Monthly Archives: March 2020

The Hidden Meaning Behind the Lyrics of KISS’ Most Maligned Song.

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By John Ricard, photographer and lifelong KISS fan. 
 
“Let’s Put the X in Sex” is widely regarded as one of the worst KISS songs ever.  The title is stupid, the song simplistic and the video is derivative of videos by groups like Winger, Warrant, Ratt and Poison.  It was released at a time when KISS were popular, but no longer ground breaking.  Paul Stanley has famously said, “A trend is your friend,” and it was during the mid to late 80’s that the band were most definitely following the glam rock trends of the day.  
 
On the surface, the song appears to be nothing more than a mild wordplay on the term “X”, as in X-Rated.   It’s as if Paul is saying, “Let’s put the X-Rating in sex.”  The song was released on the “Smashes, Thrashes and Hits” compilation alongside another new song titled, “Rock Hard”.  That song had some of the worst KISS lyrics ever -no easy feat from the band who gave you, “Don’t need no doctor, putting me to bed / Give me the nurse and I’ll make sure that she’s fed.”  But in “Rock Hard”, the band reaches an all time low when Paul sings, “You make me rock hard, baby all night / Love’s like a glove and it fits just right.”  So it isn’t surprising that no one looked for a deeper meaning in, “Let’s Put the X in Sex”.  
 
But let’s do just that.
 

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The time Gene Simmons issued a bomb threat

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BackstageAxxess

“We were back at the hotel after the show, and people were going back to their rooms, ordering room service and that sort of thing,” he told BackstageAxxess in a recent interview. “Gene Simmons is a real stickler – if he’s in a hotel and he calls down to the front desk or room service or whatever, if it takes more than two or three rings for them to pick up, he really goes ballistic.”

Thayer recalled he was “sitting in [his] room… and the front desk [receptionist] calls and she says, ‘We got a real problem. We just called the SWAT team, the police, to come in, because one of your group has just threatened to blow the hotel up. I was thinking, ‘I think I know who that might be, actually.’ He says that jokingly – ‘You gotta pick up the phone, or I’ll blow this place up’ – that’s a Gene Simmons kind of thing.

“But it kind of got us into trouble, because the police showed up and they thought it was a real bomb threat. I had to assure everybody that it was okay, that this guy … just wanted his cookies and milk after the show.”

 

KISS Is ‘At Least Halfway’ Done With Documentary, Says TOMMY THAYER

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Blabbermouth

KISS guitarist Tommy Thayer has confirmed that the band is working on a “definitive” documentary which will include “rare and compelling” KISS-related media submitted by the group’s fans.

“I think we’re at least halfway into it,” Tommy told Niclas Müller-Hansen of Sweden’s RockSverige.se. “The director is John Dorsey and he’s done great things before. We’ve done interviews on camera and he’s putting together a lot of historic footage and talking to a lot of different sources, including us and our archives. It’s coming along. I’ve seen a little bit and I think it will be really exciting and really well done.”

As for the fan-submitted material that will be included in the documentary, Thayer said: “I know some guys that are big collectors and there’s this guy called Mark Cicchini, he’s one of the ‘Three Sides Of The Coin’ [KISS] podcast guys and he’s not only contributed material, but he also pointed John Dorsey in a lot of good directions as far as making contact with a lot of fans. We have a lot of great stuff in our archives for certain, but there’s still a lot of other unique and rare stuff out there that we don’t have. It’s a matter of sourcing that stuff.”

Tommy also talked about the recently announced KISS biopic, which is tentatively due in 2021. KISS manager Doc McGhee previously revealed that producer Mark Canton, who worked on the movie “300”, is involved in the project.

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Cher and Gene Simmons Broke Up After He Went Christmas Shopping with Diana Ross

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Yahoo

Who: Grammy-winning singer and Oscar-winning actress Cher, 73, and Kiss guitarist and co-lead singer Gene Simmons, 70.

How They Met: Though Cher and Simmons both belonged to the mainstream music scene, they didn’t exactly run in the same circles. Their meeting was a “fluke,” precipitated by both their shared support of former California Governor Jerry Brown and Cher’s son Chaz Bono’s love of Simmons’s band, Kiss. In early 1978, Cher and Simmons both attended a fundraiser for Brown. Chaz, then nine years old, reportedly begged his mom to help him get an autograph from the flamboyant musician.

By ’79, Simmons and Cher were going strong (enough). Cher, who’d been married and divorced twice by this point, called her and Simmons’s time together “the best relationship I’ve ever had with a human being.” But still, this being the ‘70s and all, neither party was monogamous. “Gene might spend time with another woman and stay the night, but he wants her to leave in the morning so he can get on with his day,” Cher told People about her boyfriend’s tour, uh, habits. While she herself admitted to the occasional dalliance “for companionship,” she admitted, “Gene is the one I’m crazy about.”

Why We Loved Them: Despite Simmons’s hardened rockstar exterior, he was actually quite sweet to Cher. He told People the pop icon was his “first love,” calling her “an untainted soul who has never done anything bad to anybody.” He even loved her “wonderful” kids, Chaz and Elijah Allman. “[Chaz] is going to be President of the U.S. someday,” he gushed. “[He] busts me.”

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Gene Simmons introduces Blue Ruin

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Alex Michael

After the release of their first EP, ”Green River Thriller”, Blue Ruin took the New Zealand market by storm, supporting bands such as Misfits, Steel Panther, Buckcherry and Cheri Currie of The Runaways. Shortly after, the band relocated to Europe to step it up a notch. After two successful headlining tours throughout Europe and the UK, Blue Ruin are beyond excited to announce that they will be embarking on yet another kick ass tour as support for the original Hollywood Vampires, LA Guns, featuring Phil Lewis and Tracii Guns.

May 13th – VIFTEN, Rodovre, Denmark
May 14th – VOXHALL, Aarhus, Denmark
May 15th – JOHN DEE, Oslo, Norway
May 18th – MATRIX, Bochum, Germany
May 19th –  BI NUU, Berlin, Germany
May 21st – ORION, Rome, Italy
May 22nd – BORDERLINE, Pisa, Italy
May 23rd – DRUSO, Bergamo, Italy
May 24th – NEW AGE CLUB, Treviso, Italy