Michael Brandvold

Blabbermouth

Former KISS guitarist Vinnie Vincent‘s performance at the “Speedballjamm”, which was scheduled to take place next month at the S.I.R. Soundstage in Nashville, Tennessee, is no longer being advertised on his web site.

The “Appearances” section of VinnieVincent.com contains no mention of the June 7 event, but includes the following message: “Come see the legendary Vinnie Vincent in person! Vinnie will be appearing at a variety of events for musical performances, meet and greets, autograph sessions, photo ops, and more! Check the listings below for an appearance in your area!”

Vincent‘s “Speedballjamm” appearance was being billed as an intimate event, with only 60 VIP tickets being made available at the cost of $300 per ticket. The performance was supposed to see Vincent backed by his handpicked musicians, Mike Weeks and Chuck White.

Less than a week ago, fans reported via social media that fewer than a dozen tickets had been sold for the “Speedballjamm”.

A representative for S.I.R. confirmed to Ultimate Classic Rock that the show won’t be happening at the venue, explaining that it had been pulled from the schedule this morning and that its only involvement with the event was to rent the space to Vincent.

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The Blaze

CNN

Metal Head Zone

KISS frontman Paul Stanley shared a recent studio photo on his verified Instagram and revealed that he’s working for a new project.

Stanley said that they are recording a new Soul Station album which will mix classic old tunes with the new one.

Here is his statement:

“SOUL STATION ALBUM VOCALS yesterday. Classic old tunes and new. This is really AWESOME.”

mickw85_wyld_ryde_ commented:

“With no disrespect intended…There’s no market for a new KISS album but there is for this? 😕”

3robert62 shared his opinion:

“No kiss album will never match anything as good as 70s kiss😂🤷🏻‍♂️”

qfinch85 also commented:

“What a stupid thing to say. Revenge from a writing and talent level destroyed 70s kiss. Hell carnival of souls was more talented than 70s KISS. But if you’re not a musician then I guess your album sales to the popular crowd overshadows logic.”

You can see the photo below:

Loudwire

It’s not just rock music that may be “finally dead,” KISS magnate Gene Simmons theorized during a rundown of his favorite songs for MusicRadar last week, but pop as well. The musician asserted Friday (May 10) that the more mainstream side of music is governed by an industry that “sets the rules” and dictates how songs should sound, effectively rendering artists “handcuffed” to such restrictions.

While identifying the Beatles and Little Richard as some of the artists that “blew [his] mind” in his formative years, the KISS bassist and vocalist defended today’s top pop artists while snubbing their business environs.

“These days we have the talent — [Lady] Gaga, Bruno Mars, Adele, all great artists,” Simmons said. “But they’re handcuffed by the industry. The industry sets the rules and says rap has to sound like this; soul has to sound like this; EDM has to sound like this. Fucking pathetic!”

He continued, “I don’t want to sound like one of those miserable, moany guys that says, ‘Man, everything was better back then.’ But when it comes to music… shit, it was so much better! When I heard it, it changed my life forever!”

The recent comments follow Simmons’ frequently dissected takeon the “death of rock”. As he told Esquire in 2014, “Rock did not die of old age. It was murdered. Some brilliance, somewhere, was going to be expressed, and now it won’t, because it’s that much harder to earn a living playing and writing songs. No one will pay you to do it.”

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Jody Havenot

Michael Brandvold

Matt Porter

NPR

After nearly 50 years, KISS is saying goodbye to touring. The over-the-top purveyors of heavy metal have embarked on a year-long finale tour titled “One Last KISS: End of the Road World Tour.” The 105-stop tour spans North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand and will encapsulate KISS’ larger-than-life show for the last time.

Before his storied rock rise, KISS’ lead singer Paul Stanley recalls being a New York cab driver and driving people to Madison Square Garden to see Elvis. He remembers telling himself that night, “One of these days, people are going to be driving here to see me.”

Stanley formed KISS in 1973 along with bassist and back-up vocalist Gene Simmons. Inspired by glam rock, the band was determined to make its performances into an all-encompassing experience.

“As a rock fan I had gone to see bands who oftentimes made you think they were doing you a favor by showing up when I just paid them,” Stanley says. “I think there was a lot of apathy onstage in a sense of complacency.”

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KISSmuseum.com

Tons of new additions of unique one-of-a-kind KISS items added to the KISSmuseum.com website.

See the new KISS Merchandise additions at KISSmuseum.com

Joe

UCR

Kiss frontman Paul Stanley had to abandon his traditional zipline stunt during the band’s appearance at the Domination Festival in Mexico on May 3.

In a regular part of the show on their End of the Road farewell tour, Stanley can be seen climbing onto a metal hoop and chain to be flown over the audience during classic track “Love Gun.” In Mexico, however, an apparent technical issue led him to tell the roadie who was trying to help him climb onto the wire to change plans.

Instead of being carried over the crowd, Stanley turned away from the audience until it was time for him to sing again, while the empty prop made its movement to the back of the performance area without him.

In February Stanley told the Los Angeles Times that while he doesn’t look forward to practicing the zipline flight in an empty arena – “I’m not really fond of it” – he very much enjoys the moment during the band’s shows. “With an audience it has an air of invincibility, and that’s exhilarating. To be Superman with a guitar doesn’t suck.”

In the same article bassist Gene Simmons explained the constant attention to detail required to ensure all the moving (and exploding) parts of the band’s stage show are in sync. “At the first show we had some problems onstage,” he explained. “The fans didn’t know anything. They just went, ‘Wow!’”

Fans attending the band’s Feb. 9 show in Sacramento, Calif. definitely noticed when Simmons berated a crewman for failing to light him properly during a performance of “God of Thunder.” As you can see in the video he bellows, “Give me a white spotlight, motherfucker. Asshole has been on tour with us for 20 years and doesn’t get it… bitch, I know where you live. Oh by the way, fuck you.” However, some responding posts suggested it was an occasional part of Simmons’ act, done on several occasions in the past, perhaps as a “ribbing” between “very friendly coworkers.”

UCR

Veteran journalist Jaan Uhelszki recalled the moment she witnessed Kiss co-founder Gene Simmons getting high for the one and only time in his life, after he ignored her warning to avoid eating hash brownies.

Uhelszki, a co-founder of respected music magazine Creem, was able to tell Simmons’ bandmates Tommy Thayer and Eric Singerabout the night in Detroit in 1974, which delighted them because they’d only ever heard it from Simmons himself.

“We’d heard that story a hundred times, but we never knew that there was a witness,” Thayer told her, as recounted in the May edition of Classic Rock Magazine. “We weren’t even sure it was true!” Singer added.

“It was the promoter’s birthday as well as a party for Kiss, so there was a giant birthday cake,” Uhelszki wrote. “But after it was cut, waitresses made the rounds with plates of chocolate brownies. ‘Don’t even think of having any of those,’ I cautioned Simmons. ‘Why not? I love brownies,’ he replied, a little queriously. ‘I know you love brownies. But just don’t. They’re hash brownies.’ He looked bewildered, as if trying to figure out why anyone would want to defile chocolate with drugs.”

She went on to tell how Simmons grabbed three and “devoured” them, while the bassist tried to claim it had been six. “It was three,” Uhelszki told him. “One would have put you over the top.” She said that, once the hash had begun to take effect, “it was like being with E.T. tentatively discovering the wonders of planet Earth, complete with long fingers outstretched to touch ordinary objects.”

Simmons asked, “Are my feet as big as I think they are? Does my head look funny? Is it really small? Why are my hands so big? Are my teeth shiny?” As they left the party in a car, he continued with “a steady stream of questions, the border between what he was thinking and saying all but demolished.”

Suddenly deciding he wanted milk, Simmons directed the driver to a late-night store. “When we entered the place, Simmons said in a carefully articulated but booming voice, ‘May I have a glass of milk, please?’” Uhelszki recalled. “I remember the man behind the counter as if it were yesterday. ‘We don’t sell glasses of milk, son.’”

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Michael Brandvold

Indianapolis KISS Expo

Tickets for the Indianapolis KISS Expo 2019 HERE at this link.

iHeart Radio

By Andrew Magnotta @AndrewMagnotta

KISS front man Paul Stanley goes into detail about the state of his relationships with his fellow Kiss co-founders, drummer Peter Criss and guitarist Ace Frehley, in his new book, Backstage Pass.

While the Starchild writes he’s grateful for his rekindled friendship with Frehley*, he indicates that he has no misgivings about his lack of a relationship with Criss.

“Peter unfortunately is a different story,” Stanley writes (per Ultimate Classic Rock). “I don’t think Peter has any life. He seems consumed by some kind of reality that his wife tells him. He’s always been negative and always maintained an us-against-them mentality.” I don’t want that in my life.”

Stanley called it “nice” to get to work with Frehley on his 2016 solo album, Origins Vol. 1. He added that he knows he has “differences” with both the Spaceman and Criss.

The reason he and Criss can’t get beyond those issues, in Stanley’s opinion, comes down to the drummer’s attitude.

“It’s Peter’s overall sense of anger and resentment and feeling like a victim,” Stanley writes. “He needs to acknowledge his participation and then change things. I think Peter’s life is probably very one-dimensional, uninteresting, un-stimulating — which is a result of seeing the world negatively and seeing everyone from the band members to the hotel service people as disrespectful.”

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Michael Brandvold

Joe

Metalhead Zone

Anthrax’s rhythm guitarist Scott Ian shared a recent photo on his Instagram page and celebrated his followers’ Easter Day.

As you can see below, he said that he’s painting eggs like this for almost 45 years.

Here’s Scott Ian’s statement:

“Painting eggs like this since 1975.

Happy Easter! @genesimmons”

You can see the photo below:

Last week, Megadeth bassist David Ellefson spoke in an interview with Rock Sverige and revealed the reason why KISS bassist Gene Simmons is one of the greatest rock stars ever.

Here’s the statement:

“Gene and Paul [Stanley] very much credit The Beatles for the whole concept of KISS. KISS was my Beatles and it’s funny, as big of a KISS fan as I was and I was the biggest, as we all claim to be, funny thing is that in my bands growing up, we never played any KISS songs because they were hard to play.”

Click here to read the whole article.