WAAF News

With the election on the tips of everyone’s tongue, candidates will jump at the chance to get themselves a celebrity endorsement. But Gene Simmons from KISS feels a bit differently.

“They should all shut their pieholes,” Gene told Yahoo Music. “I really believe democracy doesn’t work well when celebrities butt their heads into places they don’t belong. And what I mean by that is because you’ve got fans – Katy Perry, Gene Simmons, Chubby Checker, I don’t care who you are – you’ve got influence, and you fans tend sometimes to do stuff they would normally not do just because they’re your fans. I think when celebrities tell you who they’re voting for, that rapes the democratic process.”

Fellow rocker Alice Cooper shared the same sentiment in August when he called out musicians getting political by saying, “We’re not smarter than anybody else.”

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Chris Bopst | Style Weekly

For a good three years of my life, all I remember is Kiss.

As any child who fell under the original shock-rockers’ spell during their heyday in the 1970s might tell you: I wasn’t only a fan, I was obsessed. I lived, breathed and was defined by my all-encompassing passion for the kings of the nighttime world.

Though I eventually revoked my membership in the Kiss Army during the onset of puberty, I am who I am today because of them — in particular because of the band’s fire-breathing mastermind and most iconic member, bassist and vocalist Gene Simmons.

While I wait on the phone to interview the legend about the group’s Friday, Sept. 9, appearance at the Richmond Coliseum, I realize that I’ve spent the majority of my life waiting for this very moment. After what seems to be an eternity, I finally hear his unmistakable baritone, a voice I’ve heard thousands of times before.

“Hello, Mr. Simmons. My name is Chris Bopst and I can’t tell you how much I appreciate you taking the time to talk to me.”

It was true. It’s not every day you get to interview one of your childhood idols.

These are the first words he said to me — words I’ve been waiting a lifetime to hear addressed to me: “Excuse me, but can you get off the line? I am in the middle of an interview and I don’t know who you are or why you are interrupting us.”

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James Fell | LA Times

Rcker Gene Simmons says there’s no big secret to his ability to play a show night after night while wearing 50 pounds of gear (that’s between the armor and his guitar):

“I’ve never been drunk and I’ve never been high,” said Simmons, 67, who is currently on tour with KISS.

“I’m my mother’s only child,” Simmons said. “I was concerned I had no right to harm my mother. Life did that enough.”

Simmons said abstaining has helped him stay on top of the music industry and continue to fill stadiums after more than four decades.

“I literally never drink. Privately or publicly. I simply don’t like the taste or the smell of anything with alcohol in it. I have never been drunk in my life and have never taken more than a sip of anything, and hated it every time. I will toast just to be social, but that’s it.”

“Life is a race and we’re in constant competition,” added Simmons, whose band is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and was named the top American gold-record-earning band of all time by the Recording Industry Assn. of America.

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Joseph Cyr | Houlton Pioneer Times

Morgan Tarr, 10, of Smyrna received the birthday gift of a lifetime Sunday as she was brought onto the stage during KISS’ concert at the Cross Insurance Arena. She is the daughter of Jenny and Jeremy Tarr.

PORTLAND, Maine — Most people struggle to remember where they were for their first kiss.

But for Morgan Tarr, 10, of Smyrna, that first kiss happened to be the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame group KISS during a concert Sunday evening at the Cross Insurance Arena in front of about 8,000 fans.

Tarr received the birthday gift of a lifetime, as she was brought onto the stage by KISS lead singer Paul Stanley during the group’s concert in Portland and stayed on the stage for an entire song as Stanley wrapped his arms around her and played guitar.

“I was so nervous before going onstage,” Morgan said. “But I felt fine once we were out there.”

“Morgan is a huge KISS fan,” her mother, Jenny Tarr, said Tuesday morning. “She’s liked the group for a couple of years because both Jeremy [her father] and I are huge fans. We always told her that if KISS ever came back to Maine, we would take her to a concert.”

The parents kept the concert a secret and surprised Morgan with tickets to the concert for her birthday party on Aug. 27. Her actual birthday is Aug. 26, but she celebrated the following day with a KISS-themed party.

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Michael Brandvold

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