Category Archives: KISS News
10 Amazing Backstage Moments From the Rock Hall’s 2014 Induction
Patrick Doyle and Kory Grow | Rolling Stone
Patrick Doyle
The 2014 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony was packed with surprising reconciliations and all-star turns on the mic. So what went down backstage, when the night’s honorees and speakers got a chance to unwind? Rolling Stone captured the behind-the-scenes vibe from our prime perch:
20 best moments from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s 2014 induction ceremony
When Stevie Met Bruce
After we talked with Stevie Nicks, she ran into Bruce Springsteen in the crowded hallway. “You sang fabulous,” Bruce told her. “You sang fabulous, and you looked fabulous.” As he walked away, Nicks grinned like a teenage Beatles fan.
Blood Brothers
In the hallway, Bruce also ran into Peter Gabriel. Gabriel said he heard Springsteen was vacationing on a boat in Sardinia, where Gabriel has a house. Gabriel invited Springsteen out there again someday. “There’s a meal waiting for you,” Gabriel said.
“We’re gonna take you up on that!” Springsteen laughed.
“Please do,” Gabriel said. Later, he called it one of his highlights of the night. “That was a nice moment!”
Ace to Face with Ron Delsener
After Ace Frehley made his entrance during Rolling Stone’s interview with Tom Morello, he got situated and took a moment to reflect on his career. “I think we’re probably gonna go down in history as the greatest theatrical rock group in the world,” he said. “I think that’s probably gonna be undisputable fact.” But shortly thereafter a real spectacle broke out, when legendary concert promoter Ron Delsener spotted Frehley and burst into the room. “I don’t remember you standing up like that – we used to have to carry you to the stage, you were so fucked up,” he said, ribbing Frehley about his wilder days. “This guy would come to every show at the Palladium, the Garden, and he’d come with an entourage of people,” Delsener continued. “I thought he was fucking Prince.” Frehley just laughed his famous high-pitched cackle and took it all in stride.
Ace Frehley on Kiss’ Rock Hall Induction: ‘We’re Brothers in Rock’
Kory Grow | Rolling Stone
Michael Loccisano
Almost as soon as Kiss were named as inductees for the 2014 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the drama began. Although original guitarist Ace Frehley told Rolling Stone he didn’t see any bad blood between his ex-bandmates, the group’s current original members – Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons – decided that no lineup of Kiss would perform. In the end, the four original members reunited peacefully onstage and were humbled by the award. After their acceptance speeches, Rolling Stone caught up with Frehley – who is working on his first solo album in five years, Space Invader – to find out just how things really went down onstage.
Kiss Forever: 40 Years of Feuds and Fury
How did it feel to finally get up there?
It felt great, you know? Look at the company I’m with. The room is full of celebrities and rock stars. It’s like another milestone in my career. But the body of work that I’ve created over the years has stood the test of time. It’s a very special time for me.
After all the controversies leading up to the induction, how did it feel to be onstage with everybody again?
It felt like I just saw those guys yesterday. We’re brothers in rock & roll. The press seems to amplify the fact that we hate each other, and we really don’t. We’ve had our differences over the years, but every rock & roll band does. Tonight, it felt like I had just left those guys the other day, and they were very gracious considering what we’ve been creating over the last 40 years.
Shout it out loud! The out gay man who made KISS superstars, got them into rock hall of fame
Bill Aucoin and Roman Fernandez on Broadway (Photo courtesy Roman Fernandez)
Richard Burnett | Montreal Gazette
The four original members of KISS – Gene Simmons, Ace Frehley, Paul Stanley and Peter Criss – put aside their personal differences at the 2014 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, at least long enough to say kind words about one another.
But for KISS fans, as well as Roman Fernandez – longtime life partner of Bill Aucoin, the legendary rock’n’roll manager who discovered KISS – it would have been nice to see the fueding stop before the band hit the stage. In fact, it would have been nice to see the original KISS performonstage at the ceremony.
Like former Rage Against the Machine guitarist and KISS fan Tom Morello concluded in his induction speech, “Tonight, this isn’t the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, this is the Rock And Roll All Night And Party Every Day Hall Of Fame!”
For Roman Fernandez, the night was bittersweet: his life partner Bill Aucoin, who died of surgical complications from prostate cancer in 2010 at the age of 66, was not there to see the band he raised, nurtured and turned into global superstars inducted into the rock hall.
“When I first found out KISS was going to be inducted, it was very bittersweet for me,” Fernandez told me this week. “I was happy, but on the other hand I was upset because it was like a practical joke on Bill, [to induct] a band that was never supposed to get in the hall of fame. Bill and I had talked about that and he was at peace with that. Then three years after he dies, they get inducted. And Bill isn’t here to see it. That still eats away at me. So the induction is a happy occasion but it also rubs salt in the wound. To see [the original KISS members] fueding – those four guys who are lucky enough to have this argument because they are alive. Bill doesn’t have that luxury.”
Still, Fernandez is a loved member of the KISS family, and he attended the induction ceremony to “represent.”
“It’s what Bill would have wanted,” Fernandez says.
KISS Hall of Fame speech video (crowd shot)
Raw Video footage of post-KISS induction in press room
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 2014 inductions: Courtney Love booed, Kiss makes up, E Street Band talks
Andy Kropa
NEW YORK — Kiss made up, but its music went unheard. Nirvana used four women rockers to sing Kurt Cobain’s songs. And Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band — predictably — turned its honor into a marathon.
The three acts were ushered into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on Thursday in a colorful induction ceremony at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center. They were joined by the blue-eyed soul duo Hall & Oates, British rocker Peter Gabriel, 1970s folkie Cat Stevens and the absent Linda Ronstadt.
Nirvana was the emotional centerpiece. The trio rooted in the Seattle-area punk rock scene was voted into the hall in its first year of eligibility. “Smells Like Teen Spirit” hit like a thunderclap upon its 1991 release, but the band was done after Kurt Cobain committed suicide 20 years ago this month.
“Nirvana fans walk up to me every day and say thank you for the music,” said Krist Novoselic, the band’s bass player, who was inducted with drummer Dave Grohl. “When I hear that, I think of Kurt Cobain.”
A subdued Courtney Love, Cobain’s widow, was booed by some in the audience. She said Cobain would have appreciated the honor.
“Nirvana tapped into a voice that was yearning to be heard,” said former R.E.M. singer Michael Stipe, who described how the band made a community of the disaffected.
Joan Jett was chosen to sing “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth, St. Vincent and Lorde each took turns at the microphone, with Lorde’s version of “All Apologies” ending the night.
Kiss was responsible for pre-ceremony drama. The two original members still active, Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley, thought the replacements for ex-bandmates Ace Frehley and Peter Criss should perform at the ceremony instead of the original four. The result was Kiss’s music went unheard.
Read Kiss’ Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Acceptance Speech
Jeff Kravitz
Kiss entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Thursday night, inducted by former Rage Against the Machine guitarist and obsessive Kiss fan Tom Morello. Below, read Morello’s induction speech, or go straight to speeches from the band members themselves.
Tom Morello Salutes Kiss Army in Rock Hall Induction Speech
Tom Morello: Growing up, Kiss was my favorite band. It was not always easy being a Kiss fan. Just as Kiss were being relentlessly persecuted by critics, their fans were relentlessly persecuted by the self-appointed arbiters of taste in middle schools and high schools across America. Arguments, and even fist fights, were not uncommon. I recall as a 15-year-old telling one bully, “You can kiss my Kiss-loving ass!” Because Kiss was never a critic’s band; Kiss was a people’s band!
And so, I waited in a long line on a bitter, cold Chicago morning to buy tickets for my first concert—a Kiss concert. I was especially thrilled because printed on the ticket, were words that hinted that it was going to be a special event. The ticket said, “A partial view of Kiss.” I was certain that this meant the band might reveal some new secret corner of their artistic souls. In reality, it meant that my seat was behind a pole. Still, that concert was one of the most exciting, cathartic, loudest, most thrilling two hours of live music I’ve seen to this day.
And while there is often debate on who should and shouldn’t be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, I think the criteria are actually quite simple: impact, influence, and awesomeness, and Kiss have all three in spades.
Impact: Kiss has sold over 100 million albums worldwide, with 28 Gold albums in the United States alone. That’s more than any other American rock band in history. Their theatrics were indisputably groundbreaking, but it was Kiss’ music that had an impact on me. All four guys wrote great songs. All four guys were great lead singers. They practically invented the live album with “Kiss Alive!” Then came Destroyer;Rock and Roll Over; Love Gun; Alive II; Dynasty; all exploding with killer riffs, anthemic choruses, and screaming solos that for 40 years went filling arenas and stadiums around the world.
KISS members livid at Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
CNN
Paul Stanley interview on the Jim Kerr Show
“Not Everyone Liked Jesus, Either”: An Interview With Gene Simmons
Melissa Locker | Time
Chelsea Lauren
KISS rocker Gene Simmons talks about his induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame — and why it’s a mixed blessing
TIME talked to Gene Simmons about the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, celebrating 40 years as a band and what they owe their fans.
TIME: You’ve been in KISS as long as, or longer, than many of your fans have been alive. How does it feel to soundtrack so many generations?
Gene Simmons: Well, it doesn’t suck. There’s no substitute for hard work. There just isn’t. You can sugar coat it however you want, but there’s not. But not everyone has the same DNA — not everyone is designed to run marathons, most people don’t finish the race. Many people in rock bands are very dysfunctional — they don’t have their heads screwed on right. They don’t understand that, but for the grace of God, you’d be asking the next person in line, ‘Would you like some fries with that?’ When you forget that and start to believe that — in the patois of the street — you’re ‘all that,’ it’s not long before you move back into your mother’s basement.
What are some of the other lessons you’ve learned in doing this for over 40 years?
The idea that you have to experience something in order to know if it’s bad for you is the biggest load of bullshit that I’ve ever heard. We all know that a bullet isn’t good for you — you don’t have to be shot to know that. It’s nonsense! Drugs and alcohol are not even unique, they are such a cliché. You’re kidding — you’re going to ruin your life for the same old, same old? Really? The original guys in the band started a band 40 years ago. The original lineup lasted seven years and, you know, there have been ten different lineups. We’ve survived ten different lineups.
That’s been in the news a lot lately due to your upcoming induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
It’s such a boring conversation. People forget that it applies to almost every single band these days: AC/DC, The Stones, Metallica, Iron Maiden. Some bands don’t even have their original lead singers! It’s tough to keep a band together! Cain and Abel didn’t do so well, either, and they were brothers.
True. KISS is one of the few bands to have not performed at the induction ceremony…
Why should we? We’ve been around longer than the Hall of Fame has been around, by about 20 years. We started before this organization was even a thought. We appreciate getting the award, but they are going to only honor the first seven years of the band — Ace, Peter, Paul and myself, and that’s fine. We appreciate that. Then they said, ‘We have an HBO special and we want you to close the show and make it big,’ and all that stuff. And we said, ‘Okay, and you’re also going to be honoring Tommy and Eric who have been in the band longer than Ace and Peter, right?’ They said, ‘No, no, actually we’re not.’ We said, ‘Wait a minute, you have the Grateful Dead, and you inducted all 25 or so members, plus a lyricist who was never even in the band. Metallica had a bass player who, I think, was never even on a record. The Chili Peppers had 8 or 9 members in. And you’re not going to honor ours?’ So, we are certainly not going to be playing there. You either honor all or none.
Paul Stanley Calls Kiss the Rock Hall’s ‘Worst Nightmare’ (Video Q&A)
It’s taken 14 years, but pyro-glam rockers Kiss are finally being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. After being passed over for so long, it was already a major story that the New York quartet (born of equal parts ambition, determination and desperation) had finally made the cut.
EXCLUSIVE PHOTOS: Paul Stanley in NYC
But since the four original members — singer-guitarist Paul Stanley, singer-bassist Gene Simmons, guitarist Ace Frehley and drummer Peter Criss — haven’t been shy about expressing how they think the induction and celebratory performance should be handled, Kiss’ Hall of Fame entrance has become one of the most talked-about rock stories this spring.
Stanley, who co-founded the band 40 years ago with Simmons, sat down with Billboard to discuss the buzz surrounding the induction, which he believes is the Rock Hall’s “worst nightmare.”
“The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is not the hall of fame of the people, or of other bands,” he said. “It’s a small group of people who decide who they want in their little club and who they don’t. The fact that they would only induct the four original members — and when I asked about that it they said it was a non-starter — is interesting. Because they’re pencil pushers and I play a guitar. So for them to tell me what is a non-starter is arrogance.”
Aerosmith – Aerosmith Star Kramer: ‘Kiss Should Perform At Hall Of Fame’
Wenn | Contact Music
Aerosmith star Joey Kramer has urged the original members of Kiss to rethink their decision not to perform at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame
Induction Ceremony on Thursday (10Apr14), insisting they should just “lighten up” and play.
Founders Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons pulled the plug on plans to mark their induction with a live show when they learned that Hall of Fame bosses would not be honouring their current bandmates Tommy Thayer and Eric Singer at the bash in New York.
But famous fans like Slipknot’s Corey Taylor have blasted the decision and now drummer Kramer has weighed in on the drama, insisting all seven past and present members of Kiss who will be at the Hall of Fame event should get up onstage and perform.
In an interview as part of the podcast Totally Driven Radio, the Aerosmith star says, “You have to recognise the fact that there’s two other guys that have been in the band for the last 12 or 15 years. I mean, can you just ignore them? Is that fair? From my point of view, I think, basically, they should all play.
Paul Stanley Says Rock Hall Thwarted KISS Induction Celebration Performance
Joh Wiederhorn | Yahoo Music
The four original members of KISS — guitarist and vocalist Paul Stanley, bassist and vocalist Gene Simmons, guitarist Ace Frehley, and drummer Peter Criss – will attend the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony April 10 at the Barclay’s Center in Brooklyn, New York, along with ex-guitarist Bruce Kulick (who played with the band from 1984 to 1996) and the current KISS guitarist Tommy Thayer and drummer Eric Singer. But don’t expect any of them to rock and roll all night together — not that Simmons and Stanley didn’t originally want to.
“We volunteered to bring our ‘Monster’ stage for us to play with Tommy and Eric, and then for us to bring on Ace and Peter,” Stanley tells Yahoo Music. “We were told [by the Rock Hall] that was a ‘non-starter.’ That was the quote that started to irk me more than anything, because I don’t want to be told by a pencil-pusher what a ‘non-starter’ is, when I’m the person that has been playing the guitar.”
The roots of Stanley’s grievance go deeper than a basic disinterest in performing onstage with former band members. As the mob would say, it comes down to respect. According to Paul, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has fought KISS’s entrance into its elite organization since the band was first eligible 15 years ago. In February, KISS will celebrate the 40th anniversary of their self-titled debut.
Ace Frehley: No ‘KISS face-off’ at Hall of Fame gala
Guitarist Ace Frehley is confident Thursday’s KISS reunion at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony will be a harmonious affair, despite the bandmates’ public attacks of each other.
He’ll join founding members Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons and bandmate Peter Criss, alongside the group’s current drummer and guitarist and another ex-member, Bruce Kulick, for the honor in New York – and he insists the group’s big night won’t become a big drama, no matter what they’ve said about each other in memoirs and interviews.
He tells VH1, “We say good things about each other and we say bad things about each other… but it is what it is. It’s rock and roll. I mean, if all we did was pat each other on the back for every book, people would say, ‘That’s a boring book.’
“They want to hear the dirt. I’ve got plenty of dirt.
PHOTOS: 2014 Rock Hall inductees | Rockers, then and now
“(But) believe it or not, every time the four of us (Stanley, Frehley, Simmons and Criss) get together, even though it’s been a long span of time, we’re still brothers in rock and roll. At least that’s the way I feel. If it’s not going to be that way, I’d be surprised.”
Peter Criss says he’s not anti-semitic
Founding KISS drummer Peter Criss insists he’s NOT a raging anti-Semite, despite public accusations made by KISS guitarist Paul Stanley.
Stanley unloaded on Criss and another ex-band mate Ace Frehley in his new book “Face the Music: A Life Exposed,” accusing the two of chronic anti-Semitic behavior back in the day. Stanley also accuses Criss of being a racist who enjoyed mocking waiters at Chinese restaurants.
But Criss tells TMZ, all of Stanley’s claims are bogus.
Criss says he’s always been a loving supporter of all religions, including the Jewish faith — in fact, Criss tells us his favorite aunt was Jewish. He also denies being a racist in any way.
Although Criss says he’s spoken to a lawyer, he says he has no plans to pursue legal action against Stanley.
Paul Stanley on the KISS legacy, Rock Hall
Jane Stevenson | Toronto Sun
Jorge Adorno
KISS frontman Paul Stanley finally faced the music and the timing couldn’t be better.
It took years but his autobiography, Face the Music: A Life Exposed, came out just a few weeks before KISS gets inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on Thursday night and prior to the band’s summer tour with Def Leppard that hits Toronto’s Molson Canadian Amphitheatre on Aug. 12 for its only Canadian date.
“For decades I staunchly refused to write an autobiography because Orwell said, ‘Autobiography is the most outrageous form of fiction,’” the 62-year-singer-songwriter-rhythm guitarist tells QMI Agency in a Canadian newspaper exclusive.
“It wasn’t until I realized that my story could serve a purpose, that it could inspire, and could reach far beyond KISS fans. It’s really more about facing adversity in life and facing issues and how you choose to deal with them, and hopefully, overcome them.”
To that end, Stanley’s book begins with a strong Canadian connection.
Meeting Paul Stanley at his NJ book signing
Joe Diaz
Had the pleasure to meet Paul Stanley at his book signing at Bookends in N.J. today…He took the time to take a photo with every fan and say hello and answer questions…as always a truly a class act…what a pleasure to meet him today with my son Scott…once again Paul reminds us why KISS is the greatest band in the world and embraces the greatest fans in the world !
Strange Ways Podcast 19 – Remembering Eric Carr
Episode 19 finds your KISS Army bros joined by Andrew Kiss, discussing someone near and dear to us. The unforgettable, one and only Fox of KISS! The late, great Eric Carr.