Ace Frehley Addresses Theory About The Famous KISS Logo

Tod Van Luling | Huffington Post

LONG BEACH, CA - MAY 31: Guitarist Ace Frehley of the rock and roll band Kiss performs onstage at the Civic Auditorium on May 31, 1974 in Long Beach, California. (Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)

LONG BEACH, CA – MAY 31: Guitarist Ace Frehley of the rock and roll band Kiss performs onstage at the Civic Auditorium on May 31, 1974 in Long Beach, California. (Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)

In May, I wrote a story about the crooked lines in arguably the most recognizable logo in music: the all-caps “KISS.”

The story focused on a typographical mistake ― Paul Stanley, aka Starchild, told me the two S’s in the logo weren’t perfectly parallel because he drew them by eye. What the piece didn’t mention, however, was a long-held theory that the two S’s in what’s arguably the most popular band logo in history are an homage to the World War II Nazi troop Schutzstaffel, or “The SS.”

577eb7871a000023006f90dfInarguably, the repeating S’s in the The SS logo resemble those in KISS’s, as they appear to be two lightning bolts side by side. Between 1979 and 1980, the similarities became too much for the German government, which began confiscating albums and banned the KISS logo entirely. (The band eventually had to create a separate Germany-specific logo that features two backward Z’s.)

Less attention has been paid to the logos’ likenesses in the United States. A cursory Google search surfaces little additional information on the topic. When famed music journalist Chuck Klosterman wrote a 10,000-plus-word feature for ESPN’s Grantland about the band, titled “The Definitive, One-Size-Fits-All, Accept-No Substitutes, Massively Comprehensive Guide To The Life And Times Of Kiss,” he didn’t use the word “Nazi” once.

The resemblances might be easier to brush aside as mere coincidence, if not for the band’s seemingly complicated relationship with Nazism. Stanley and fellow lead vocalist Gene Simmons are both Jewish, and Simmons’ mother is a Holocaust survivor. But Stanley has said outright that the band’s other two original members, guitarist Ace Frehley and drummer Peter Criss ― who have previously been fired from the band ― displayed anti-Semitic tendencies during the group’s earlier days.

Frehley, in particular, has had a questionable reported relationship with Nazism in the past. Stanley and Simmons have both said Frehley not only owned Nazi memorabilia during that early time, but used it to play cruel jokes.

“Ace had a fascination with Nazi memorabilia, and in his drunken stupors he and his best friend would make videotapes of themselves dressed up as Nazis,” Simmons wrote in his 2002 autobiography, Kiss and Make-up. 

In the autobiography, Simmons went on to detail a particularly dark prank Frehley pulled where he burst into his hotel room in a Nazi uniform, saluted Simmons and yelled “Heil Hitler!” into his face. Frehley has claimed that both Criss and Stanley wore Nazi uniforms with him and joined in on this prank. Unconfirmedphotographic evidence seems to support the claim. (The Huffington Post has reached out to Gene Simmons for a comment.)

Frehley’s apparent past interest in Nazism, per his bandmates’ accounts, is relevant for one reason: He was the person who created the original idea for the KISS logo. “I designed the logo,” Frehley told Guitar World in 2014, when he expressed frustration that Stanley was trying to take credit for it. “All [Stanley] did was draw straighter lines,” Frehley added.

In my conversation with Stanley earlier this year, he confirmed this account, saying, “The initial concept of the logo was Ace’s.”

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Review: KISS, aptly excessive, brings Freedom to Rock tour to MKA

Emerson Malone | Daily Emerals

13621743_10157170877950442_1954372142_o-750x375Sometime during sound check, a towering black curtain with the massive KISS insignia dropped before the stage in epic fashion. The audience roared. It was immediately apparent this would be no humble night.

“The suspense,” whispered one audience member, who wore Paul Stanley’s Starchild makeup with a black star covering her eye, “it’s killing me.”

Then a disembodied voice (borrowed from the “Shout it Out Loud” music video) shouted to the arena: “You wanted the best, you got the best! The hottest band in the world: KISS!”

When the curtain finally dropped, three men – Stanley, Gene Simmons and Portland native Tommy Thayer – stood atop a platform elevated above the stage and played “Detroit Rock City.” Behind them, Eric Singer was installed in the middle of an elaborate drum set.

Seeing Kiss live feels larger than life, and it’s not just the platform boots. The fireworks that detonated and punctuated each song’s end, the explosions that soared on either side of Singer’s drum riser and sent a blast wave of heat through the arena, Simmons sporadically ejecting his hooked tongue toward the crowd (not to mention his fire breathing, his performing cunnilingus on his guitar, his tongue whipping in close vicinity of Thayer’s neck, or his gargling up fake blood while gazing into the crowd during a droning bass solo) – everything was fittingly extreme.

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KISS’ Gene Simmons Chimes in on Disabling Smartphone Cameras at Concerts

Joe DeVita | Loudwire

In late June, we reported that Apple was granted a patent that would have the potential to disable cell phones from taking photos and capturing video at concerts. Artists have been split on the issue, some seeing no issue with fans having a personal memento from the show and others who feel violated by the technology. The ever-opinionated KISS legend Gene Simmons has now offered his thoughts on disabling phones in the live concert setting or simply not allowing cell phones in the area altogether.

Speaking with Jack Antonio of the Do You Know Jack? radio program (audio below) on July 1, Simmons first explained the pre-cell phone era and the modern one. “When we first started out, this was before cellphones or technology and even voice mail. There was no cable, there was no nothing, so at the concerts, they took away your cameras — they didn’t allow you to do that,” he began.

Detailing more about an age long gone and the connection with the show, Simmons continued, “So, in a lot of ways, the concert experience, especially with KISS, was real — it was emotional, it was deep. You know, people would pass out and cry; it was very emotional.” Flipping to modern times, he said, “And it’s become… Technology, of course, has made everything less emotional. You know, when you get back home and look at your cellphone and the video there, and you go, ‘Oh, I don’t remember that from the concert!’ Well, of course you don’t, ’cause you were too busy texting or looking at your cellphone.”

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