Dan Epstein | Rolling Stone

There are two sides to every story. Unless, of course, you’re talking about Kiss, in which there are now four. With the April 8th publication of Paul Stanley’s Face the Music: A Life Exposed, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame nominees will have seen each of its original members publish a tell-all memoir. Paul’s book follows in the platformed footsteps of Gene Simmons’ Kiss and Make-Up (2001), Ace Frehley’s No Regrets: A Rock ‘N’ Roll Memoir(2011) and Peter Criss’s Makeup to Breakup: My Life In and Out of Kiss (2012). But in certain instances, the bandmembers appear to have some diverging memories of key moments in the group’s history. We hit the books to try and figure what happened.

Kiss Forever: read our full Kiss cover story now

DESIGNING THE KISS LOGO

Ace
“Being excited about my new band, I roughed out a sketch of the original Kiss logo in no time at all. It wasn’t a whole lot different than the logo as it appears today. My original concept featured the twin S’s in jagged detail, like lightning bolts, and a small dot in the shape of a diamond over the letter ‘i.’ I then transferred the logo to a button using a felt-tip pen and presented it to the group . . . Everyone loved it. Paul was a trained artist, so when things got really serious he polished my design, making everything nice and neat.” 

Paul
“[Ace] was a pretty decent artist. I took his sketch and used it as the basis for a series of Kiss logos I designed, ultimately arriving at the one that has adorned all things Kiss for the past forty years. I vividly remember sitting on my parents’ sofa while they were out of town and drawing up the final version on thick white stock using a straightedge and a drafting pen . . . Ace’s concept was closer to the Nazi SS. I certainly suspected that was his inspiration, and the fact that a few years later he bought Nazi memorabilia on our first tour confirmed this in my mind.”

Gene
“I remember very clearly when our picture went up on the outside of the club [the band was playing], Ace took a marker and wrote our new name right on the picture. The way he drew it was pretty crude, but it resembled our logo, with the two S’s like lightning bolts at the end of the word.”

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Mike Brandvold

Mitch Lafon

Mitch Weissman once played the role of ‘Paul McCartney’ in the original Broadway production of Beatlemania, but it’s his association with Gene Simmons and KISS that fans keep asking him about. Mitch Weissman goes one-on-one in this interview with rock journalist, Mitch Lafon. During the conversation, we find out about Mitch’s involvement in Gene Simmons’ 1978 solo album, writing and submitting songs for the KISS album Creatures Of The Night, Lick It Up, Animalize and Crazy Nights (as well as the heavily KISS connected Wendy O’ Williams album, WOW.) Weissman even lifts the veil of mystery surrounding ghost musicians on those KISS albums and comes clean as to what he did and did not play on. Also, hear Mitch tell stories about Cher, Aerosmith’s Joe Perry and Jimmy Crespo, former Aerosmith managers Steve Leber and David Krebs as well as Cheap Trick’s Rick Nielsen.

Talking Metal

On this episode of the podcast former Kiss guitarist Bruce Kulick announces that his 3 solo albums will soon be released on iTunes for the first time.  He also mentions that the iTunes release of the BK3 album will have 2 new bonus tracks.  Other interview topics include Grand Funk Railroad, Michael Bolton, Judas Priest, Gene Simmons, Tommy Thayer, Mark St. John, Paul Stanley, Vinnie Vincent, Eric Carr, Ace Frehley and his recent marriage.

Hear the Bruce Kulick interview HERE

Joe Polo