Blabbermouth

During an interview with the “Karlson & McKenzie” show on Boston’s WZLX 100.7 FM radio station, former KISS guitarist Ace Frehley was asked about the possibility of the band one day carrying on without any original members, including main songwriter Paul Stanley.

“That’s the most ridiculous statement I’ve ever heard [Stanley and KISS bassist/vocalist Gene Simmons] make,” Ace said (hear audio below). “I think the only reason they make those statements at this juncture is to try to validate the fact that they have two other guys in the band that aren’t the original members. So they’re trying to rationalize to the fans, ‘Well, you know, we replaced Peter [Criss, original KISS drummer] and we replaced Ace, and eventually we’re gonna replace ourselves. That’s like [THE ROLLING STONES singer] Mick Jagger saying, ‘Yeah, after me and Keith [Richards, THE ROLLINGS STONES guitarist] die, THE STONES will continue on with two other guys.’ I mean, it’s a joke.”

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Blabbermouth

Original KISS guitarist Ace Frehley was interviewed on “The Boris & Robyn Show” on WPDH 101.5 FM in Poughkeepsie, New York. You can now listen to the chat in the YouTube clip below.

Asked why KISS bassist/vocalist Gene Simmons ended up not appearing on Frehley‘s upcoming “Origins Vol. 1” collection of covers, Ace said: “Well, I tried calling Gene a couple of times and I got his answering machine. So I shot him a few different texts. I even went as far as to get ahold of Doc McGhee [KISS‘s manager] and tell Doc to let Gene know I wanted to get ahold of him. And I guess either he didn’t get the message or he was just too busy. So I said, ‘Well, let me reach to Paul [Stanley, KISS frontman].’ I had Paul‘s cell phone [number] in my phone. I gave him a buzz, and he picked up immediately. And from the outset, he thought it was a great idea and would be a lot of fun. It took a while to choose which song we wanted to do. We were originally thinking about DEREK AND THE DOMINOS‘ [version of Jimi Hendrix‘s] ‘Little Wing’, then we were kicking around maybe ‘My Generation’ [by THE WHO]. But towards the end of the elimination process, I came up with the idea for [FREE‘s] ‘Fire And Water’, and he loved it.”

Chris Medek

Jody Havenot

Michael Brandvold

kissarchives

Blabbermouth

Rock And Roll Fantasy Camp celebrates its 20th anniversary with two amazing summer camps — rock icons Paul Stanley (KISS) along with Don Felder (formerly of THE EAGLES) June 23-26 and JUDAS PRIEST – “Vol. 2: Hell Bent For Hollywood” on August 4-7.

As headliners at Rock And Roll Fantasy Camp, attendees will jam and perform with Paul Stanley and members of JUDAS PRIEST at the Rock And Roll Fantasy Camp facility, as well as at the legendary Whisky A Go Go on the Sunset Strip in Hollywood. They will also jam with Don Felder and Mark Farner at the Rock And Roll Fantasy Camp facility on some of the biggest rock and roll songs in history.

Said JUDAS PRIEST in a statement: “We had such a blast last time with the fantasy camp, it’s time for an encore! Four of JUDAS PRIEST are primed to bang out some more metal adventures at this one of a kind experience!”

Over the course of four days, attendees will be placed into bands led by rock star counselors including Rudy Sarzo (QUIET RIOT, WHITESNAKE), Vinny Appice (DIO, BLACK SABBATH) and many more. Musicians will hone their stage presence, learn to play some of music’s greatest songs, get tips and hear stories of life on the road from their rock star counselors, attend master classes and jams rooms with these renowned musicians and then perform live with their band in front of a packed house at the infamous Whisky A Go Go on the Sunset Strip.

“To be part of Rock And Roll Fantasy Camp isn’t just a fantasy for the people who are here, it’s my fantasy too, it’s really a gift to me as much as anybody else,” said Paul Stanley.

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Dave Lifton | Ultimate Classic Rock

Could Paul Stanley‘s involvement on Ace Frehley‘s upcoming album, Origins Vol. 1, signal Frehley’s return to Kiss? In a new interview, Frehley said he’s “not ruling it out.”

On the new episode of the “One on One With Mitch Lafaon” podcast, which you can listen to below, Frehley talked about how he was able to get his former band mate to contribute vocals on a cover of Free‘s “Fire and Water.” After Gene Simmons didn’t respind to his attempts to reach out, “I said to myself, ‘Let me give Paul a call.’ And I called Paul, and he picked up the phone right away, and I told him what I was doing, and he was very receptive from the very beginning about getting on the record. He said, ‘Oh, that’ll be fun.’”

Alberto Rodriguez

After choosing Free’s song over the Who‘s “My Generation,” Stanley tracked his part. However, there was no reunion in the studio. “I didn’t actually see Paul,” he added, “’cause I was busy mixing and overdubbing, and he was very busy at the time, so we just forwarded him the basic tracks, and him and his engineer threw on the lead vocal, and while he was doing that, I was doing something else. And then we got it back, and I took it home with me and threw down the guitar solos. And it just kind of came together. It’s amazing how quickly and painlessly you can work these days with e-mails. You just fly stuff into Pro Tools and it pops up on the screen, and you’re good to go, as long as you know what you’re doing.”

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Luke Morgan Britton | NME

KISS singer Gene Simmons has said that he is “looking forward to the death of rap” in a new interview.

The rock frontman recently spoke to Rolling Stone when he said: “I am looking forward to the death of rap. I’m looking forward to music coming back to lyrics and melody, instead of just talking. A song, as far as I’m concerned, is by definition lyric and melody… or just melody.”

“I’m all for anybody talking,” he added. “‘Wild Thing’ was talking: ‘Wild thing, she makes my heart sing/ she makes everything … .’ There’s no melody there. That’s cool. Napoleon XIV, ‘They’re Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa!’ That’s a funny song, but those are novelty records. So was Dickie Goodman and ‘Mr. Jaws.’ These were all hits, by the way. But predominantly, music is about melody and lyric, whether it’s rap or doo-wop, or yeah, even rock.”

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KISSmuseum.com

Unboxing of the new 2016 KISS 3.75 inch Love Gun figures! We take them out of the packaging to show the hidden bonus items inside and construct the KISS Stage and 3-D Love Gun album cover representation – both remarkably bringing the figures to life.

See the new KISS Figures at KISSmuseum.com

Kory Grow | Rolling Stone

When Paul Stanley thinks about Destroyer, Kiss‘ high-concept fourth album, turning 40, the only word he can summon at first is “unbelievable.” “It’s stunning,” the singer-guitarist tells Rolling Stone. And then he regains his humor. “To think that it was 40 years ago is absolutely mindboggling. Because I’m only 40 now.”

“It seems like yesterday,” drummer Peter Criss says. “I do believe, personally, that album was Kiss’s ‘Stairway to Heaven.’ Let me overstep my bounds [laughs]. But I do believe it was our ‘wow’ album.”

The group recorded the LP in a couple of sessions with producer Bob Ezrin, whose prior credits at that time included smash records by Alice Cooper, Lou Reed and Aerosmith. “We had done three albums, all that sold far less than what we expected,” Stanley says. “Then our manager, Bill Aucoin, gave us the idea of creating a sonic souvenir, almost like something you would bring home from the circus, a memento that captured what you had experienced. That became [1975’s] Alive! Finally, we’d had a hit. Bill said, ‘You could easily go back to where you were if we don’t come up with something that really ups the ante.’ He suggested we work with Bob Ezrin.”

The producer pushed the group to new heights, and helped them craft their commercial breakthrough. Although Alive! was the group’s first gold record, Destroyer was its first to sell a million copies in less than a year. It’s since been certified double-platinum.

To celebrate the legacy of the record, Rolling Stone spoke with Kiss’ four original members, as well as Ezrin and cover illustrator Ken Kelly.

“It’s a cinematic album,” Stanley says. “It’s an album that takes what was the norm and turns it into IMAX. The screen suddenly widened and what we were doing had such atmosphere.”

Paul Stanley (vocals, guitar): I had met Bob, funny enough, in a stairwell in Toronto when we were doing a TV appearance.

Bob Ezrin (producer): It was at CITY-TV in Toronto. They were in full regalia with their seven-inch heels and their huge costumes. It was, like, a walking Mount Rushmore coming down the stairway at you. Paul was very charming and very pleasant. I just said to him, “Are you happy with your records?” And he said, “Yeah, why?” And I said, “Well, you know, if at any point you decide you’re not, I would love to work with you guys.”

Stanley: I was fairly cocky then, although quite honestly, I never liked the sound of our original albums, and to this day it mystifies me how the engineers and people we were working with couldn’t capture the live sound.

Ezrin: I don’t remember how much longer it was, maybe a year later, I got a phone call and was asked to go see the band play live in Ann Arbor, Michigan. They were playing to 9,000 or 10,000 pimply 15-year-old boys, who never sat down for the whole show. It was unbelievably energetic, exciting, theatrical, powerful and just fantastic. It was pure, balls-out, testosterone rock. What was missing for me was the broader audience. So after I told them I’d do the album, the underlying mission behind the record became that we were going to try and reach out to women, as well as young men, and we were going to try to expand past just heavy rock and into the world of pop.

Gene Simmons (vocals, bass): Destroyer was ultimately a major leap forward for us because of Bob Ezrin. We were basically a garage band. We were just knuckleheads, guys who turn it up to 11 just because we can. We didn’t know anything. We could barely tune our guitars. Before Destroyer, we just did what we did: We played, we wrote songs up to the level of our musicianship, and that was about it.

Ezrin: With our mission in place, we picked certain kinds of songs to do. We did a lot of the writing in New York City at Paul’s place, Gene’s place and my place. Continue reading →

Michael Brandvold

WMMS

On March 15th, 1976, Kiss released their fourth album, Destroyer, which means that today, the iconic record turns 40. We all know the effort is one of the band’s classics, but here are 20 things you might not know about it:

1. Destroyer was certified platinum on November 11th, 1976, the band’s first album to ever achieve platinum status. It’s since gone on to be certified platinum a second time for sales over two-million units.

2. Destroyer was the band’s first album to spotlight outside musicians, including the Brooklyn Boys Chorus and members of the New York Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra.

3. The band started recording sessions for Destroyer at New York’s Electric Lady Studios on September 3rd, 1975. Their first demo was the Peter Criss-sung “Ain’t None of Your Business.” The song didn’t make the album, but was later sung by the group Detective, appearing on their 1977 debut.

4. Even though he is not credited, Dick Wagner, a guitarist from Alice Cooper’s band, replaced Ace Frehley on “Flaming Youth” and “Sweet Pain,” plus he played acoustic guitar on “Beth.” Ace reportedly wasn’t showing up consistently to recording sessions.

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