Gene Simmons Says Monster Will Be More Primal

Jeremy Thomas | 411 Mania

KISS frontman talks about upcoming album…

Gene Simmons recently spoke with Billboard about KISS’ new album Monster, which releases October 16th. Check out the highlights:

On the lyrics for the album: “A lot of the lyrics and points of view have less to do with sort of the cocksmanship, craftsmanship — ‘Hey babe, I’m gonna rock you all night long,’ and are more about sort of primal notions about who we are and how we feel. So something like ‘The Devil is Me,’ for instance, is more confessional; you can keep pointing your fingers at all the evil in the world, but you’ve got some of it and here’s the Lord’s decree — the devil is me. Maybe there’s a little devil in all of us.”

On the quality of the album: “[It is] one of the best or the top three albums we’ve ever done.”

On Paul Stanley producing the album: “In both instances he put aside everything else in his life and was there. I no longer have that patience or the temperament to be strapped in the studio for three months. There’s too much going on outside, and who better to trust than (Stanley)? He’s a very good team player and isn’t afraid to say, ‘Yeah, maybe I’m not right? Let’s try this’ or ‘Let’s try that.’ We’d go in and just try anything. It’s really a band effort, like four guys in a car but somebody’s got to be driving and everybody else is going, ‘No, turn right here, turn right there!’ Ultimately we’re all going to the same place, and Paul got us there.”

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Kiss’ Gene Simmons Reveals How He Avoids Getting Tired on Stage

Katie Sheehan | Artist Direct

Kiss bassist Gene Simmons is like a warrior going into combat when he hits the stage, telling VH1 Classic Radio that he doesn’t get tired when taking the stage, even at age 62.

“Physically you can be tired but you can’t be tired unless you’re mentally tired,” Simmons said. “That’s called fatigue. When you’ve got mental fatigue, it doesn’t matter what shape you’re in, you’re done. If you’re excited in your mind, actually something happens physically which is adrenaline is released into your system and you get that get-up and go thing. You know, whether you’re completely insane, mad men are difficult to bring down – you can have five cops trying to bring down a man who’s insane because there’s so much juice going through his system, and that’s sort of like what happens on stage.” Sounds like an accurate assessment!

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