Dynasty, Evolution in KISStory

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Kisstorian Brothers

As I listen to it now, seemingly 100,00 years from 1979, it dawns on me that KISS‘s controversial release, Dynasty, is a direct result of the 4 solo albums, damn good and in many ways the band’s ‘White Album’; disjunct yet many splendored. Strong as it is, turns out that selling out is a ‘Dirty Livin’.

For all it’s detracting elements, Dynasty is time piece worth revisiting on so many levels, a pivotal moment in KISStory that sees the band at their apex staring into the abyss. In a mere 5 years, KISS had gone from a dirty underground leathered shock rock band with a demonic tinge, largely thanks to Simmons early incarnations, to the biggest fucking band in the world. ‘The Return of KISS’ in ’79 with Dynasty is mega-KISS fully mechanized for world domination, with a sure-fire disco hit for radio as the ace up their sleeves. ‘Beth’ lit the radio lamp, and others kept it afloat (‘Hard Luck Woman’, ‘Dr. Love’) but ‘I Was Made For Loving You’ signaled that KISS had no choice but to compete, something ironically no one believed they’d be able to do beyond the initial buzz. Dynasty proved all the early critics wrong and yet proved them all right: KISS was more a ‘business’ than a band, as they had suspected. By 1979, KISS had over-saturated the market with product and, ironically, become almost too good, and certainly too well packaged. In modern terms, KISS had been on an amazing run but were ‘played out’.

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KISS’ Paul Stanley calls Kim Kardashian’s business advice “an insult to millions of women”

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NME

KISS frontman Paul Stanley has criticized Kim Kardashian over her recent advice encouraging women in business to work harder.

Kardashian and her family were recently profiled by Variety about their upcoming new reality show The Kardashians, which arrives on Hulu on April 14.

A clip from the interview, in which Kim offers her advice for women in business, went viral after many mocked her comments for being rude and out of touch.

“I have the best advice for women in business,” Kardashian said. “Get your fucking ass up and work. It seems like nobody wants to work these days.

“You have to surround yourself with people that want to work,” she continued. “Have a good work environment where everyone loves what they do because you have one life. No toxic work environments and show up and do the work.”

Responding to Kardashian’s comments, Paul Stanley shared an article on his Twitter, criticizing her for the implication that women just weren’t working hard enough.

“The irony here would be funny if it wasn’t such an insult to millions of women who struggle to achieve and put food on the table while battling a system of inequality and inequities. Kim, You were born rich. Embrace it with grace by not being blind.”

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Gene Simmons on Kurt Cobain: ‘Just because you died that makes you an icon? No’

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NME

Kiss bassist Gene Simmons has said that artists like Kurt Cobain and Amy Winehouse, who only released a handful of albums, cannot be seen as music icons.

Simmons was speaking about the current state of the music industry, in an interview where he discussed the importance of major record labels in supporting artists to have long-term careers.

“The internet’s a fascinating experiment, but ultimately it’s a very sad state of affairs for the new bands,” he told Team Rock Radio. “There won’t be another Beatles or another Prince or another Kiss because there isn’t that support system, there’s no record companies because kids have decided they can download and fileshare and bypass paying the artists what they rightfully should be getting.”

Simmons then compared the music industry between 1958 and 1983 with post-1984 era, naming artists of each time that can be considered as definite music icons. “Let me see – Elvis Presley, The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, The Who and just on and on. And through the ’70s – Aerosmith, Kiss, Led Zeppelin. Now from 1984 until today, name one superstar that’s bigger than their music, and not just somebody that’s recorded one or two records, but another Queen or another AC/DC? None, you can’t name one.”

He then added: “Kurt Cobain – no, that’s one or two records, that’s not enough. Amy Winehouse – that’s one or two records, that’s not enough. What, just ’cause you died that makes you an icon? No, no.”

Simmons then concluded, saying the many bands are currently adopting the “Radiohead model” where fans pay whatever they want for an album. “But it doesn’t work, doesn’t it?” he said.

 

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Gene Simmons to Artists – Stand in Solidarity, Don’t Play in Russia

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TMZ

KISS’ Gene Simmons has stern words for bands still on the fence when it comes to their Russian concerts — what are you waiting for? Cancel it!

We got Gene at Kings Road Cafe Thursday in Los Angeles … he says bands should stick together in solidarity and take Russia off their tour schedules — something KISS is doing.

He tells us there are more important things happening in the world that should take priority over a simple rock concert — obviously referring to the war in Ukraine.
Gene thinks an American band that travels and puts on a show for the Russian people would be giving a thumbs up to President Vladimir Putin and his current attack.

Ever since the war began, artists have been pulling out of their Russian performances — Imagine Dragons, Eric Clapton, Gorillaz, and Louis Tomlinson are just a few.
A good number of bands are sticking to their plans for now … most likely to see how things blow over, but only time will tell.

KISStorian Brothers – Candid STARCHILD calls w/KID KING KISS to benifit MAMI.org

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KISStorian Brothers

More phone calls about KISS as we again eves-drop on semi-revelatory candid calls from KISS founder and Elder THE STARCHILD of KISS to life-long KISS Army mystery-man Jason ‘KID-KING-KISS! From Paul’s UBER stint to his KISS KRUISE pitch, SOUL STATION, NASHVILLE CREATUIRES FEST and blueberry pancakes in bed, Jason gets the us the straight dope! Because of organizations like NAMI.org, and your support, great people like our friend Jason ‘Kid-King-KISS’ can live happy, enriched safe lives full of dreams like the one KISS created that brought us all together! — Support mental health awareness and the people it affects most at www.NAMI.org


How Kiss’ Paul Stanley Was Involved in Bon Jovi’s Biggest Studio Album

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Showbiz CheatSheet

Paul Stanley of the classic rock band Kiss had the opportunity to write songs for Bon Jovi. He turned down the offer. Despite this, he helped Bon Jovi’s Slippery When Wet become a classic album.

What happened when Kiss’ Paul Stanley spoke to Jon Bon Jovi’s manager

In his 2014 autobiography, Face the Music: A Life Exposed, Stanley discussed crossing paths with the lead singer of Bon Jovi. “Jon Bon Jovi was a smart guy and always sat with us at the hotel bar and asked questions about how various production expenses broke down,” Stanley recalled. “He was intent on getting as much information as possible, and he asked business questions. Now that we were basically managing ourselves, we had the answers.”

How Kiss’ Paul Stanley reacted to ‘Slippery When Wet’

Stanley gave Child’s phone number to McGhee. “Maybe a year later, Desmond came over to my apartment and played Slippery When Wet for me, the album he ended up writing with Jon and Richie,” Stanley recalled.

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KISStorian Brothers – Animalized in the ’80s

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KISStorian Brothers

Way too much to unpack here, that’s why there’s audio. There are times when us brothers pick up the phone with the expressed intent of talking about KISS, this is one of those times. Tonight’s un-edited bounty vibrates relentlessly in our formative teenage years in the 80’s, ‘Animalizing’ with KISS sans make-up! – KISStorian.com

 

Paul Stanley: I Am Finally Ready to Embrace ‘Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park’

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The Hollywood Reporter

With Studio 666 (out Feb. 22), The Foo Fighters continue in a long, not-always-successful tradition of bands attempting movie stardom. The new horror-comedy is a spiritual successor to 1978’s Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park — one of the most critically maligned yet passionately loved kitsch oddities to emerge from that decade.

The hard rock band’s elaborate costumes, face makeup and pyrotechnic stage shows helped turn them into one of the biggest acts in the world at the time (between 1977 and 1979, they sold $100 million in records and merchandise, roughly $400 million today), and their manager, Bill Aucoin, wanted to take it to the next level. Curiously, Hanna-Barbera, the animation studio behind The Flintstones and The Jetsons, was chosen to produce the TV film for NBC.

Phantom shot at Magic Mountain near L.A. and followed a mad scientist (Anthony Zerbe) whose animatronic Kiss members do battle with the real ones (who happen to have superpowers like fire-breathing and laser eyes).

“I embrace it like an ugly child,” says Kiss co-founder Paul Stanley. “You have to realize that we were like these imbeciles who got to take over the school. We knew nothing about acting, nothing about filmmaking. We were sold the idea of the film in a sentence that was virtually, ‘A Hard Day’s Night meets Star Wars.’ Well, it was far from either.” If anything, it ended up closer to The Star Wars Holiday Special, which debuted a month later on CBS: an embarrassment that grew into a fan favorite over time.

Stanley, 70, spoke at length with The Hollywood Reporter about the making of the 1978 cult classic.

Seeing Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park as a child left a huge impression on me. To me, it was the coolest thing ever. And then I was reading up on it, and I saw you guys disowned it. Do you still feel that way?

I guess you would have to define it as kitsch, although it wasn’t supposed to be that in the beginning. But you had four guys who never read the script, who were clueless about even the fundamentals of acting, basically allowed to do whatever we wanted to. And a take was considered anything where we didn’t flub our lines.

How far along were you in this idea of Kiss having a mythology around it when you were first presented with the idea of a movie?

I was trying to place whether the Kiss Marvel Comics came first, but I think Kiss Meets the Phantom may have come first. It is kind of a chicken or the egg, and it was an ugly chicken. [The first Kiss comic book predated the film by one year.]

I don’t remember. I don’t remember much, honestly. When we were introduced to the idea of the film, we basically said, “Make a film? Great.” It was kind of like The Little Rascals. “Let’s put on a show.” There was so much going on at that time. Two members of the band weren’t speaking to the other two members of the band. We had both [lead guitarist] Ace [Frehley] and [drummer] Peter [Criss], who would [act] on whatever whim might cross their mind. They would leave the set in the middle of shooting. In some scenes, we have stand-ins and stunt doubles [playing us]. And the idea of “the talisman” [which gave us our powers] — clearly we’d never heard the term talisman. Look, we were idiots, and we were suddenly put into a position where The Marx Brothers were being taken seriously.

Did it occur to you at the time that you might be making a dud?

I remember that Anthony Zerbe, who was a credible actor, who played the mad scientist — which, every film needs a mad scientist — he was not terribly enamored to be working with us. We weren’t used to being corralled or told what we needed to do. I just remember at one point being on set at Magic Mountain and turning to my manager at the time, Bill Aucoin, and saying: “I think this is going to be horrible.” And he said, “Don’t worry.” You should never hear anybody say, “Don’t worry.” You know?

How did the NBC executives react to the final product?

They gave us a viewing of the film before it aired on NBC. And I just slid further and further down in my chair. By the time it was over, I was looking at chewing gum on the bottom of the seats. I remember a scene where we were levitating some magic box, and you could see the wires onscreen. And in typical Hollywood fashion, when it was over, people were coming over and shaking my hand and congratulating me.

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