Keith Spera | The Times-Piayune
Danny Bourque
Want to know the back story of why KISS won’t perform during the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony on April 10? Read Brian Hiatt’s 7,600-word, comprehensive cover story on the band/soap opera in the current issue of Rolling Stone.
Founding bassist Gene Simmons and singer/guitarist Paul Stanley, who have ruled the KISS empire for 40 years, have made clear they won’t play because the Hall of Fame will only induct the band’s four original members. That undercuts the legitimacy – and marketability – of the current roster, which features guitarist Tommy Thayer and drummer Eric Singer. Hall of Fame officials, meanwhile, have made clear that, in their opinion, only the original four should be inducted.
For Thayer and Singer to perform at the induction without actually being inducted would be awkward. And Stanley and Simmons wouldn’t play without them.
Hiatt’s remarkably intimate and honest portrayal, respectful but goosed with the occasional snarky aside, makes clear why.
For four decades, Simmons and Stanley have been the sober, hyper-ambitious professionals who have run the band like a business, and lucratively so. Frehley and Criss long ago partied themselves out of the empire.
KISS was long snubbed by both Rolling Stone and the Hall of Fame. The band was eligible for induction 15 years ago, but wasn’t voted in until this year. And despite massive sales, scandalous behavior and a vast, loyal legion of fans, Rolling Stone declined to put KISS on the cover until now.