Should Kiss earn a belated induction in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Gene Simmons has made it clear he’s not participating in a reunion with his fellow original members. That won’t keep Ace Frehley away. “There’s no way Gene can put a lid on it,” Frehley tells Eddie Trunk. “I mean, what’s he going to do?”
Kiss has grown increasingly fractured over the 15 years since it became eligible, as the good feelings engendered bya long-awaited 1990s-era reunion of Frehley, Paul Stanley, Simmons and Peter Criss have been completely forgotten. Kiss continues these days with replacements Tommy Thayer and Eric Singer, even as the remaining founders making increasingly inflammatory remarks.
Simmons flatly denies that he’ll ever play with Frehley and Criss again. “Gene’s living in the past,” Frehley says. “He’s become a caricature of himself, you know?” Meanwhile Stanley, in a comment that stuck with Frehley, offered that they’d never been friends in the first place. “I thought it was hysterical,” the guitarist adds. “I lived with the guy for years; we exchanged Christmas presents — and he’s telling me he’s not my friend?”
These worlds might, in fact, collide soon: Kiss led the now-closed Rock Hall’s fan ballot, with Nirvana just behind in second. Deep Purple, Yes, and Hall and Oates rounded out the Top 5 voting.