Anica Padilla | CW2

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Paying tribute to America’s veterans and service members is more than just lip service for the iconic rock band KISS.

When KISS brought their “Freedom to Rock” tour to Colorado Springs Monday night, the band donated $150,000 to a group that helps veterans.

“Without the military, we wouldn’t be here,” vocalist Gene Simmons said in a video posted on YouTube. “KISS has always been about giving back. We know we’re very lucky. We take this as a matter of heart.”

KISS partners with “Hiring Our Heroes” and the Veteran Tickets Foundation to “salute military heroes across the country,” according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation website.

“The ‘Freedom to Rock’ tour stops are all home to a large number of Army and Air National Guard or Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps Reserve members,” the website states.  The band donates a limited number of tickets to veterans in each community.

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Fuse Staff

Ace Frehley may be a founding member of KISS, one of rock’s biggest bands ever, but what about before that? While at Fuse talking about his solo project Origins, Vol. 1, Frehley revealed he was in countless bands leading up to KISS. His earliest memory in front of an audience was as a 14-year-old boy, performing at a Jewish youth program in Riverdale, New York. Watch more above now.

Want more? In 2014 Frehley and fellow rock guitarist Chris Caffery sat down together for Fuse to trade stories, guitar solos and more! Watch below:

Podcast Rock City

Peter Helman

Joe Lang | Pacific University

Pacific University paid tribute to one of its longtime trustees, Beaverton native and KISS guitarist Tommy Thayer, during the finale of Thayer’s highly successful Legends fundraiser held June 26 in Portland.

Presented by Pac/West, guests of Legends 2016 thanked Thayer for 10 great years of support the event has generated for the university’s 24-sport NCAA Division III intercollegiate athletics program.

Approximately 150 invitees attended the Legends Finale, a one-of-a-kind exclusive dinner, auction and concert that grossed nearly $500,000 to launch a lasting tribute to the beloved host: the Tommy Thayer Endowment for Athletics and Music at Pacific University.

The evening commenced with cocktails and silent auction, and followed with a multi-course gourmet dinner, live auction featuring vacation getaways and much more, and signature concert that ultimately brought to a close the event’s successful run that began in 2007.

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Clive King | Contact Music

Gene Simmons has ruled out a reunion of the original Kiss line-up.

The 66-year-old rocker shut down speculation that a recent collaboration between the ‘Lick It Up’ hitmaker’s former guitarist Ace Frehley and Paul Stanley signalled return of the founding members.

When quizzed on the rumours, he said: ”No, that means nothing. We’ve tried that. Ace and Peter [Criss, original KISS drummer] came into the band and were thrown out three different times because of drugs and alcohol. I mean, how many strikes do you want? And to new fans, it means nothing.”

The bassist-and-singer formed KISS in 1973 in New York City with his pal Paul and the band – along with current members Eric Singer and Tommy Thayer – were inducted into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame in 2014.

The rock band are famous for their own stage personas and trademark black and white face paint, and Gene – whose alter ego is known as ‘The Demon’ – would love for four young musicians to take over the KISS characters and carry on the group’s legacy.

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Rikk Of it All

The KISS Room

Tod Van Luling | Huffington Post

LONG BEACH, CA – MAY 31: Guitarist Ace Frehley of the rock and roll band Kiss performs onstage at the Civic Auditorium on May 31, 1974 in Long Beach, California. (Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)

In May, I wrote a story about the crooked lines in arguably the most recognizable logo in music: the all-caps “KISS.”

The story focused on a typographical mistake ― Paul Stanley, aka Starchild, told me the two S’s in the logo weren’t perfectly parallel because he drew them by eye. What the piece didn’t mention, however, was a long-held theory that the two S’s in what’s arguably the most popular band logo in history are an homage to the World War II Nazi troop Schutzstaffel, or “The SS.”

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Emerson Malone | Daily Emerals

Sometime during sound check, a towering black curtain with the massive KISS insignia dropped before the stage in epic fashion. The audience roared. It was immediately apparent this would be no humble night.

“The suspense,” whispered one audience member, who wore Paul Stanley’s Starchild makeup with a black star covering her eye, “it’s killing me.”

Then a disembodied voice (borrowed from the “Shout it Out Loud” music video) shouted to the arena: “You wanted the best, you got the best! The hottest band in the world: KISS!”

When the curtain finally dropped, three men – Stanley, Gene Simmons and Portland native Tommy Thayer – stood atop a platform elevated above the stage and played “Detroit Rock City.” Behind them, Eric Singer was installed in the middle of an elaborate drum set.

Seeing Kiss live feels larger than life, and it’s not just the platform boots. The fireworks that detonated and punctuated each song’s end, the explosions that soared on either side of Singer’s drum riser and sent a blast wave of heat through the arena, Simmons sporadically ejecting his hooked tongue toward the crowd (not to mention his fire breathing, his performing cunnilingus on his guitar, his tongue whipping in close vicinity of Thayer’s neck, or his gargling up fake blood while gazing into the crowd during a droning bass solo) – everything was fittingly extreme.

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Joe DeVita | Loudwire

In late June, we reported that Apple was granted a patent that would have the potential to disable cell phones from taking photos and capturing video at concerts. Artists have been split on the issue, some seeing no issue with fans having a personal memento from the show and others who feel violated by the technology. The ever-opinionated KISS legend Gene Simmons has now offered his thoughts on disabling phones in the live concert setting or simply not allowing cell phones in the area altogether.

Speaking with Jack Antonio of the Do You Know Jack? radio program (audio below) on July 1, Simmons first explained the pre-cell phone era and the modern one. “When we first started out, this was before cellphones or technology and even voice mail. There was no cable, there was no nothing, so at the concerts, they took away your cameras — they didn’t allow you to do that,” he began.

Detailing more about an age long gone and the connection with the show, Simmons continued, “So, in a lot of ways, the concert experience, especially with KISS, was real — it was emotional, it was deep. You know, people would pass out and cry; it was very emotional.” Flipping to modern times, he said, “And it’s become… Technology, of course, has made everything less emotional. You know, when you get back home and look at your cellphone and the video there, and you go, ‘Oh, I don’t remember that from the concert!’ Well, of course you don’t, ’cause you were too busy texting or looking at your cellphone.”

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Podcast Rock City

CNET

onstage during the 23rd Annual Race To Erase MS Gala at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on April 15, 2016 in Beverly Hills, California.

Gene Simmons doesn’t open his mouth only to stick out his reptilian tongue.

Often, he opens it to offer opinions on all sorts of aspects of human life.

As reported by Loudwire, in a recent appearance on the “Do You Know Jack?” radio show, Kiss front man Simmons mused on the subject of people who spend their whole time at concerts filming on their phones.

“Technology, of course, has made everything less emotional,” he said. “You know, when you get back home and look at your cell phone and the video there, and you go, ‘Oh, I don’t remember that from the concert!’ Well, of course you don’t, ’cause you were too busy texting or looking at your cell phone.”

It can be a real displeasure — if you’re me, at least — to sit next to someone at a concert who spends the whole time filming it, including panning to you as you sing/dance/sit there wishing that the halfwit next to you would just stop filming. The last time it happened, I may have mouthed an obscenity or two.

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Blabbermouth

Jeb Wright | Blabbermouth

 Eric Singer is the long-time current drummer for the band Kiss. He got the gig after being chosen to play drums for Paul Stanley’s solo band in 1991.

When then Kiss drummer Eric Carr came down with a terminal illness, Singer was brought in as his replacement. Singer later exited Kiss on 1996 when the band brought back original Kiss drummer Peter Criss for the Alive / Worldwide tour.

Singer moved on and played several years with Alice Cooper’s band. When Criss was asked to leave Kiss, Singer came back… but he was asked to wear the famous Cat makeup in 2001.

In the interview that follows Singer discusses making the choice to wear that makeup, as well as the upcoming Kiss tour and their new movie Kiss Rocks Las Vegas.

Singer likes to talk. He has a lot to say. Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Singer tells it like it is. He shares early memories of being a Kiss fan, discusses rock ‘n’ roll and even says why neither Nikki Sixx, Gene Simmons nor Paul Stanley’s opinions on Twitter matter much to him. (If you’ve seen him play, his drums do most of the talking.)

This is a real chat with a real rock star… who just happens to have remained a regular guy.

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Jason Herndon

Blabbermouth

“Tonight’s the first night of the tour, and it couldn’t be any place hotter or any place cooler,” KISS frontman Paul Stanley told the crowd at the AVA Amphitheater as they braved 102-degree heat.

As part of the set, KISS honored the military by having a veteran, Lt. Col. Mellorya Crawford, an 18-year Army veteran stationed the last six years at Fort Huachuca, join the band’s road crew for the night.

“It’s not the politicians that make the country great, it’s the military,” Stanley stated. “Politicians make promises. The military delivers.”

Prior to the show, Crawford released a written statement in which she said: “I’m excited to represent other female veterans across the world. I’m looking forward to working with KISS during their first stop [of the ‘Freedom To Rock’ tour]. It will be amazing to actually meet them. I can remember listening to their music growing up and seeing their characters on ‘Scooby Doo’.”

KISS’s setlist for the Tucson concert:

01. Detroit Rock City
02. Deuce
03. Shout It Out Loud
04. Creatures of the Night
05. War Machine
06. Psycho Circus
07. Calling Dr. Love
08. Shock Me
09. Cold Gin
10. Lick It Up
11. I Love It Loud
12. 100,000 Years
13. Love Gun
14. Black Diamond

Encore:

15. Beth
16. Rock and Roll All Nite

The “Freedom To Rock” tour will hit 40 cities through the summer — many of them places that the band has either never played or hasn’t played in years.

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Jim Louvau | New Times

If you want the best rock ‘n’ roll concert in Arizona this summer, you’ll have to travel south. Rock legends Kiss kick off their ‘Freedom To Rock” tour at AVA Amphitheater in Tucson on the same day we celebrate America’s independence. Nothing says Fourth of July like a Kiss, right? Lame puns aside, the band has been very supportive of Wounded Warrior Project over the years, and has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to the charity, which is surely in the spirit of the holiday. We recently caught up with guitarist Paul Stanley and discussed tour preparation, giving the photographers what they want, reconnecting with original lead guitarist Ace Frehley, and one of the best YouTube videos to ever exist.

New Times: You’re starting your summer tour in Tucson on the Fourth of July; how do you prepare for a tour these days?
Paul Stanley: The same way I prepare for every week. You go and make sure you’re in the best shape you can be. Once you suit up, you’ve got a lot more on the line. I not only have to be great, but I have to exceed people’s memories of what Kiss is and what they remember. For me, it’s not about competing against other bands; it’s about competing with the legacy and the history of this band. To do that is something that is a part of my DNA. I’m not a fanatic, but I’m certainly working out every week regardless of a tour. But maybe I put the pedal down a little harder before a tour starts.

Do you guys have actual rehearsals at this point in your career, or or do you know the material pretty well by now?
Despite knowing the material, we would no more go out onstage without rehearsal than somebody would go into the ring to fight the fight of their life without training in the gym. You don’t do that; it’s not going to give the best results and for us. We have so much on the line. We have this history that people are so connected to, and I think it’s always been our obligation and commitment to not only live up to what people will remember but to exceed it. That’s a pretty big challenge. It’s not to be taken lightly; it’s always a matter of training and working with the band to make sure that we’re at our best.

You’ve been in Kiss for 40 years and you’ve been playing these songs forever; how do you keep it exciting not only for yourself but also for the fans?
Life is exciting, and I hope that’s contagious. I’m having a ball, and every time I hit the stage it’s a victory lap. At this point, we’ve made our point and we won. For me, those songs are classics. For me, we’ve created something iconic, and I’m not only in the band but I’m a fan of the band, so for me to see the band and hear us playing and to see the fervor of the audience — how could I not be excited? It’s an amazing position to be in, and one I don’t take lightly, and one that I celebrate every time I hit the stage. Continue reading →