Little did we know back in January of 1997 when KISS Asylum brought you the first online interview with KISS 'N Tell author Gordon G. G. Gebert the controversy about his book that was soon to follow. Upon reading the revealing, behind the legend look at Ace Frehley, fans were divided, tempers flared, and death threats were made..... so naturally Gordon decided to write another book!
In an exclusive first look interview, Gordon tells KISS Asylum that KISS 'N Tell More, the follow up effort to his highly successful first book, not only covers all of the fall-out that resulted from the publication of KISS 'N Tell, but also brings to life and reveals many new facts and stories about Ace & KISS, including: Ace's "lost" recording studio; Gordon's face to face meeting with one of his stalkers in Sweden; "Poor Vinnie Vincent;" the possibility of KISS 'N Tell being made into a movie; Peter Criss stories -- and you thought Ace was the crazy one!; detailed information about KISS contracts; the ambush of Gene and Paul that never happened; and, of course, the "internuts."
And this time around Gordon has also prepared a multimedia "assualt" for everyone in the form of the KISS 'N Tell CD-ROM. Planned to go on sale shortly after the release of the book, Gordon reveals that it will feature photos, video, and never before released music. He also discusses in great detail his upcoming studio recording projects with his band Still Wicked, including: track titles and musicians for the EP "Something Wicked This Way Comes;" plans for the follow up full length LP; and he's even sent a .wav file sample of one of the EP tracks -- "She" -- as a sneak peak for KISS Asylum visitors! All that and more is covered in KISS Asylum's comprehensive interview with KISS 'N Tell More author Gordon G. G. (the story of the two G's is revealed in the interview) Gebert.
KA: First let us thank you for taking the time to do this interview.
Sure, shoot away!
KA: Okay, just in case there is anybody on the planet who does not know who you are and what your connection with KISS is, we were wondering if you could do a brief overview of who you are, how you know them, and how you came to be writing these books in the first place.
Well, as you know, I did KISS 'N TELL , and everybody confuses it with the other book. I don't mention the title 'cause I don't want to give them free publicity. People confuse the two books, but my book is more the inside story of my relationship with Ace. We were best friends for like ten years and Bob McAdams, my co-author, was friends with Ace since they were teenagers, before KISS. He grew up with Ace in the Bronx. Basically it's a frustration book. It's a book about frustration with a friend that kind of turned on me. I always explain to everybody in the beginning of an interview that I hate people that write "tell all" books. I really do. I despise Kitty Kelly and those people, I always wonder why would they ever want to rat out people and write crappy things about people and write tell all books about people. But my reason was because Ace pointed fingers publicly at me and said I stole money, I embezzled money. He made me a scapegoat to all his fans for all his problems with Rock Soldiers. That was so far from the truth. It was very frustrating and I was very surprised because we were so close. We were very, very tight as friends and we were best friends. People accuse me of throwing around that term "best friends," but we were. I mean we spoke to each other everyday, we hung out, confided in each other, and there are a lot of things I did not use. I used discretion in my book and people don't realize that.
KA: They don't realize how bad it could've been if you were really just trying to "hurt" Ace.
Ace knows it too, he knows I used discretion. And a lot of people on the inside know I used discretion, even though it looks like a horrible book to a lot of fans because they really they don't know what happens on the inside, no matter what they think they know. I mean friends.... you and Chris are getting married, right?
KA: Right.
Right. So there are funny things, inside things, that only you two know that goes on with your lives though people have an image of what you two guys are about, and it's that way about KISS also. Everybody has this image of KISS and I kind of exploded the myth of the image of KISS. They are human beings.... sometimes they're sub-human beings! (Laughs)
KA: And there's a difference when you've been put on the defensive and you're just exercising a chance to tell your side of the story. It's not like you're a Kitty Kelly who wasn't even there. You're telling your story and if just so happens that some of the people that you were around were famous people well so be it, it's still your life.
Exactly. I saw Gene complaining in Metal Edge Magazine and I know he wasn't referring to me. I know who he was referring to, but he said he doesn't want people telling their story, the KISS story, and profiting from it. I know he was talking about, another book. He wasn't referring to me because my story and Bob's are our stories, and it just happens to be about our relationship with KISS. It's our first hand experience and we didn't make up any. There's only one second hand story in KISS 'N TELL and that was told to me by many people, and then after the book came out other people came to me and said, "That story's true." I would never make up a story and put it in the book. So everything that I say happened was first hand by me and everything Bob says is first hand by him. So Bob has to stand by his stories, but I stand by mine.
KA: Okay, so you wrote the first book, it was published, and you got what can mildly be termed an "interesting" reaction from a lot people. (Laughs)
(Laughs) The reaction was incredible! I never realized how big of a stink it would cause. You saw the reaction the Internet. I've seen the reaction overall and it's completely different from what the Internet was all about. I was worried myself when I did KISS conventions. When the book first came out, on the Internet there were basically two people on there that really didn't like my book, and they caused such a stink about it that I wanted to send them a bottle of scotch, I wanted to send them roses! At the time it was happening I was getting pissed off because they were making up things about me that were really just trying to discredit me and discredit the book, but they kind of eventually discredited themselves. I always say the truth always comes out, the truth always prevails. I said it for a long time, the truth will prevail, and it kind of did. And hopefully a lot of people eventually saw where I was coming from, where I was going. I wasn't out to destroy anybody. I was just telling my side of the story, and trying to tell it in an entertaining way.
The big deal with the book KISS 'N TELL was the strong reaction, which
was the best compliment to me. People had strong emotions about it,
which was the best thing that could happen when you write a book. If I
wrote a book and people thought it was "ho hum" and threw it to the side
I'd be concerned. No, everybody that's read it either said, "When I
picked up the book, I couldn't put it down," or I got death threats in
the mail! And that's gonna be printed in the next book. The amount of
E-mail and letters I got...... people had such strong emotions about the
book, good or bad, and it was the best compliment to me in the world. I
mean, why write a book and have people yawn at it? All the bad mouthing
and the people that were very negative about it were very vocal about it
on the Internet, but when I did the KISS conventions, so many people
came up to me and shook my hand and said that was a great book, told me
they loved the book. It was big confidence builder in me. I was really
worried that I really offended all these KISS fans and I felt bad, I had
mixed emotions about it. So that wasn't my goal, offending all these
KISS fans, it was just a book to entertain and to defend my good name
and my good honor. I know what kind of person I am, and Ace knows what
kind of person I am, and for him to do that was totally wrong. And you
know what, two wrongs don't make a right either, me putting the book
out. I did have mixed emotions about putting the book out, but I had to
do what I had to do.
KA: You had to clear your name.
Yeah. I didn't want anymore KISS fans pointing fingers at me, "You're the one who stole from Rock Soldiers!" and Ace said this, Ace said that. You know, so many people look at a celebrity and take their word as gospel truth, like more than an ordinary person. I think it's so wrong. People have their values in the wrong place. But the response on the book, it's been incredible. It's a successful book, and to come out with a book and then have it be such a huge success, it's great. I love it.
KA: Cool. So you put the book out, you get this huge response, and you think, "Whew, I lived through that." So what made you think, "Yeah, let's do it all over again."?
Man, I didn't want to do another book. I really didn't. I'm not a writer. I say it and I say it again, I'm not a writer or an author. That title is for people like Steven King, he's an author. All I do is put my words on paper how I speak, how I communicate, and I tried to do it in layman's terms and it came across. It communicated and came across and people dug it. The biggest compliment, like I said before, was people picked up the book and said they couldn't put it down. That was one of the biggest compliments I got. So the publisher came back to me, they knew all the material I had when I gave them the original manuscript because they cut like half of it out, and said listen, we'd love to have a sequel. Your book is so successful, you gotta have a sequel. And I said you know what, sequels always suck! (Laughs) They do, they never ever are better than the first thing that comes out.
But the publisher thought we should ride the wave, that's what they're telling me. Ride the wave of success. I said listen, the only way I'm going to put out a sequel is if it's just as good as the first book, because it's a lotta work! I went to Bob and Bob said, "No way! I'm not doing this again." It really takes a lot out of you. It's very time consuming. The way my book is written everyone thinks it was easy since it reads easy, but it's not an easy thing to put together. So through about two or three months of me going back and forth with the publisher, they said come on you gotta do it, you gotta do it. They convinced me to do it. Plus, public reaction. I was getting a lot of letters from people saying, "You gotta tell more, you gotta!" hence the title. I think all the people that read the book named my second book.
KA: "Tell me more."
That's it. Tell me more. So I got a lot of good stuff that was left over that was cut out of the first book. But to tell you what, KISS 'N TELL MORE is a little more about fan reaction than the first book because I feel it was so interesting in itself.
KA: Right. So why don't you tell us a bit about KISS 'N TELL MORE.
You know what? I could give you all the chapter titles.
KA: That'd be great!
And nobody has it, you're the first one to get it. They might have even been changed slightly 'cause the manuscript's in and being printed and they didn't even send me the blues. I was in Europe when they edited it. I trusted the publishing company. I have all the trust in the world in them 'cause they were really good to me in the first book. I had so many offers -- I had three deals. And KISS 'N TELL MORE explains my deal, I went into the details. Three major book publishers wanted that [first] book to put out and I refused them. I won't name the companies, but they were giving me $50,000 advances, me and Bob, for the manuscript. But they were giving us really shitty deals on royalties and stuff.
KA: The front end looked good but on the back end you were gonna get screwed.
We were gonna get screwed. In other words, they were buying our book for $50,000 and that was it. Bob wanted to take it and I said, "Bob, believe me. I believe in this book and it's gonna be worth more. When you see this book really sell, you're gonna be kicking yourself in the ass because we're just gonna get $50,000.00 and we could get a lot more." At Pitbull I got a great deal with it and they let me put it in my words. When I submitted the manuscript to all the major publishing companies they were editing the manuscript and sending it back and when I read it I thought, this is not my words. They were making it Hollywood, putting such bullshit in it. I said I want everything to be truthful, in my words, and I don't care how blunt and unprofessional it sounds. I want my words to come across, not some Hollywood guy puffing up all the stories. I mean it's unbelievable as it is! So it's my words, my story, even if there are like grammatical errors or it's not the greatest way to communicate. But that's who I am and that's that. So I told the major publishers, I turned my nose up at them and said no, I'll go with this small company. And that was the best decision I ever made. Really good decision.
| KISS N TELL MORE -- Chapter Outline (Revised 7/22/98) |
| Chapter 1: The Internuts: www.fuck-you.com Motherfuckers (Part I) Chapter 2: On the Radio Chapter 3: Poor Vinnie Vincent Chapter 4: Kiss Kontracts and Konfidential Info Chapter 5: Salvador Frehley Chapter 6: Stacy E. Walker Chapter 7: Nine Lives Chapter 8: Ace's World Chapter 9: Big Tongue, Big Mouth Chapter 10: KISS-Gate: The Cover Up? Chapter 11: Balderdash Chapter 12: The Internuts: www.fuck-you.com Motherfuckers (Part II) Chapter 13: The Photo Gallery Chapter 14: The Wicked Lester Days Chapter 15: Star-Dum Chapter 16: My Name is Eugene Chapter 17: Mind Over Metal Chapter 18: Heroes Chapter 19: Letters, Letters, More Letters Chapter 20: My Last Dennis Leary Tirade |
|
(Laughs) Yeah, as far as I know. I have to get back to Pitbull. They might have done a minor change on one or two chapter titles, but not much I'm sure. First there's an Introduction, the Foreword, and some Press Reviews from the last book, then you go into the actual chapters. Here they are. You're gonna love this first chapter:
Chapter One -- The Internuts. And it's subtitled, "Chapter One ‚ The Internuts: www.fuck-you.com Motherfuckers (Part I). That's the name of the first chapter.
Chapter Two ‚ On the Radio. That chapter's about all my radio interviews from the first book. I did over 100 interviews for it and they were really cool. I did one with Ted Nugent in Detroit and he had some great stories about KISS. So in that chapter I have like 50 pages of radio interviews transcribed. There's even stuff that Paul Stanley says about my book, his comments in Detroit about KISS and Tell. That's a cool chapter and if anybody doesn't like it, fuck 'em, I like it.
Chapter Three -- Poor Vinnie Vincent. (Laughs)
KA: (Laughs) If you thought you had problems after the first book, just wait! You're gonna have a whole new bunch of people hate you after this one, and those guys are scary.
(Laughs) Yeah, the Vinnie Vincent people..... oh boy they're gonna love that. And they're gonna say, "How the hell would you know?! You never even met Vinnie Vincent!" Well there's a little correlation. Vinnie gets bashed to Hell on the Internet, and I see that. He gets trashed and trashed and trashed. A lot of people did that to me on the Internet too, and so I have a little sympathy for the guy.
Chapter Four -- Kiss Kontracts and Konfidential Info. That's a real cool chapter that kind of sticks it up the guy's ass who wrote the other book because he never went into real detail about the contracts. I have royalty contracts and others, and more of Ace's bankruptcy papers. His assets are listed, what he owns is listed on paper. Some of it's kind of boring, I admit. But I name his royalty contracts in there too, how much Ace makes in royalties. The actual papers are printed in the book. So it's really cool inside, inside stuff that's never been released before.
KA: Cool.
Chapter Five -- Salvador Frehley. It's about Ace's endeavors with his art and the graphics and stuff like that. I got photos of his artwork in there and really funny stories of Ace' endeavors in the art world. So I'll just leave it at that.
KA: If it's anything like that story in the first book about him "creating" T-shirts and ball caps with a Sharpie marker, I'm gonna fall on the floor. That I think more than anything else stuck with me from the first one. The image I got in my head when I read that was hilarious.
The image is! I have it directly implanted in my head and it is funny, believe me. And I always remember what I said to Ace, I said, "I can't really picture Jimmy Page doing this." It was funny, there he was ironing his transfer onto t-shirts, signing hats.... I mean it was like an hour before show time. It was ridiculous! You never know with Ace.
Chapter Six -- Stacy E. Walker. Stacy Walker was a secretary for KISS. I originally wanted to get an interview with her, and she agreed to an interview, but it never got done in time for the book. So we just stuck her photos in there. I just put it in the book and called it "Babe Break." It's a break for the guys to check out a hot babe. You gotta put hot babe pictures in the book, so it was just a courtesy thing from Uncle Gordon to all the guys...... and maybe some of the lesbians out there. And all the understanding wives and girlfriends. So there's a little babe break in the middle with Stacy and I had to thank her for sending really cool photos to be printed in the book.
Chapter Seven -- Nine Lives.
KA: More detail on Peter Criss there I guess.
Yep. There are some stories that you won't believe. I thought Ace was crazy, Peter is the crazy one and luckily I never had to deal with him on a social level. Lydia kept me informed about when Peter came into town with his band and this and that. He wasn't the nicest guy to me. There was another guy, who remained anonymous in this chapter, that gave me some great stories about Peter and I know they're true because I confirmed them with numerous people. Like I said, it goes to who the source is. If I don't believe the source, I don't put it in there.
KA: Well, I think the bottom line is that people who are gonna have problems with it wouldn't believe you even if the source was named. It's not gonna make any difference to those types.
Right. The only difference it makes is for the source, the repercussions from the people involved in the story to the source. And that's why they remained anonymous on it, they don't want any repercussions from the people and that's what it comes down to. So the people that don't believe the story can go fuck themselves.
KA: (Laughs) I think the first chapter is gonna be end up being very prophetic about the rest of the book -- www.fuck-you.com Motherfuckers.
Yeah! (Laughs) I won't comment beyond that, but when you read the book you'll love it. It's gonna cause a lot of talk on the Internet.
KA: Yeah, and like you said, what's the point of writing a book if everyone ignores it? Rather have a little controversy and be hated then be ignored, right?
Exactly, though I don't like being literally hated, so I am misunderstood. And that's why I say on the Internet to people, "You don't know me" and then people come back with these wise ass remarks like, "I don't want to know you." Well if you feel that way then that's the way it should be. If you don't want to know me then, keep your comments to yourself about me personally. You can say whatever you want about the book. I have no problem with people hating the book. I kinda feel sorry that I did that to them and there I do feel a little guilt.
KA: On the other hand though, maybe someone who is that blindly putting someone they don't even know up on a pedestal just because they play a guitar well needs to have their eyes opened.
Yeah, true. Sometimes though it is like telling a little kid there is no Santa Clause and there is a little guilt involved in that. But we are dealing with grown ups, that's the way I think of it. And like I said, if they can't handle me telling them there is no Santa Clause -- I don't want to be the bad guy, but it's an honest, inside look. And ya know what, I didn't come to your house and twist your arm to read it.
Chapter Eight -- Ace's World. Ace's World is a cool chapter that was cut
out of the first book. That was actually the name of a studio that Ace
wanted to open up. He wanted to open it up in New York and he wanted me
to be the manager of the studio, go in halves with him. It was a whole
big concoction of trying to open up a commercial studio and put Ace's
name on there and call it Ace's World. He had this whole dream. There's
old sketches that I had of it in the book. He made all these plans and
everything and then Ace's World never came to be, obviously, and that
chapter is in the book. I think it's kinda interesting.
Chapter Nine -- Big Tongue, Big Mouth. (Laughs) So that explains who that chapter is about.
KA: (Laughs) Should be very interesting. Hey, KISS are just human too right? They screw up just like everyone else -- sometimes worse -- 'cause, the bigger you are the harder you fall right?
Exactly. And you know what? The more money you have the more problems you have. They have real life problems everyday and they have their relationships, and sometimes people don't realize they can be even MORE immature than you realize. I grew up idolizing bands, like Emerson, Lake and Palmer. I met my idols and they could have burst my bubble. In fact I have gotten a little disappointed in some of the people I've met, the bass player from YES, Chris Squire, for example. I hung out with him at the China Club and I couldn't believe how immature this guy was! I thought growing up what a genius bass player this guy was, phenomenal musician! Then I meet the guy and he's this child! He's immature. All he wants to do, seriously, is drink and screw women and live this weird life and I thought he'd be beyond that. I thought he was an "artiste" you know? He wasn't an artiste, he was an immature overgrown kid who knows how to play a bass. So he kind of burst my illusions about him a little bit. Some people just handle it more maturely, and I like well rounded musicians, musicians who have a life beyond the music. I like guys who aren't into drugs, who have a life beyond music, and who use that life beyond music as an influence to make the music. Anyway, we may be getting to philosophical here! (laughs)
KA: (laughs) Ok, then back to "Big Tongue, Big Mouth." Is this relating actual stories about Gene, things he's said in the press, what?
Things he's said in the press and on the Internet, and his feelings about people on the Internet, which I agree with a little bit too. I don't know if you guys have seen that Saturday Night Live with William Shatner, the guy from Star Trek, where they did a spoof of him at a convention. That is the most hysterical thing I've ever seen! He comes out and is telling these people things like, "Get a life!"
KA: "Move out of your parents' basement!"
Yes! I paralleled that story to what Gene did on the Internet, because Gene basically did on the Internet, in real life, what William Shatner did as a spoof on SNL. And Gene got Hell for it, he alienated a lot of fans on the Internet. But I think he did have some good points -- get a life and get off that fucking computer! There is something beyond it. But I guess I shouldn't be saying that to web people reading this interview! (Laughs)
KA: (laughs)
Chapter Ten -- KISS Gate: The Cover Up? It's a very short chapter, but it's all about Eric Carr because I did know him. It doesn't give answers, it asks questions.
Chapter Eleven -- Balderdash. Cute chapter. It was cut out of the first book, and ya know what? Fans might say, "That chapter sucks, it's so boring." Well it's about all the good times with Ace. It's about us playing stick ball and us playing a game called Balderdash. My brother still had the answers that Ace wrote stuck away in the game. It was really weird. My brother calls me up and says, "Remember that day we played Balderdash with Ace? Well I've got the little slips that he made, the answers." So I reprinted them in the book. So fans will probably give me shit and say "Ya know what? That was really boring." And I'll say, "Exactly!" to all those people that asked, "Why couldn't you say good things about him?" Those stories just are not as exciting. But it's very inside stuff and personal stuff, so it is cool.
Chapter Twelve -- The Internuts: www.fuck-you.com Motherfuckers (Part II). (Laughs) My favorite chapter. It's not going to be as interesting to people that aren't on the Internet, but it will be very interesting to all the people that were involved with all the fighting that went down on the Internet. It's going to be all letters and things that went down, and I'll just leave it at that. It's going to be very interesting.
KA: Have names been changed to protect the guilty?
Oh yes. The names have been changed to not give anybody any undue fame. And that is the only reason for it because if it were simply a matter of possible lawsuits, you know me, I don't give a fuck, I would have put their names in there anyway. But I don't want to give them any undue notoriety so that is why I changed the names.
KA: People who need to know who they were will already know, and to other people it won't matter.
Right. Exactly.
Chapter Thirteen -- Wicked Lester. One of the guest writers in the book is here, Ron Leejack
KA: Great
Yeah, and Ron gives us an inside view of what went down in the very beginning with Gene and Paul.
Chapter Fourteen -- Star-Dum. That is another guest writer, this guy
named Frank D'Aimco. Frank D'Aimco is a movie actor. He was in a movie
called "Back to Back" and he works with Will Smith right now. He is 6'5"
400+ pounds and used to be a Teamster. He used to own a comedy club that
Ace used to frequent all the time. He put in his little stories about
Ace coming to his comedy club.
Chapter Fifteen -- My Name is Eugene. And that is another guest writer, Joe Renda. That is my favorite chapter in the whole book when it comes to stories. Joe Renda has just as funny stories as Bob McAdams did, and he is just hilarious. He discovered the Jerky Boys. He is just a funny, funny guy. He can't even remember all the crazy episodes. I said, "Joe, you could write your own book!" And he should, but he says he wishes he had the time to do it. He's down in Florida, semi-retired. He has some funny, funny stories.
Chapter Sixteen -- Mind Over Metal. It's another guest star, a guy named Tom Denardo. This was originally an article he did in one of those rock magazines here in New York about this guy Bill Baker and his experiences with Ace and how they paralleled with mine. It is a very interesting chapter.
Chapter Seventeen -- Heroes. Interesting chapter..... I will leave it at that.
Chapter Eighteen -- My Last Dennis Leary Tirade. (Everyone Laughs)
Chapter Nineteen -- Letters, Letters, More Letters. There are letters that are sprinkled out throughout the book, and at the very end I just throw all the remaining letters in at the end of the book 'cause I think letters are interesting. I like reading them and I am sure readers like reading them. Some people identify with some letters and some people argue with other letters.
So that's KISS 'N TELL MORE. I am very excited, I can't wait for it to come out. The first book hasn't even run its course yet either, so the publisher, Pitbull, is very excited 'cause they want to do a lot of promotion. They didn't do much commercial advertising for KISS 'N TELL and it sold so well. It was word of mouth from KISS fans. And the distributors are amazed at the sales from just me doing radio interviews, that is all I did. And now they are going to do full page ads in Metal Edge magazine and they are going to follow the KISS tour and do some advertising as KISS hits each city.
KA: That is smart.
Yeah, Pitbull will be advertising the book in each city.
KA: That is really smart. Right next to the little ad about "Buy your KISS concert tickets" there'll be, "And don't forget to pick up your book too!"
Yep! There ya go. I am excited about that, and hopefully the book will get out there to more people. The book, to me, has proven itself -- I have a hit book on my hands. I know it, but not every KISS fan knows it. And I think every rock and roll fan should buy the book. I think it is a real life Spinal Tap type of book. If you're a KISS fan you definitely have to read the book, but even if you're just a rock fan in general I say get the book too. You got to read it, it is really cool.
KA: What is the release date as of now?
It has been changing. See, me being the writer I want it out now. I don't care what they do. But Pitbull says there's always strategy about putting a book out. And first they gave a May/June release. I didn't even have the book finished in May, but that was my fault because I didn't want to write another book to be honest. And then I had to go to Europe for a month, so I sent my final edits to Pitbull, and while I was in Europe they did the rest of the editing and I just trusted them. They said it has gone to the printer and it's done. I have to find out from Pitbull about an exact date. I don't want to say anything when I don't know exactly what is going on. When I find out I will let you guys know. But I love all this stink over my book, it's great! People can't wait to read it, which is a huge compliment. And hopefully people understand me a little more now. I still get the angry attitudes and stuff.
I have a cool story from Holland when I was doing the European KISS convention tour. Everybody was really receptive of me. The first city I hit was Helsingborg, Sweden. First I flew to Germany, took the train to Homburg, and met up with a guy named Alex and his girlfriend J.J., who were great, great people. They took care of me, they picked me up in Homburg at the train station and we drove to the ferry in Denmark, then ended up in Sweden. It took like a whole two day trip for me to get to Sweden! And when I got to the convention people kept coming up to me saying, "I got your book! I can't believe you're here in Sweden!" They didn't advertise me as being on the convention tour you see, so people were surprised. And they kept coming up to me, "I loved your book. When's the second one coming out?" And here I am in Sweden and people are talking about my book! I thought I was going to be over there trying to explain to people about my book and here they knew it already, and most of them had read it already! That was a big, huge compliment.
But I ended up in Holland mid-way through the convention tour, and before the convention there started on of the security guys came up to me and said, "You know there's a guy here from Belgium who says he wants to kill you and he's being pretty vocal about it." I told him, "Don't listen to that crap, it's just somebody spouting off. I've had death threats before." But the guy told me, "No, I think this is serious. I don't think you should do the convention." So I told him, "What, you think this is gonna be like Kennedy? He's gonna shoot me from the grassy knoll or something?" Look, if he wants to do that, fine. My life will be over, and he'll ruin his life over a band he doesn't even fucking know. It's stupidity on his part and I hope he's not stupid enough to ruin my life, his and the guys in KISS 'cause I'm sure they don't want something like that associated with the band.... no matter how bad their feelings may or may not be about a particular book. Even Ace blabs out the mouth that he wants to kill me, but it's just metaphorically speaking & expressing yourself, people venting. If Ace really wanted to kill me I'd be dead by now, there wouldn't be a second book. Ace understands, believe me. But I said, "I'm doing the fucking convention. I didn't come all the way to Europe to be scared. I'm not scared. I can take care of myself."
So, I'm doing the convention and they asked me to do a Q&A, which wasn't
scheduled. I said cool, I went up on stage and this guy Rick, great guy
who speaks four languages, interviewed me and did the Q&A. During this
I hear a guy yelling in the back, "You suck! You fucker! You exploded
the KISS myth! You ruined it, you ruined our idols!" The guy was really
heckling me bad. So I said, "Bring that guy up, bring him forward."
And Rick was looking at me like, "You sure you want to do that?!" I
said, "Yes! Those are the people I want to talk to. I don't care about
people who agree with me, I want to talk to those people who disagree
with me so I can discuss it with them. Just so I can enlighten them a
little more to my point of view, even if they still don't agree with me
when it's over." So then I explained, on stage, that's why I'm here in
Europe. I wrote a book that's not the most popular book about KISS - I
didn't kiss ass. But I'm doing KISS conventions, I'm not hiding. I am
presenting myself, and you can ask me anything you want 'cause I stand
by what I said in the book.
So they brought the guy forward, and he spoke pretty good English. He started again with, "You ruined the KISS image." So I asked him what the KISS image was to him and he said, "It was a band, a dream. You ruined the KISS dream." I pointed out that mine was just one book out of many books. Then he said my book was full of lies. I said well if you have a problem with it I don't think you really believe my book is full of lies or you wouldn't have a problem with it. If you thought it was full of lies you wouldn't be upset because you'd "know" it wasn't true. And people were kinda applauding, so then I asked him if he believed everything he had read in KISStory and people started cheering. And I was thinking, "Wow." I was trying to watch my mouth you know, I don't want to say bad things at a KISS convention I just want to talk things out with people. But people were cheering so I though, "Alright." So I talked with this guy for about 20 minutes from the stage, I gave him a microphone and everything. Turns out, he was the guy who wanted to kill me! At the end of the Q&A I went back to where I was selling books. I didn't know who the guy was, but he came over to me, shook my hand for spending all that time talking to him, bought one of the books, had me sign it to him, took pictures with me, and now he sends me E-mail! That was an incredible accomplishment on my part. It's not that I'm trying to "make" people fans of mine, but I want to communicate my side of the story so people believe a little more that I'm a human being also. Just because someone is your idol and a rock star, you know what? Rock stars fuck up too.
Sometimes people ask me the question, "Did you write the book to make money?" Now, do I have to be an asshole to say no I didn't?!?! Bullshit!! I wrote the book to make fucking money! Of course, and you can accuse me of that as much as you want! It just happen to get put out at an opportune time, everything just fell in to place for me which was just great. I started writing the book before any thought of a KISS Reunion. I wasn't privy to inside information anymore. Once I fought with Ace and that was it, I had no contacts. So I started writing and venting and it just happened to happen that way. Then all of a sudden my book came out and then there is a couple of other books that came out and I was like, "Oh shit, everybody's jumping on the bandwagon." But I had just cause for my book. I think my book really connects with people, good or bad.
KA: Do you know some stores that will be carrying the books?
Definitely Barnes N' Noble. And on the Internet, Barnes N' Noble, Amazon.com, and you can buy it from my website, http://www.nowopen.com/kiss. You can also get it from the publisher. The first 500 books will be personally signed from me, not that it is a big deal. People think I am full of myself, but when I was doing the KISS Conventions I was so flattered that people wanted me to sign their books. I don't think of myself as any kinda of author/celebrity. I don't think that way. I happen to have a book out and everything is just gravy and for people to look at it that way it's a big compliment. I do get a kick out of it, but I don't think of it in those "celebrity" terms. I get Hell from people that don't like me, "Oh look at this fucking guy who thinks he is some kinda star signing books or something." But ya know what? I would like a book signed if it was a comic book. It's just great to have the guy who did it, sign it. So there will be books that will be signed if they get it directly from the website as well. The webpage is located at http://www.nowopen.com/kiss. A lot of people pre-ordered the book, and though the release date has been moved back I do want to reassure the people that pre-ordered the book that they are getting their books so don't worry. The moment the book comes out they will be the first ones to get it.
KA: Very cool. Why don't you tell everyone about the CD-ROM coming out ‚ is it something they will be able to get with the book or do they have to buy it separate?
They will have to get it separate. It was a packaging problem with that because it's two different manufacturing entities, one with the book, one with the CDs and it just didn't work out. They would have to jack up the price of the book to cover for the CD a little bit and I thought that people would not want to spend $39.95 for the book, so the CD is separate. The CD-ROM has got some really cool stuff on it. Shipping is supposed to start in August. I am looking forward to the CD-ROM coming out because there's going to be some really cool stuff on there.
KA: What kind of things can people look forward to on the CD-ROM?
There will be video, music and a lot of photos -- a lot of photos from both books, but in color and not cropped; full color photos of what went in the book. But the most interesting thing to me will be the music on the CD-ROM. Everyone will be looking forward to this, there is a cut on there, never ever released, that I did with Ace which was the "Rocker Room" theme. I talked about in before the book. We did a theme song for a TV show and it's going to be released on the CD-ROM
KA: Cool
It's going to be on as a .wav file, and as an actual audio part which you can play on your CD player.
KA: What kind of show was "Rocker Room?"
It was a rock interview/TV cable show that was all over the Tri-stare area and was pretty well known. I was the band leader on the show and I came up with the theme song. I originally recorded and wrote it with this guy Mike Kakos, and then as the show progressed and got bigger I asked Ace if he wanted to re-record the song with me and Ace put a kick-ass lead on it. He did a tremendous job on it. It is very short, only a 30 second clip, but it's new music Ace kicked ass on. It's something never ever released before and I think right there the CD is worth it, but there is so much more on it.
KA: Excellent! What kind of video is going to be on it?
Very confidential video. People are going to think it's a Pamela Lee thing -- it's not. Get their minds out of the gutter. (Laughs) I could do it but I won't. That's the discretion I chose. But it's more of the business side of Ace and it will be a surprise to all.
KA: Where will people be able to find the CD ROM?
You can get it from the website, http://www.nowopen.com/kiss. That's their best bet to get it.
KA: Great. How about the Sill Wicked music CDs -- there are going to be 2 versions, an EP and an LP right?
Yes. There is an EP coming out with bonus tracks. Joe Lynn Turner was going to do the vocals on "She," but Joe had to go to Japan so it is running tight. I want to get the CD finished before the July 25th Detroit Convention and at least have that since I'm not sure I will have the new book ready for that convention.
KA: Where will people be able to get the CD?
They can get it on the Internet at the http://www.nowopen.com/kiss site, and then it will be available in stores hopefully sometime in October.
| One minute sample of Still Wicked's version of "SHE." |
| Click Here To Listen! |
| Producers: Michael Sciotto and Gordon G.G. Gebert Guitar and Lead Vocal: Ron Leejack Guitar: Nick Moroch Bass: Danny Cheng Keyboards: Gordon G.G. Gebert Drums: Michael Sciotto |
 Click To View Larger Image |
KA: What are the song titles for the EP?
"She" is definitely on there. There is another song called "Cajun Rain" that Ron wrote and it's a really cool song. I don't know if KISS fans will like it. It's like Led Zeppelin fans, when Zeppelin isn't playing rock they do this really weird off the wall type of things and that's what "Cajun Rain" is like. There is an 80's tribute song called "Bodies Talking," and MaryAnn Scandiffio did guest vocals on it. She is a kick ass singer who was involved with Bang Gang and all the band projects I did in the early 90's with Ace producing and stuff like that. And I'm still trying to work out getting some of that material, the stuff where Ace did background vocals and produced it, as bonus tracks on the CD. I'm still trying to get the ok from everybody on that. Three tracks, the fourth is not titled yet. And then bonus tracks too 'cause I want to give everybody the most for their money on the EP. I'm crossing my fingers, I hope people like it.
KA: As far as the full length Still Wicked project goes, is that going to have a different title than the EP?
The EP is "Still Wicked -- Something Wicked This Way Comes." I don't know yet if we're going to keep that name for the full length CD. The guy who did the Still Wicked cover is the same guy who designed the KISS 'N TELL covers, a great artist! The EP is just to give people a taste of it. We're not going to overprice the Hell out of it 'cause we're not trying to make a killing. It's more just to introduce the music so people can decide if they want to buy the album or not. Hopefully I gained some fans through my books -- the ones I didn't alienate! -- who will be interested in checking out my music now too.
And the ones I did alienate, I have mixed emotions about. In a way I don't care 'cause it's their problem.... as long as they don't try and make it my problem. But like I said before, I'm not out to hurt people and be malicious, despite what some people might think. Some people think I was like that about the first book, but I'll say it and say it again, that book was written in defense. It was not a malicious, unprovoked attack on Ace like some people say it was. And Ace could own up to some things, but he won't even comment on the book. I mean I've heard comments indirectly, but publicly he won't comment on the book because you know what, the truth hurts.
KA: Well the thing that speaks volumes to me is that there has been no legal action. True OR false, if he was that upset/cared/whatever about it you'd have expected legal action a long time ago!
Exactly. It was funny, on the Internet when the book first came out some fans were saying things like, "I can't wait til you get your ass sued off!" And then Lydia Criss wanted to sue me, she was like freaking out. Lydia wanted to start a coalition against me, this big coalition to sue me! Every time she'd talk to someone I mentioned in the book they'd say, "You know he said really bad things about you in the book." And then they'd call me up and say Lydia was freaking out trying to get this coalition to sue me. I think Lydia just lost her sense of humor. Some people don't know how to handle it, and Lydia could have used it to her advantage.
And as an attorney you can see how things went down. I took a bad situation, not of my creating, and used it to my advantage. And that's how I am with my life. With Ace's career that's what I was doing when I was working with the guy! We were taking bad situations, taking a lemon and making lemonade, all the time working miracles with the guy 'cause the guy's not the easiest guy in the world to work with. He's not the most cooperate, he's not the most understanding, he's got the ego/star thing going, he's lazy and doesn't want to work. He wants the stardom without working, and then you have to try and work with a guy like that; it's a difficult thing. Yeah, it speaks volumes I haven't been sued. But even if he did want to sue me, so what? Anyone can sue anyone, it's a matter of winning! If he sued me he'd have to prove the book wasn't true, and he can't because it is and I stand by it. And I stand by the second book also. And the second book is really funny because it includes all the repercussions form the first book!
KA: That alone would have been a book in itself that people would have been interested in, strictly a repercussion/follow-up type thing. But with KISS 'N TELL MORE they're going to get the best of both worlds because they'll get that and new stuff.
And new stuff, right. There's a lot more in this book, KISS 'N TELL MORE, it's much bigger than the first book. They're beefy chapters, like 40 page chapters. The KISS contracts alone, right there that was a big chapter, with all the documents reprinted. It's pretty cool. And Pitbull was concerned that I was giving too much, they were thinking of a volume three! I said that's too much! I told them out-and-out that this was the last book I was doing 'cause it's real hard work and I'm not a writer, I'm not an author. I said I'm not doing a third book..... now watch me end up swallowing those words! (Laughs)
KA: (Laughs) As far as the full length Still Wicked project goes, do
you have any idea about the number of tracks, track titles, or musicians
at this point?
Well, we're going to have a lot of guest musicians on there, and that was one of the differences of opinion with Ron and I. Believe it or not I still have friends in the music industry, despite what other people say or think, and they are more than willing to be involved in any project I do because they know what kind of person I am. When I do something, I do all I can to make it successful, I don't talk out my ass. I'm a doer not a dreamer. Beyond that, I do have a great concept for the Still Wicked album, but I don't want to jinx myself since it's not done. I'm hesitant to talk about projects that aren't finished. The cuts that are on the EP might not even end up on the full length album, the only cut definitely going on there is "She." But I do have a concept for the album, I just don't want to talk about it yet 'cause I don't want it stolen, and also to keep some surprise. I think a lot of KISS fans will be surprised about the project, but I'm still lining up all the guests.
KA: Who are the musicians on the EP?
Myself, Gordon G. G. Gebert on keyboards. Interesting, everyone thinks that "G.G." is like a pseudonym or something, but its actually my two middle names. My name has four G's as initials and people get confused. You know the first middle name is when you're born, and the second middle name is your confirmation name. My original name when I was born was Gordon Gerald Gebert. So when it came to confirmation time and choosing a name, I stuck with a name with a G. So now I'm Gordon Gerald Giles Gebert.
KA: That's a mouthful! (Laughs)
(Laughs) Yeah. But my partner in the Still Wicked project, and he is a partner, is Mike Sciotto. I grew up with the guy. He's worked on this project with me, is really enthusiastic, and is a great professional drummer! He's played with Mark Wood, who is like a progressive violinist from Canada, and he also played on the last Ray Gillan project, "Sun Red Sun." And our other drummer was Bobby Rondonelli. Nice guy, really cool guy. And we got this guy Nicky Moroch who played lead guitar. He's phenomenal!! He gets hired so much. Some much of what you hear on the radio is Nicky Moroch, he works every single day. He's like the best kept secret of studio musicians. He works with a lot of stars like Vanessa Williams, Lionel Richie, the guy's got like 100 gold albums on his wall! Then we got Danny Cheng on bass. Great bass player. Mike Sciotto and I produced, which is where I did the most work. There are some keys, but it's mostly guitar oriented stuff.
As far as the book goes, I want to thank my brother, this guy Billy Rooney, and Paul Hichak. Those guys just hung around and made the book even funnier. It's not all me and I got to give those guys credit where due. Those three guys helped me tremendously with the book, and with the second book also, KISS 'N TELL MORE. They helped make it funny. You know I even got movie offers for the first book!
KA: Really?
Yeah! There's a guy in Miami who contacted me, he's friends with Doc McGee, and he's been in touch with me. He's doing a movie coming out called "Liberty City." It's not out yet, but he's filming it now. The guy wanted to do a script treatment to the KISS 'N TELL book! He said, "This book reads like a movie, it is a fuckin' movie, it's hysterical!" He said, "We can make this thing so visual, so good and so funny." He thinks that the story is very Shakespearean; there is more to the book than the simple, funny melodramatic -- there are all sorts of emotions in that first book.
KA: Absolutely. I tell you the other thing from the first book that sticks out for me, because at the same time it is so funny and on the other hand it is so sad, is where you talk about him in the bathroom refilling the water bottles with beer. That, the image, it is Shakespearean. It's funny, yet so tragic the image that is conjured up, this guy on his knees in front of the bath tub refilling water bottles with alcohol so no one knows he's drinking.
Yeah, and he's supposed to be this big giant rock star. It is sad, it's a tragic comedy. It was funny to me, but it's a sad situation. But the guy can only help himself, I can only point it out. I got a lot of crap about that also, and I said you know what, at least I came out and said shit like that. Maybe he'll open his eyes a little bit, maybe I helped the guy. And no, I'm not trying to pat myself on the back cause I got so many people saying, "Yeah right, you were trying to help him." I said you know what, I was. All those years, all those years I did try and help the guy. Now I put out a book that lines my pocket with a little bit of money, I get a little bit of retribution over all the bullshit I took from this guy and you know what, I don't hold any animosity. Any animosity has dissipated. That always goes away with time and things like that, but I'll never be friends with the guy ever again. And for his sake I can only hope he can get his life totally together. I know what his life is like, what a mess he really is despite what people think and the myth that you see in print in Metal Edge magazine. His life is not "all that." It's all a facade, not to take away from his fun or anybody's fun in rock 'n roll.
KA: But there's more to life than that.
There absolutely is.
KA: The problem is when you don't evolve out of that phase.
Yes, and a lot of people don't. I lucked out growing up. Right when I was eighteen, just graduated from high school, I was touring the world and up until eighteen I never traveled more than 200 miles away from my home. The farthest north I ever went was Cape Cod on a vacation with my family. I never flew on a plane until I was eighteen or nineteen years old and all the sudden I got a gig and I'm flying around the world. I was lucky I didn't become that "mega star" at that young age with all the money and this and that because you need time to mature, and some people know how to handle it and some people don't.
KA: It seems that for people who get that much that soon, it's almost like it prematurely terminates them being able to ever grow up. I think you see that a lot with athletes. From the time they go into college, sometimes as early as high school, they're treated a different way and so they never evolve because they are used to a certain kind of treatment.
Exactly. They're coddled. I'm into sports, my ex girlfriends and girlfriends call me a rock jock because I play baseball and stuff like that. I'm not a big guy at all, but I'm into baseball and I pitch. My father was semi-pro, my brother was looked at to go into the major leagues, and there's a chapter in KISS 'N TELL MORE about me playing baseball with Ace. I even broke Bob McAdams' hand throwing a fastball at him once at a picnic! Ace was trying to brag with all his friends saying, "Come on, check out Gordon throwing the baseball!" And I ended up breaking Bob's hand and I felt really bad. I know a lot of athletes and I'm friends with the guy who runs Shea Stadium. I'm friends with a lot of the athletes there, a lot of the pro athletes, and they are little kids. It's worse when they're big, cause then they're big little kids and they're hard to handle.
KA: Yeah, how do you tell somebody who's 6'5", 300 lb, "No!"
You don't. (Laughs)
KA: You just get out of their way! (Laughs)
And they're worse than rock stars. You know who asked to read my book? Mike Piazza.
KA: Oh really?
Yeah, Mike Piazza wants to read my book.
KA: Cool.
And there was another guy, Scott Radinsky, he plays for the Dodgers, he's a punk rock singer and he's a relief pitcher and he'd rather be a musician and a singer than a baseball player. He likes the other job better, the music job better than the baseball job, but the baseball job is paying more for him. He's interested in the book too, he's a big KISS fan. Yeah, Piazza wants my book. I was actually supposed to go down there and bring him a copy tonight, but he'll have to wait cause I'm doing an interview! (Laughs)
KA: So is the movie thing something that you decided you're gonna pass on, or might it still happen?
I don't know what's going to happen, but I'm not gonna pass on anything.
KA: So it's still in the works theoretically?
It's in the works. I always thought of it in movie terms when I was doing the book. I mean I had this formula when I was writing it. Some people said the book was so sporadic, but I said well, it's to keep it interesting. Some people wanted it in chronological order, and I said, you would've gotten bored. I liked it jumping around and I compared it to "Pulp Fiction." I made it "Pulp Fiction-ish." And it's funny cause this guy e-mailed me when he read the book and he told me what formulas or what comparisons of what movies it could be and he said "Pulp Fiction," "Leaving Las Vegas," "Private Parts," and there was one other movie, a fourth movie, like a "Goodfellows" type of deal. He said it had elements of all those movies and I said yeah, I love those movies, those are my influences in movie terms.
KA: That's cool!
Yeah, so he said he'd love to put a movie together with my book. And I said to actually do it, the vision and actually doing it are two different things. It's very hard to get your vision down onto film and that's why I have a lot of respect for Howard Stern, because when he did "Private Parts" he got the movie down the way he wanted it to be on screen.
KA: It took him what, five or six years from the time he really started getting serious to the time it happened ‚ he just wasn't gonna let it go until he was happy with it.
Right. And like I said, three major publishers wanted my book. To get one major publisher interested in your project, in your manuscript, that's a tremendous honor right there. Usually you have to "yes" people because they're the big corporation, they're the ones who can make you a star or make your book big. So I sent them the manuscript and they sent it back to me revised telling me this is how we see it. And I said no, I don't see it that way and I turned down a nice advance and stuff like that. But I didn't see it that way and so I stuck to my guns and that's maturity on my part, standing on your own and standing up for what you believe in and if it works out fine, if not and I'd rather not even see it come to fruition if it's not what I believe in.
KA: Absolutely.
So I stood by that. I think that came with maturity. If I had written the book like 10 or 20 years ago I would've just taken the advance and partied with the money, bought a nice car.
KA: And then six months later you'd be saying, "So, you accepting applications down here at Denny's right now?"
(Laughs) That's right! I'd be working at McDonalds or something. I hope everybody's receptive to it and open minded and hopefully people get a good laugh out of my second book. I really threw in everything and the kitchen sink in my second book! Everybody said I want more, I want more! Well you got it! Take your time and read this one good. It should be juicy and good and I'm sure there's gonna be parts where people -- something for somebody to bitch about. I think for one thing the title of the first chapter maybe.
KA: I think that'll do it. It's definitely a shot across the bow, sets the tone immediately.
I like that analogy!
KA: It's a lot like your first book where you did that thing in the beginning with the airplane and......
Take me to Cuba!
KA: Right! That was a grabber, people were hooked immediately.
And I did that as a movie thing, a movie visual because that's how I write, I write in movie terms. I have more than one screen writer who are looking at the book. Hey, Oliver Stone's got my book! I signed it to him, it was great! I met him in Chicago. He was there pushing a book and I walked up to see him. Now I'm not a huge Oliver Stone fan when it comes to political stuff and everything, but you know the guy makes movies and he works hard. And I appreciate that and I enjoy some of his movies even though I don't necessarily agree with his political statements. So I walked up to Oliver Stone and I say, "Mr. Stone, could you sign my book?" and I handed him my book. He looked at it and said, "This isn't my book." And I said, "No, this is my book, I wrote it. I don't have your book, I wish I did, but can you sign my book just so I can have your signature?" And he handed it back and said, "No, you sign it to me. I want the book." Of course I said okay, so now I'm standing there at this convention next to Oliver Stone signing my book for him! And I'm thinking, I'm gonna do this as slowly as I can! (Laughs)
KA: Let everyone see you right!! (Laughs)
Yeah! People started crowded around going, "Wow! Who's that long haired guy signing something to Oliver Stone?" So I'm signing as slow as possible and I wrote: "To Oliver -- This would make a much better movie than your Doors movie." and then signed my name. I did it real slow and I waited for him to see how long I could sign this thing before he got impatient. (Laughs) And then, with a crowd of people around, I said, "There you go Oliver." Now I'm the cool guy! (Laughs) I didn't get his autograph, but he got mine!
KA: Well you might end up getting something better out of it than an
autograph!
Yeah! Here's another thing I did, and you can put this in the interview and it's in the book. I was offered to do a radio interview on Halloween Eve in Salem, Massachusetts. WAAF contacted me because they wanted me to come up and do an interview. Fine, all right, I'll do it. So I'm making all these plans to go do the interview, and then I find out Gene and Paul are going to be there. They wanted to ambush Gene and Paul with me! So I called this guy up and said, "Listen, Gene and Paul are going to be there right?" He said yeah, so I asked, "Do they know I'm coming?" He told me they didn't, so I said they had to tell them otherwise I wouldn't do the interview. I knew it could easily be cheap publicity, that I could easily fucking do this and it'd be great for sales for my book and this and that, but you know what, I'm not a tacky low life. I'm not a fucking Jerry Springer. Gene and Paul are not gonna know and not gonna appreciate being ambushed and all this shit, so I'm not gonna fucking do it. It's their promoting party, they were promoting "Carnival of Souls," and I said I'm not crashing their fucking party. The radio guys were like, "Do you know how many books you'll sell!?" But I told them, "You ask them if I'm invited, 'cause I'm sure they don't want me crashing in on their fucking party."
KA: And for those people who think that you're this asshole, here you had an opportunity to do the kind of thing they would accuse you of doing and you didn't do it.
I didn't do it. No. It's in the book and you can even put it in the interview. I don't know if Gene and Paul will ever realize it, but I turned that situation down. I have the e-mail from the guy, I printed it in the book, the email from the guy offering me the interview to do and the letter I sent back and all that shit.
KA: Cool!
Yeah, but Gene and Paul don't give a shit! But they're invited to any of my interviews! (Laughs) I'll do any show and any member of KISS can confront me about the books, especially Ace! I'd do a show or any radio interview with that in two seconds. Ted Nugent offered that on the radio. He said, "Suppose we get Ace on the radio?" I said, "I'll fly there! I'll pay for the flight. If he wants to confront me about the book, no fucking problem." But I said, "You can bet your bottom dollar he won't. He'll send a hit-man after me before he confronts me in public about the book."
KA: He'd have to answer more questions than he'd get to ask.
And that's the problem. I know how I am in public. He's not the greatest public speaker anyway. I know I can handle my own speaking in public. Gene even silently endorsed the book. I mean he can't exactly come right out and say, "Hey, it's a great book." because he's got to work with Ace, but he commented on the book. Paul Stanley denies even knowing us. Paul Stanley denied knowing Bob, and I mean Bob was good friends with Paul! I think that's really asinine on Paul's part.
KA: Let me ask you, as far as the KISS 'N TELL MORE book, you did a lot of promotion for the first KISS 'N TELL book, a lot of radio promotion. What other than the ads are you gonna do this time around for this book? There are a lot of KISS conventions coming up, are you planning on hitting any of them?
I'm hitting as many KISS conventions as I can. And I'm waiting for the first guy to punch me at one of these conventions! (Laughs) Yeah, I got a threat at the New Jersey convention. I've gotten a couple of threats at these things, "You show up, you're gonna get your ass kicked!"
KA: So it's like a little betting pool. (Laughs)
(Laughs) Yeah, on which convention it'll be.
And here's another thing people can't take away from me -- in the book I printed this letter from this guy who insulted me about ten times in one sentence and I still put it in the book. I got the death threats in the book, all the bad things people said and wrote about me, I put it all in the book! So you can't say I put this big propaganda machine out with all this rosy good shit. Naw, I put all the pissed off fans in there too.
KA: Well it sounds like it's gonna be great, from the chapter titles alone you know it's going to be a very interesting read.
I'm excited, I can't wait!