Blabbermouth

VAN HALEN singer David Lee Roth joined FOO FIGHTERS on stage last night (Saturday, January 10) at the Forum in Los Angeles to perform two of his band’s biggest hits, “Panama” and “Ain’t Talking About Love”. Other onstage guests included MOTÖRHEAD‘s Lemmy Kilmister, Alice Cooper, Trombone Shorty, Joe Walsh, Perry Farrell (JANE’S ADDICTION), Zakk Wylde (BLACK LABEL SOCIETY), Nick Oliveri, Slash (GUNS N’ ROSES, VELVET REVOLVER), Jack Black and Kyle Gass of TENACIOUS D, and Paul Stanley (KISS). Stanley performed “Detroit Rock City” and “Destroyer” classic “Do You Love Me?” with the FOO FIGHTERS.

Cooper came up for “School’s Out” and “I’m Eighteen”. Wylde fronted FOO FIGHTERS for a pair of BLACK SABBATH songs, “N.I.B.” and “Fairies Don’t Wear Boots”, as well as the closing track, a cover of Chuck Berry‘s “Let It Rock”, with Slash and Lemmy. Farrell joined FOO FIGHTERS for JANE’S ADDICTION‘s “Mountain Song” and a cover of THE ROLLING STONES‘ “Miss You”. Fan-filmed video footage of the concert can be seen below. All tickets for the very special in-the-round performance benefitting multiple charities set the buyer back $50, with $10 of that sum being distributed amongst Rock School Scholarship Fund, MusiCares and Sweet Relief. “Sonic Highways”, the FOO FIGHTERS‘ eighth studio album, was recorded on location in eight different American cities, with the cameras following them around to each session. The show featured a history of each city’s local scene and musicians, as well as footage of the band recording the new disc with some of those local artists as guests. The album sold around 190,000 copies in the U.S. in its first week of release to land at No. 2 on The Billboard 200 album chart. The band will launch its biggest North American tour ever later this year, hitting arenas, amphitheaters and stadiums in the summer and fall.

Blabbermouth

Journey Of A Frontman recently conducted an interview with former KISS guitarist Bruce Kulick. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

On KISS possibly continuing to perform as a band without Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley:

“We’re not there yet. [laughs] I know that Eric [Singer, drums] made some comments saying he wouldn’t be into it. And I don’t think he would be into it. I think it would be kind of weird, because you’d have twenty, thirty years in the band and then be playing with guys that are cover guys. Bands like JUDAS PRIEST having Ripper Owens pop in for a while, he did a good job. Or JOURNEY with the Philippine kid that can sing like Steve Perry. I think that that model works.

“I mean, look, Gene and Paul didn’t wanna work with Ace [Frehley], [and] Peter [Criss] was done. It’s possible to insert somebody else to do that. So I don’t even think what they’re doing now is wrong at all. And honestly, I think it would be completely different if Gene and Paul were actually ready to step down. They’re not ready to step down yet. But, obviously, KISS fans love the conjecture of ‘what if?’ and ‘what do you think?’ Everyone goes wild, the boards and everything. It’s very askew in many directions. And I know Doc [McGhee, KISS‘s manager] had said some things about it, then Gene says, ‘It’s not true! Paul would come out and say something like that. Nothing like that is happening!’

“It’s silly to talk about while they’re still very vital and hungry and relevant and out there. But I don’t think just because Gene or Paul would say that they’re retiring that Tommy [Thayer, guitar] and Eric would still hang around, even though they’re little younger. Tommy‘s actually the youngest. I think it would be a whole different angle if something else would happen. That’s just my opinion. I have no facts behind it.

Read more at http://www.blabbermouth.net/news/bruce-kulick-weighs-in-on-possibility-of-kiss-continuing-without-paul-stanley-and-gene-simmons/#1DD0auDWDQHRLHfs.99

KISSmuseum.com

Most clearance items are discounted 50% or more off retail price! We just need to clear out the stuff we had left over from the holidays to make room for the new 2015 merchandise that will be coming in soon!

Some of the items are singles, others we have bulk. Regardless, it sells to whomever grabs it first! We need to get rid of this stuff and it is all drastically discounted to MOVE!

See the Sale Here at KISSmuseum.com

Mitch Lafon | Brave Words

Original KISS Krew member J.R. Smalling and former Beatlemania star Mitch Weissman guest on Episode 82 of One On One With Mitch Lafon. Drummer Matt Starr (Ace Frehley, Mr. Big) co-hosts.

In this extended episode’s only interview, J.R. Smalling discusses his book, The Original KISS Krew – Out On The Streets, which details the early days of being around and working for KISS. During this interview he also discusses working for Ted Nugent and Aerosmith. Mitch Weissman is along for the conversation and talks about writing with KISS and being personal friends of Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley. This is a must listen episode for any KISS geek.

With the release of Out On The Streets: The True Tales Of Life On The Road With The Hottest Band In The Land…KISS!, the band’s millions of fans worldwide will finally get an up-close and behind-the-curtain look at KISS’s formative years on the road.

This highly detailed 347-page book comes directly from the collective efforts of JR Smalling, Peter Oreckinto, Rick Munroe and the late Mick Campise, who comprised the core of the band’s original road crew from 1974 – 1976.  In Out on the Streets the four share an intimate and inside look at life on the road with KISS, and detail what it took to lay the foundation for one of the most spectacular and successful rock bands in history.

Out On The Streets digs into the dirt, the blue-collar work ethic, and the crew’s unwavering loyalty to KISS’s ridiculous “biggest band in the world” pipedream.  The four authors spin tales of fighting headline acts like Aerosmith just to get in and out of gigs, logging over 90,000 road miles in 1974 alone, wrestling with thieves and warding off racism.  There’s violent tragedy on a personal level, mind-numbing hours and days without rest, bullet-ridden vehicles, arrests, abject poverty, catalogs of carnal pursuits, broken promises and ultimately a skyrocket of success.

Rare photos, original itineraries, and detailed production schematics are just a few of the perks that litter the pages of this rich and rewarding memoir.

Out On The Streets is available directly from the authors themselves. The authors embellish the book with a thriving Facebook forum where they warmly connect with readers, fans, and the curious, answering questions and sharing additional memories and ephemera.

For more details visit Theoriginalkisskrew.com.

Joe

Ryan Ermey | Kiplinger

Pedro Mera

Even if you don’t know Gene Simmons’s music, chances are you know his face—the one he’s trademarked, anyway. The Kiss cofounder and bassist has established a personal brand that encompasses everything from his band’s thousands of licensed products to his co-ownership of an Arena Football League team called the LA Kiss.

Simmons’s latest venture is a money book titled Me, Inc. (Dey Street Books, $27). In it, he explains his branding strategy, a message sure to resonate with anyone looking for a job in today’s market. The philosophy in a nutshell: Never forget that marketing yourself is every bit as important as what you bring to the table. “If a vacuum cleaner salesman rings at your front door, he will be selling himself first. The vacuum cleaner is secondary,” Simmons writes.

The ambitious book covers other money topics, too, including investing, saving and home buying. Simmons says he set out to write an abridged version of all the money advice you never learned in school. “They don’t teach you how to pay taxes, earn a living and invest,” he says. “They teach you Columbus discovered America in 1492. Great. I’m prepared for life now.”

But the book addresses these subjects mostly with familiar financial platitudes. Simmons tells you to live within your means and riffs on Poor Richard’s Almanack (two pennies saved is one penny earned post-tax). Don’t expect more than the Cliff’s Notes version of personal finance. When Simmons does go into detail, he occasionally appears a little out of his depth. Sure, you shouldn’t buy a house you can’t afford, but if everyone waited to amass a net worth four times the value of the home they want to buy, as Simmons recommends, it would spell the end of homeownership as we know it. His idea of a diversified investment portfolio quickly devolves from stocks in the Dow Jones industrial average to penny stocks.

With Me, Inc., Simmons offers a glimpse into the financial mind of a rock legend. But don’t quit your (many) day jobs, Gene. Leave financial advice to the pros.

Matt Wardlaw | Ultimate Classic Rock

Thirty years ago this month, Bruce Kulick became the newest guitarist in Kiss. What would ultimately become an exciting 12-year ride with the group started off with some specific marching orders from Paul Stanley that Kulick really took to heart.

“Paul told me that he wanted me to play competitively with everybody that’s out there now,” Kulick tells Ultimate Classic Rock. “Alright, it’s 1984, well that means Van Halen has been famous for four or five years right? I don’t need to mention all the other bands that started to get out there with guitar players that are a lot more flashy than what a typical ‘70s guitar player would be. He wanted me to be able to do it all, and I know he had the right guy. I got what he meant. If the song meant do the finger tapping, do the whammy bar, go! Do it! If it meant just lay back and hold that one note, do that.

“So I really think it worked and it was a healthy 12 years for me and [there was] respect for me from those guys because I did have a lot of versatility as a player,” Kulick adds, “and I could adjust to both — respecting the past and working with the band to be wherever that next step was where they were going. Because you know every band has that evolution, and I feel like I was the right guitarist for that.”

Kulick had also taken notes on the guitarists who came before him. He factored that into his approach, as well. “I had respect for Mark St. John, even though I knew where he came from, what his musical vocabulary was and the players that he loved and listened to — and I was very shocked they chose him,” Kulick says. “Because he was into Alan Holdsworth, a brilliant guitar player. He was into John McLaughlin. He was into these more very fusion-jazz shredders, that I was like, ‘That’s not Kiss!’

“You know, just like you know that Steve Vai could certainly play anything any Kiss guitar player ever played. The guy is like an alien on the guitar. Would he work in Kiss? Of course not. It’s not needed. That kind of ability isn’t really the right match. Was he right for David Lee Roth? Yeah. He can add a twist — since who did David Lee Roth just play with not that long ago? Eddie Van Halen. So everything that a Vai can do, would it work in Kiss? No way. Gene [Simmons] likes to tell that [story] when Eddie was disgruntled with the band and he was unhappy with David and he goes, ‘I wanna be in your band!’ [Laughs.] You know what I mean? Come on. Yeah, he could kick ass on Kiss songs.

“You know, he was absolutely my hero for the flashy side of what I needed to bring to Kiss when they were looking for that, because Eddie, his vibrato and his approach to melodic guitar playing, it’s completely taken on a high-octane level from Eric Clapton,” Kulick says. “You hear it in his vibrato and his choice of notes. He forged a very unique kind of hot rod, super-charged, California, Pasadena, rock and roll style of guitar playing. But if he had never heard Eric Clapton, I don’t even know what Eddie would sound like, you know what I mean? But because in the same way that I could relate to Eddie, I could hear the Jimmy Page, I could hear that he listened to [Jimi] Hendrix, I could hear it in his choices.

“Because, you know, there’s only so many notes in a scale, and how many notes a guitar player can play,” Kulick says. “But the guitar’s a very unique instrument with so much nuance on how you bend the string, how you pull down, how you pick it. If you want to play behind the nut like Jimmy Page, if you want to whammy bar it — whatever. I knew what Ace [Frehley] was about, even though I think he was an extremely unique player — which is why I’m kind of relieved that I didn’t have to really mimic him. He had a certain kind of approach that I could kind of do my way but I didn’t have to imitate it exactly.”

Bruce Kulick ultimately played on five studio albums during his time with Kiss, but we wanted to focus in on the beginnings of his personal “Kisstory.” Here’s Part 1 of our talk …

Read More: 30 Years Later, Bruce Kulick Looks Back On Joining Kiss – Exclusive Interview | http://ultimateclassicrock.com/bruce-kulick-interview-part-one-2014/?trackback=tsmclip

Scott Diaz

I start 2015 by looking back at 2014. 2014 is marked as the year that I was lucky enough to meet the entire original and current lineup of KISS. I’m beyond lucky, I hope 2015 treats me this well…

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