can buy 'em. The great appeal in this is, this is really a people sport, which is why it's so massive. And the other thing is that it's a real family event, you can bring your kids here. It's real Americana, it really is a slice of American pie. You're into family events? Of course. When we first started out 31 years ago people used to think that KISS was synonymous with devil worship and cannibalism and all this kind of stuff, but so was Elvis. Do you have any favorite drivers? Well, imagine there are 10 girls, and they're all equally gorgeous, and three of them have your face on their T-shirts. So do you like [baseball and football], too? Do you like them for their Americana? I do, but the thing about sports that's missing is something called sportsmanship. I know these are semantics, and I don't mean to be anti-semantic, because I know you're not. And I'll give you a little pregnant pause there. I've seen you use that line before. I also tell every girl she's the only one. We all use the same lines. You use the same lines, too. . . . What's missing with hockey — and basketball to some degree, but a lot in hockey — is there used to be sportsmanship. What's missing is sportsmanship. In hockey, which is a great sport, with great champions, you can actually hit a guy on the head, and the [official] on the ice is gonna watch while you're battling it out. And I understand it sells tickets, but I find it, I don't know, repelling. . . . I like cornball things. I like the flag being raised. I like a moment of silence. Used to happen in baseball games. I like that stuff because as an immigrant, America has given me everything that no other country on the face of the planet could ever give me. So you think that NASCAR celebrates that more than other sports? Yes, I think there's sort of innate middle-American values about it. . . . The point is that there's a tendency for the more well-read of the populace to think they're above certain things. Have you driven these cars? You know, they've gotten me into them, and you have to sort of scroll up like a sardine. They won't let me go around the track. They've got me insured for $10 million; the insurance guys would go out of their minds. |
     | ||||
|
 KISS Museum
News Archive
Features
Tour Dates
Photos
KISS ASYLUM © 1995-2008, all rights reserved. KISS ASYLUM is an unofficial, fan run KISS web site. KISS ASYLUM is optimized for 800x600 screen resolution or higher using Internet Explorer 6.0 and it is recommended that you have the Flash, Real Player, and Quicktime plug-ins to experience the rich audio and video media. Have KISS News to report? Email us at news@kissasylum.com | | ||||
| | | ||||
