KISS Our Asses... We Made You!
By: Rick Spataro

Ok, everybody, you're probably wondering why the title. Believe me, by the end of this little ditty, you'll understand EXACTLY why. It is beginning to become so painfully clear to me that the members of KISS, mainly Gene and Paul, have been lying to us, and/or, for that matter, keeping us from the knowledge of important band information.

Issue Number One for me concerns Ace's standing within the band. Now, as most of us may know by now, Ace has clearly stated that he wants to be out of the group soon. He directly stated so in his radio interview a few months back. He also mentioned how he does not care for the direction that the band is now headed in, which we can only attribute to being the fault of both Gene and Paul. My problem is this: why is it that both Gene and Paul have repeatedly dodged this question asked of them about Ace leaving the group? Also, why do they both sit there and lie to us, saying nothing has been decided yet? We fans are not stupid... we heard it from the man's mouth, ok? ACE IS GOING TO LEAVE! I myself don't care about Paul and Gene trying to save their fans from hearing the truth -- I think we DESERVE the truth! I think that it is so weak for them to sit there and hold back important info like that from us. We deserve to know what the state of KISS is right now.

My Second Issue is with Psycho Circus, the album AND tour. In terms of the album, which was pretty good, I was flabbergasted to hear later that both Ace and Peter barely played anything on it. In their interviews, both Paul and Gene led us all to believe that they did. The reason why Ace and Peter didn't play on it should have been revealed to us. We are the fans, we deserve to know the truth! If they're worried about losing fans due to the truth, well my God, they should worry more about the fans catching them in a big lie like that! I guess my anger is two-folded here: I'm angry at the lies that spewed (no pun intended Gene) out of Paul and Gene's mouths. I am also angry that Ace and Peter weren't brought in to play enough on Psycho Circus.

My problem with the tour is simple. I saw the tour in Pittsburgh last December. While being a good show, it had me thinking one major thing. Before the tour started, as you all know, all of the members of KISS stated how BIG and EXTRAORDINARY the 3-D effects were going to be. After seeing the show for myself, I couldn't believe it! The cheesiness was so much so that I didn't feel the need for the consumption of any cheese-food products for a month! The effects were nothing more than the band pushing their hands, guitars, sticks, tongues, asses, whatever toward the screen... THAT'S IT!! And it repeated itself over and over and over again. BIG FRIGGIN DEAL GUYS!! They said no other band has done it, and now I know why -- because other bands are smarter that that.

All I ask is for KISS to actually deliver the goods they say they will. If they can't, then they should tone down promotion of what they do. In other words, don't glamorize it so much. We fans are not stupid, and we feel let down after having our hopes built up, which only causes us to put more money into Gene's bank account without good reason.

My Third, and final issue is this: Why are both Gene and Paul doing outside things that are jeopardizing the band? Things like Phantom, movies, whatever make no sense to me. Guys, it didn't work before, so why the hell are you doing it again?? Gene, you yourself said in Exposed that you didn't know why you did all of that movie stuff in the 80s!

Don't get me wrong here folks. I am and will always be a fan of KISS. If I wasn't, I wouldn't have felt the need to write this article. I just feel that KISS needs to remain true to their words, and give the fans EXACTLY what they expect out of them -- nothing more. They should be kissing OUR collective asses for putting them where they are today.

One final note: Rock and wrestling only worked for Cindy Lauper guys, but it's not for you. Trust me on this one, ok? Let it go!

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