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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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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Michael Brandvold