Peter Arquette | KISSmuseum.com
If you have any chance to see the Gene Simmons Band on the current tour, you should drop everything and make the effort to go! A very intimate, personal concert with plenty of opportunities to get on stage with the man. An awesome time with plenty of obscure as well as familiar KISS songs in the set. Tour date are HERE.
KISSmuseum.com
Another great private KISS collection is up for sale on KISSmuseum.com! Most items are singles, so grab what you want when you can…
Gene Simmons‘s long-promised box set of previously unreleased solo material, which has apparently had several different working titles over the years — including “Monster” (later used by KISS for the band’s most recent studio album), “Alter Ego” and “100” — will finally see the light of day later this year.
In a newly released video message, the KISS bassist/vocalist states: “For the past three years, I’ve been working on something that I’ve wanted to share with you my entire life. I’ve gone through hours and hours of music I’ve recorded and written over the past fifty years to craft my career-spanning solo recordings box set. It’s called ‘The Vault’.”
He continues: “‘The Vault’ is one hundred and fifty-plus never-before-released songs I’ve written, spanning fifty years, going all the way back to when I was fourteen years old, all the way to some of the songs that became KISS classics. Tens CDs right here, all inside ‘The Vault’. It’s finally ready to bring to you. Yeah, that’s right, I said ‘to bring to you,’ because what I’m gonna be doing is something that’s never been done before by any artist or band. I’m gonna hand-deliver ‘The Vault’ box set to you and to fans like you around the world.”
Simmons adds: “I also wanted you to have really cool stuff: an exclusive Gene Simmons action figure, an ‘In Gene We Trust’ medallion, a beautiful full-color book packed with photos from my peronsal archives, and my stories behind the songs — and a very special surprise item from me to you. You’re not gonna believe the things we found.”
More information on “The Vault” will be made available at www.genesimmonsvault.com.
Simmons has released two solo albums and also written for and with other artists, including Bob Dylan and Donna Summer.
“I’ve always written ‘outside’ stuff,” he explained in response to a fan question on his official web site back in 2009. “But KISS is KISS. And that means the outside stuff winds up on solo albums, or I keep it in the drawer.”
Simmons‘s sophomore solo album, “Asshole”, sold around 13,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release back in 2004 to land at position No. 86 on The Billboard 200 chart. Like Gene‘s 1978 self-titled solo album, “Asshole” featured a number of outside songwriting contributions and guest appearances. Bob Dylan and Gene co-wrote the album’s “Waiting For The Morning Light”. Frank Zappa and Gene share co-writing credit on “Black Tongue” and the Zappa Family, Dweezil, Ahmet, Moon, Gail and Frank Zappa himself sing and play guitar on the song.
Greg Kennelty | Metal Injection
Sometimes you have to wonder if Kiss‘ Gene Simmons listens to what he says when he’s talking, or if he just spouts whatever idea comes into his head and then just rolls with it for the whole interview. Simmons has recently made headlines for trying to trademark the classic “devil horns” gesture, defending his application while saying he invented synchronized stage moves, and then withdrawing the application anyway and saying he can do whatever he wants.
Now Simmons tells The Chicago Tribune that nobody who plays guitar can read or write music, and therefor is not an artist.
Q: You strike me as being very practical and unsentimental, which are great qualities for a businessman, but not so much for an artist. Do those qualities come into conflict in your mind, ever?
A: How did you ever think anyone who plays electric guitar is an artist? They can’t even read or write music.
Q: You don’t think of yourself as an artist?
A: No. An artist is somebody who went to school, who learned music theory, can read and write music, like classical musicians or jazz musicians. None of us — Madonna, I don’t care who you’re talking about — none of us learned to read and write music, we just sort of did it. It’s pretty much on the same level as cavemen who came out of the caves and started to beat on the drums, and howl at the moon.
He then follows up those answers by saying you only think someone like Bruce Springsteen is an artist because you’re told that he’s an artist. Oh, and Gene knows Bruce, and he just wants to connect to the common man.
Allison Steward | Chicago Tribune
Gene Simmons is the co-frontman of fabled, fire-breathing rock overlords Kiss, and does a thriving side business as an entrepreneur. Kiss made rock merchandising an art form, and Simmons (born Chaim Witz in Israel 68 years ago) is its finest brand extension.
He has authored books, starred in a reality show, made it to week three of “The Celebrity Apprentice” in 2008, endorsed Mitt Romney and launched his own cola. He will patiently, eloquently answer any question, and is unfailingly serious, even when he’s probably kidding. He has an easy command of Kiss-related statistics, from the number of “Gene Simmons Family Jewels” episodes that have aired (156) to the number of Kiss-affiliated Rock & Brews restaurants set to open locally (15).
“Our reach is far and wide,” says Simmons. Simmons, whose new book, “On Power,” arrives in November, talked meeting presidents, vomiting blood and life as a tabloid staple. The following is an edited transcript of that conversation:
Q: Your new book is partly a meditation on power, and partly a self-help book.
A: The book grabs you by the shoulders and shakes you and says, “OK, are you serious about life? Do you want to reach for the stars? Here’s some things you can do to make more money, and become more powerful.”