Ace Frehley: I was destined for stardom

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Screen Shot 2015-05-05 at 11.54.33 AMCasper of Silver Tiger Photography & Media Community recently conducted an interview with original KISS guitarist Ace Frehley. You can now listen to the chat using the SoundCloud widget below.

On his favorite memories of his time with KISS:

Ace: “Most of my memories with KISS are very fond. I mean, we created something really special. People could come to a KISS concert in the ’70s and for two hours they’d forget about all their problems and go into a world of fantasy. It was a very special time.”

On how it feels to know that he has influenced so many guitar players over the years:

Ace: “That’s something I don’t think about. People ask me, ‘How does it feel like to have influenced generations of guitar players?’ I mean, the first thing out of my mouth is, if I knew I was gonna influence generations of guitar players, I would have practiced more. [Laughs] But it’s something I don’t really dwell on. These days I kind of live in the now and look towards the future, and the past is the past. But I don’t really think too much about the fact of what an icon I am and how many people I’ve influenced. I kind of take it with a grain of salt.”

On whether he had any aspirations when he was growing up:

Ace: “I pretty much kind of knew that I was gonna be famous when I was 16 years old, and I used to tell everybody. Everybody used to say I was crazy, but if you interview any of my old friends, they’ll all tell you that I predicted it. It was just… it was fate. I just felt like I was destined for stardom. And I also believe if it wouldn’t have been with KISS, it would have been with somebody else.”

“Space Invader”, the first new solo album from Frehley in five years, sold around 19,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to land at position No. 9 on The Billboard 200 chart. The CD arrived in stores on August 19, 2014 via Entertainment One Music (eOne Music).

“Space Invader”, which was made available in Europe on August 18, 2014 (three days earlier in Germany and Scandinavia) through SPV/Steamhammer, includes 11 brand new original songs as well as a cover of Steve Miller‘s “The Joker”.

 

How I get ready: Gene Simmons

The Guardian

Gene SimmonsI have always been delusional about my looks. I look in the mirror and think: OK, you’re 6ft 2in and 235lb, and you’re not the worst or the best-looking guy in the world, but you can walk into any room and steal anybody’s wife or girlfriend. Confidence is enormously appealing and very disarming. “Hello,” I say, looking into a woman’s eyes, “I find you devastatingly attractive.”

My closet has lots of leather pants, snakeskin boots, the usual sort of thing. I have more conservative outfits for when I am doing business on Wall Street, when I have to push down my bouffy hair a little. I use lots of hairspray, making my hair rock hard. I started to go grey in my 20s and have coloured it ever since. I have destroyed the follicles, I’m sure, but at least it’s still all there.

Getting ready to be on stage with Kiss takes two hours. There’s a knack to doing the face – first I paint it white using Stein’s Clown White, then I take a pencil and draw the bat outline, freehand. After erasing the white within the bat design, I fill it with Stein’s Clown Black.

It takes me about 30 minutes to get it all off afterwards: you have to steam the face with really hot water, so the pores open up. I use Pond’s cream cleanser.

When it comes to confidence on a night out, if it doesn’t come naturally, bluff. Say there are two women at a party. One is much more attractive, but the so-so looking one has a twinkle in her eye. That’s the one he’s going to go for. But ladies, make it a little easier for the guy if you’re interested. That first hello is enormously welcoming.

 

Dave Grohl Recalls Kiss Army ‘Induction’ at ASCAP Pop Awards

Kory Grow | Rolling Stone

720x405-471615190Dave Grohl spoke to the power of Kiss Wednesday night when he honoredGene Simmons and Paul Stanley with an award recognizing their influence as a songwriting team. His speech was part of the ASCAP Pop Music Awards – put on by the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, an organization that collects money and pays songwriters for performances of their songs – where he presented the duo with the ASCAP Founders Award. The Doobie Brothers and St. Vincent were also honored at the Los Angeles ceremony.

Grohl recalled turning his bedroom into a “fucking shrine” to Kiss as he became a fan, lining it with posters and action figures. “Every morning, I would wake up in my tiny bedroom and take a good look at my superheroes before walking to school,” he said. “They got me through those years and ultimately inspired me to follow this unreasonable dream of becoming a professional rock & roll musician.” He liked the band so much, he said, that Kiss “even made fuckin’ disco look cool” with their 1979 single “I Was Made for Lovin’ You.”

“Forty years later, my love of Kiss is still strong,” Grohl said. “And these days I still spend every morning before school with Paul Stanley…in the parking lot of our kids’ fuckin’ elementary school, chatting about Zeppelin and Electric Lady [studios] and touring and school fundraisers. So I’d say that my unreasonable dream definitely came true.”

Last year, Stanley told Rolling Stone how he has seen Grohl every day for the past three years at their kids’ school, as well as what a big fan of the Foo Fighters he was. “There were times that I would hear music on the radio – just something great – and not know who it was and very often it was Foo Fighters,” he said. “It’s incredible to think of somebody coming out from behind the drums with such a full concept as Dave has had and create music. I mean, the first Foo Fighters album, that’s just Dave. So the template and everything he’s been working from is bigger than anyone expected from the guy who was just viewed as the drummer of Nirvana.”

Kiss’ Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley on the Next Generation of Rock Stars: ‘They Don’t Have a Chance’

Andrew Hampp | Billboard

720x405-471615190For 40 years, Kiss has built a legacy on being a must-see live spectacle, with elaborate makeup, costumes and pyro that can still pack arenas and stadiums around the globe. And indeed, the band’s founding members Paul Stanley andGene Simmons had finished a sold-out South American stadium tourjust hours prior to returning to Los Angeles.

The occasion? The ASCAP Pop Music Awards, where Simmons and Stanley accepted the ASCAP Founders Award, an annual honor given to a music pioneer. Though Kiss will continue to tour throughout the year, with treks that are about to take them into Germany, the Czech Republic and Australia, “it was always about the songs,” Stanley said in his acceptance speech. “For bands that last 40 years, it’s not about the smoke, it’s not about the makeup, it’s about the songs.”

Stanley, 62, and Simmons, 65, are the only founding members who still tour as Kiss, though they did reunite with Ace Frehley and Peter Criss for the band’s 2014 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. But in an interview with Billboard, the seemingly ageless rockers didn’t spend much time dwelling on the importance of certain trophies. Instead, they seemed genuinely grateful to be in the position of being a still-vital draw on the road that, Stanley says, can crank out some solid new tunes when the inspiration strikes.

Billboard: Congrats on receiving the ASCAP Founders Award. Given all the attention paid to your live show, what does winning a songwriting-based award mean to you?

Paul Stanley: I believe we come from a philosophy that really covets and looks up the source, whether it was the Brill Building and Goffin and King or Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, or the Gershwin Brothers or Lennon-McCartney, it really comes down to a great song. For us to be feted this way, join the company that have come before, it doesn’t suck.

How did Dave Grohl come to be selected for your introduction tonight?

Stanley: I’m friends with Dave, and really when I said would you come and do this he jumped at it. Look Dave is arguably the last major rock star of the last three decades. He’s filling stadiums worldwide because he understands his roots and that’s what we’re about. Some people have forgotten where we started and who inspired us.

It’s been just over a year since you received another distinct honor, being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. A year out, what does that recognition mean to you now?

Gene Simmons: I’m not sure. When you’re busy doing your own stuff it’s like running a race. You try not to look over your shoulder to see who else is in the race, you do the best you can. I think there’s a decided difference between the pop songwriters who are magnificent in their own way. I could never do what they do, which is to sit down and write a song and figure out which artist is gonna sing the song. I can’t do that. I think what we’re best at is writing songs for who we are. It’s an individual sort of approach, it’s defined, it’s for the fans. I don’t know that you can be all things to everybody, which is why there are different kinds of music. There are balladeers and guitar slingers and so forth. If your songs connect with the fans and they pump their fists in the air and go, “Yeah!!” that’s when a song really works. That’s the electric church of it. The glory hallelujah of it.

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Trailer for up-coming KISS meets Scooby-Doo movie

Brian Truitt | Courier-Post

They’ll be selling Scooby Snacks soon in Detroit Rock City.

The super-sleuthing canine and “the hottest band in the world” are teaming up in the animated film Scooby-Doo! and Kiss: Rock and Roll Mystery, available July 10 on digital HD platforms and July 21 on Blu-ray/DVD from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment.

Kiss members Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Eric Singer and Tommy Thayer voice their own characters in the movie, which centers on a Halloween concert at the group’s amusement park Kiss World. Scooby, Shaggy and the rest of the Mystery Inc. gang drop by to hear some tunes but wind up partnering with the musicians to take on the Crimson Witch, a spooky lady with a nefarious plan to summon the evil and powerful Destroyer from the alternate dimension of Kissteria.

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The cartoon Mystery features six classic Kiss numbers plus a new song by the band just for the film, which features guest voice stars Kevin Smith, Jason Mewes, Darius Rucker, Garry Marshall, Penny Marshall, Jennifer Carpenter and Pauley Perrette.

This isn’t the first time Kiss and Scooby have shared screen time: The band also appeared on a 2003 Halloween episode of What’s New, Scooby-Doo?

Decibel Geek – Conversation w/ Mark Slaughter on KISS, Vinnie Vincent

Chris Czynszak | Decibel Geek

This week Aaron and Chris celebrate the 4 year anniversary of Decibel Geek with an in-depth conversation with Mark Slaughter. Currently promoting his new solo album produced by Michael Wagener, ‘Reflections in a Rearview Mirror‘ Mark was kind enough to sit down in-person with Aaron, Chris, and Decibel Geek writer Billy Hardaway for a long-form talk on the new album, the history of Slaughter, and A LOT of discussion about his days working with Vinnie Vincent in the Invasion.

Vince Neil’s Outlaws easily dispatch rival LA KISS

Nick DeRiso | Ultimate Classic Rock

testimageHyped by ESPN2 as a Battle of the Bands, the AFL matchup between Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley‘s LA Kiss vs. Vince Neil‘s Las Vegas Outlaws instead was no contest. The now 2-1 Outlaws blew past the Kiss 61-48 in Los Angeles on Saturday (April 11), keeping LA winless on the season.

In fact, the Kiss are on an eight-game losing streak dating back to last year. But that hasn’t stopped fans from flocking to their games. (Los Angeles averaged just under 11,000 fans a night in their 2014 inaugural season, while the Outlaws played before just over 4,000 last week at home.) It also hasn’t stopped this new matchup from becoming an instant grudge match.

First-year Las Vegas owner Neil, for instance, snagged former Kiss quarterback Aaron Garcia as head coach. Outlaws fullback Joe Mortenson also played in L.A. last year. “There’s rivalries all across the league,” Outlaws quarterback J.J. Raterink told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “This one seems like a natural because of the proximity of the teams and given who the owners are.”

Neil posted a celebratory tweet after his Outlaws used a 27-point fourth quarter to defeat the Kiss. The two teams will meet for a second time on May 4 back in Las Vegas.

 

And make no mistake, these rockers-turned-sports moguls are taking all of this very seriously. Both Simmons and Stanley have been fixtures at the LA games. They even started a team-based reality show.

Neil, meanwhile, reportedly told the in-house disc jockey at the Outlaws’ Thomas & Mack Center not to play Kiss music over the facility’s PA system, only to hear “Rock and Roll All Night” during the fourth quarter of a March 30 loss to the AFL’s San Jose SaberCats. There was a new DJ at the arena last week, according to the Review-Journal.

Bruce Kulick ‘waves flag’ for KISS’s non-makeup years

Blabbermouth

Natalia Britt of California Rock News conducted an interview with former KISS and current GRAND FUNK RAILROAD guitarist Bruce Kulick prior to his ESP guitar master class clinic for 6-string.com. You can now watch the chat below.

Speaking about his time in KISSKulick said: “KISS is one of those bands that the whole world knows, and usually, people that aren’t really a fan will only think of makeup as KISS, because that’s what, of course, made them famous and they’ve been back in that for so many years. But a real fan knows there’s a whole wealth of material — over a decade of years that are non-makeup, which is… I kind of wave the flag for all of that.”

He continued: “If you, for example, didn’t know there was a makeup KISS, and there wouldn’t have been a version for me to join if it wasn’t for the makeup KISS, but the truth is… When I was in the band, we kept it going, we had hits, we had gold, platinum records, toured the world — arenas, the whole thing… But I find, even with them continuing, and they turn on new generations of fans. So they… For instance, they were in Japan not that long ago, and now they’re going to South America, and now I’m seeing a lot of people following me on Twitter and Facebook [from] South America. In Japan, I picked up all these fans that started following me, ’cause [KISS recently] went to Japan. And they did something very smart in Japan, where they kind of were doing gigs with a very popular pop group of little Japanese women. And that was really interesting, even though it looks odd. But it exposed KISS, and what KISS represents, and everything about KISS‘ music and the vibe of KISS to a whole another generation.”

Kulick added: “I noticed I’m getting all these tweets from fans over there… It’s written in Japanese letters; I don’t know what it is. I go, ‘Why would a 15-year-old know about me?’ But, again, it’s because [KISS is] out there. KISS is one of those bands that you just keep sharing, the same way, I’m sure… Now AC/DC is coming out with a new record and everything, and they’re gonna be touring, so there’ll be new 15-year-olds that will [go], ‘Oh my God! AC/DC. This is amazing.’ And that’s what’s great about the kind of music that I grew up with.”

In 1984, Bruce joined KISS, where he remained as their lead guitarist for twelve years, accompanying the band on the “Animalize” tour and continuing with the band until the 1996 reunion tour. Bruce is heavily featured on “Kissology – Vol. 2” and “Vol. 3”, the band’s DVDs spanning their historic 35-year career.

Kulick‘s third solo album, “BK3”, was released in Europe in January 2010 via Frontiers Records and in North America in February 2010 through Twenty 4 Records/Rocket Science Ventures. The first single from the album, “Hand Of The King”, featuring Nick Simmons (son of KISS bassist/vocalist Gene Simmons), was a digital-only release available at all online music stores, including iTunes.
Read more at http://www.blabbermouth.net/news/bruce-kulick-waves-flag-for-kisss-non-makeup-years/#fRxFV5fAjdOHKoFC.99

Ace Frehley Working on Covers Album that May Feature Songs by The Rolling Stones, The Who and…KISS

Cameron | Hays Post

ace-frehley-2-billboard-april-11-2014-4001Ace Frehley’s most recent solo album, Space Invader, was released only about six months ago, but the ex-KISS guitarist already has started work a new record.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Famer tells Billboard that he’s recording a covers project that will feature songs by bands that inspired his own music.

“The album’s going to be about my influences,” explains Frehley.

“I’m probably going to do a Rolling Stones song, a Who song, possibly a Led Zeppelin song, maybe a Beatles song.  Stuff from bands that I grew up on and greatly influenced me.”

The 63-year-old rocker also says he’s recording new renditions of some vintage KISS material, as well as a track by his solo group Frehley’s Comet.

Ace has asked some famous fellow rockers to contribute their talents to the record, including Slash, Lita Ford and Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready, although it’s not clear if they’ve accepted the invitation.

Frehley also tells Billboard that he’s considering calling on his former KISS band mate Gene Simmons “to play bass on a track and sing with me.”

With regard to the KISS tunes he’s thinking about remaking for the album, Ace reports that he’s “probably going to redo both ‘Cold Gin’ and ‘Parasite,’” which are songs that he wrote but that Simmons originally sang.

As for the project’s status, Frehley tells Billboard he plans to record six to eight more songs, then choose the 12 tracks he likes the best.

Frehley will be heading Down Under soon for a tour in support of Space Invader that kicks off April 24 in Wellington, New Zealand, and runs through a May 7 show in Mount Lawley, Australia.  He also has a European trek lined up in June.

 

Q+A: Gene Simmons book reveals behind-the-scenes secrets, sex of KISS rocker

Robin Leach | Las Vegas Sun

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L.E. Baskow

A local author has penned an intriguing parody book and behind-the-scenes look at rock legend Gene Simmons. Packed with interesting facts, the tome “Gene Simmons Is a Powerful & Attractive Man — and Other Irrefutable Facts” is published by Plume Books from the Penguin Group and also is available as an eBook. Gene authorized the book and also wrote its foreword.

With tongue firmly planted in his cheek, Gene himself sets the tone of the book: “I have known Gene Simmons for a very long time. Over the years, I have witnessed astounding feats, met incredible people and seen amazing places, but none so astounding, incredible or amazing as Gene Simmons himself.

“I look at Gene Simmons, a 60-plus-year-old man with the energy and vitality of a teenager, and think he is exactly the living legend he always knew he would be. To this day, I am still Gene’s closest friend, ally, admirer and confidante. I am his biggest fan. So I can say with complete confidence that even now, Gene’s best is still yet to come. The best thing about Gene Simmons is that there will only ever be one. It’s been the honor of a lifetime knowing him.”

He admits in the book to sleeping with 5,000 women because he wanted “to get all the girls.” “There was only one reason why I made the decision to become a rock god: Girls!”

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