Tom Netherland | Tri Cities

One concert by one band with a one-word name changed the life of Megadeth’s Dave Ellefson.

“For me, it was KISS,” said Ellefson. “My mom took me to see them in Minnesota on their ‘Rock and Roll Over’ tour.”

Six years later, Ellefson and Dave Mustaine formed Megadeth.

Twenty-nine years hence, Megadeth continues its route to heavy metal immortal status on May 8 at the Tennessee Theatre in worth-the-drive-away Knoxville, Tenn. On tour in support of the band’s Grammy-nominated album “TH1RT3EN,” Ellefson retains a firm grip on why he took up the bass to play music.

“When I saw KISS I said, ‘I want to do that,’” Ellefson said last week by phone from his home in Phoenix, Ariz. “I watched them and thought, ‘how does that work?’”

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Jeff Labrecque | Inside TV

After the show’s most successful season ever — wedding drama can do that — Gene Simmons Family Jewelsreturns for its seventh season on Monday, May 28 with a special one-hour premiere. The long-running A&E reality show, about the KISS frontman’s family, is not settling into marital bliss — after all, he and newlywed Shannon Tweed have two kids from their 28 years together as a couple. The thing is, she wants another child.

Shannon wants to adopt; Gene and the two children, Nick and Sophie, do not. Care to wager who gets their way? If this clip from the premiere is any indication, Gene better start practicing diaper duty. He and Shannon play Good Cop, Bad Cop with Nick, who’s still living at home after recently graduating from college. One of them is armed with compliments and a “nice, big, fat, healthy” check; the other opts for the more blunt suggestion that it’s time for Nick to “scoot on out there.” Any doubt who the Bad Cop is? Watch below to find out:

Hennemusic

This fall, original KISS drummer Peter Criss will release his autobiography, “Makeup To Breakup.”

Due October 23, publisher Scribner says, “from sex, drugs, and rock ‘n roll to multiple brushes with death, ‘Makeup to Breakup’ will be Peter Criss’ unvarnished and eye-opening life story.”

“I am so blessed that I am finally going to write my autobiography, and I hope you enjoy the ride,” Criss said in the release. “The best of all is I get to share my true feelings of my love for God, family, friends and fame. It’s been a wonderful life.”

In addition to playing drums in KISS, Criss provided some of the vocals. In fact, he wrote and sang the band’s biggest hit, the ballad “Beth.”

The 2012 INDIANAPOLIS KISS Fan Expo will take place on Saturday May 12th from 1:00PM to 10:00PM (11PM  for Platinum and 12PM VIP ticket  holders)

Location:
Indianapolis Marriott East
7202 East 21st Street
Indianapolis, IN 46219

For rooms reservations call             1-800-228-9290       or            317-352-1231       and ask for the KISS Expo Rate of $79 a night or CLICK THIS LINK and do it online:
Indianapolis Marriott East

Special guests KISS guitarist Tommy Thayer and KISS drummer Eric Singer! This is Tommy’s first official appearance as a guest at an KISS Expo,and Tommy’s only KISS Expo appearance this year! Come meet Tommy and Eric as KISS gets ready to hit the road for “THE TOUR” 2012! Each band member will also do a Q/A and be available for autographs throughout the day.

– Shout it out loud and sing your favorite KISS Klassics at KISS Karaoke!
– Enjoy a costume contest for all ages
– KISS merchandise and collectibles will be on sale all day from vendors all over the country!
– KISSOnline will be attending with KOL Exclusive merchandise!
– KISSPickWorld.com will also have available guitar picks from the Sonic Boom Over Europe Tour and Hottest Show On Earth Tour.
– Children under 12 get in free!
Order Indianapolis Expo tickets HERE

Mitch Lafon | BraveWords.com

May 19th, 2012 will mark the 20th anniversary of the brilliant KISS Revenge album. BraveWords.com will mark the passing of this landmark record with a five-part series of interviews conducted in the last couple of weeks with the major players on the disc as well as a few musicians that you may not know took part in the album’s recording sessions. Our first such surprise is Tommy Thayer. Many may know Tommy as the current Spaceman of KISS, but back in 1992, he was Gene Simmons’ protégé and former guitarist for the band BLACK N’ BLUE. Tommy’s role on the album was limited to adding backing vocals on a few tracks along with his former Black N’ Blue singer, Jaime St. James. Revenge would mark Tommy’s second appearance on a KISS album. He had previously contributed two acoustic tracks to the band’s Hot In The Shade opus. Thayer’s song ‘Nasty Nasty’ from the Black N’ Blue album of the same name formed the basis of the Gene Simmons composition, ‘Domino’ on the Revenge album. BraveWords.com caught up with Tommy via email as KISS preps to head out on the road in support of their new album, Monster.

“I was there during some of the recording and I sang background vocals on a bunch of those tunes,” said Thayer when asked about his work on Revenge.

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Charles M. Young | Rolling Stone

This story is from the April 7th, 1977 issue of Rolling Stone.

Peter Cade

“We broke Lawrence Welk’s attendance record in Abilene, Texas. I’m very proud of that,” says Gene Simmons, the Kiss bassist, notorious for his grotesquely long tongue and for dressing like a pterodactyl. We sit at a backstage dinner table on the first of three nights they are playing Detroit’s 12,000-seat Cobo Hall – exceptional dates because they are doing mostly secondary markets this tour. “We’re hitting places they’ve never seen a big band, and they’ll remember us forever. The reaction has been amazing. I was watching the local news in Duluth and the announcer said there had been a robbery at the auditorium. I thought, ‘That’s it for the gate receipts,’ but it turned out some kid had gone up to the window and stolen three tickets at gunpoint. I don’t understand it. Tickets are so ethereal. One concert and they’re gone. Now money, that’s real power.”

Money, I object, is as much an illusion as a ticket.

“Not if everyone believes it,” says Simmons, holding up a fork. “If I say this is a royal scepter and everyone recognizes it as such, then it’s a royal scepter and I’m king. That’s power, not an illusion.”

Before I can insist it’s still a fork, guitarist Paul Stanley – known for the black star over his right eye and for his bright red lips – sits down and stuffs a piece of cake into his mouth. “I’m really sick to my stomach,” he says, licking the fingers of one hand, holding his taut belly with the other, and searching for another slice with the calm eyes of an addict who has enough money to feed his habit. “I got chills and everything. I thought I was going to pass out onstage last night.”

Maybe he would feel better if he stopped eating gunk?

“The best diet for the road,” he says, “is soup for lunch and candy for supper. It keeps the weight off and you’re speeding on all that sugar by show time.”

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Kiran Hefa | People

Jared McMillen

Wayde King and Brett Raymer have worked on their fair share of impressive fish tanks, but a recent addition to their resume introduced them to some very special collaborators.

“It was pretty painless,” Raymer says of working with Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley of KISS, who came out to admire their handiwork at the grand opening of a KISS-themed miniature golf course in Las Vegas, where the duo built a tank bearing the band’s logo.

The structure is just one of many the pair, who are also brothers-in-law, construct in the newest season of Tanked, which airs Saturdays at 9 p.m. on Animal Planet. Later this week, King and Raymer will head to the home of 30 Rock star – and noted animal lover – Tracy Morgan to install a shark tank.

“It’s a one-of-a-kind deal because it’s going into his basement and we actually have to assemble it on site,” says King. “It’s going to be pretty interesting to see it done on TV, all

Jared McMillen

the different guys that we work with and putting it together in pieces and bringing it downstairs in pieces. It’s going to be a pretty unique tank.”

While they’re capable of creating tanks that defy gravity and expectations, King and Raymer say their main motivation for creating these works of art lies with their love of fish.

“We want it to be very fish-friendly and accessible to take care of,” King says. “We want people to be happy, but the safety of the fish is very important to us.”

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Manuel Vigo | Peru this week

Andina

On Thursday, Peru’s President Ollanta Humala Tasso met with rock legend Gene Simmons and his wife, Shannon Tweed, at the Government Palace in Lima.

The couple witnessed the traditional changing of the guard and took a tour of the Government Palace.

During a brief conversation with President Humala, the Kiss frontman said he was happy to visit the country and discover Lima’s tourist attractions, Andina reported.

President Humala and his wife, Nadine Heredia, thanked the couple for the visit and wished them a pleasant stay in Lima, and invited them to return to Peru to learn more about the country’s history and nature.

El Comercio

Simmons, who is in the country to perform at the Rock and Roll All Stars concert, took the opportunity to shoot scenes for his reality show ‘Gene Simmons Family Jewels’, which is seen in more than 90 countries.

KSAZ Phoenix

Mike Francis | The Oregonian

Thomas Boyd

It’s no straight line from the wretched scene in an Austrian forest 67 years ago to a musical gala next month at Oregon Golf Club, but James Thayer has walked it.

And the threads that spin from a long life well-lived will be drawn together May 18 when friends, family and supporters celebrate the service of the 90-year-old retired general while raising money to renovate the Oregon Military Museum at Camp Withycombe in Clackamas.

“The All-Star Salute to the Oregon Military” will center on Thayer’s service as a soldier and his life beyond. When the museum reopens in 2014 or so, it will include artifacts from the Indian Wars to Operation Enduring Freedom, and it will bear Thayer’s name. (Details below)

The kickoff of the two-year, $6.5 million capital campaign will feature numerous Oregon celebrities, from golfer and master of ceremonies Peter Jacobsen to former Gov. Ted Kulongoski to Kiss guitarist Tommy Thayer, who happens to be one of the honoree’s sons.

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Gene Simmons, looking very “1992”, temporarily leaves Paul, Eric and Tommy behind to play with the Rock and Roll All-Stars in Paraguay last Thursday.

&nbs

KISSmuseum.com

The long-awaited KISS Retro Figures were released and shipped yesterday and are now on their way to our office to be in stock Tuesday, April 24. All pre-orders, as well as new orders, will ship out on the morning of Wednesday, April 25. Order NOW and we will ship out on that date!

Note – The 8″ figures are limited to 15,000 sets but the 12″ figures are limited to only 2,400 sets. The 12″ are sold out from the manufacturer and most of ours are gone to pre-orders as well. This is the one to get if you don’t want to be disappointed! The manufacturer tells us they will NOT be making a second run of either version.

KISS Retro Figures available at KISSmuseum.com

Sixx Sense

Nikki Sixx of Motley Crue interviews Gene Simmons for his radio show. Gene tells the story of how Eddie Van Halen asked to join KISS in the early ’80’s and Gene turned him down…. a very interesting listen. (Thanks to KISSfaq.com for finding this)

Benjamin Freed | dcist

Police in Dumfries, Va. are looking for a masked and armed robber who held up a pizza shop last night, NBC4 reports. The man, who looked to be six feet tall and slender, weighing about 155 pounds, walked into Vocelli Pizza Restaurant at 8:42 p.m. Wednesday. He brandished a handgun and left with an undisclosed amount of cash, police said.

Other than his build, little is known about the robber’s appearance, however it is quite possible he’ll respond favorably to 1970s glam rock, as in addition to his black jeans and jacket, he was also wearing a KISS mask. From the security footage released, it appears the mask features a black star over the right eye, suggesting the robber is partial to singer and rhythm guitarist Paul Stanley.

No word if police are attempting to lure in the suspect by playing Stanley’s 1978 solo single “Hold Me, Touch Me (Think of Me When We’re Apart).”

Still, while the idea of dressing up as a member of a costumed rock band to pull off a small-time heist seems novel, why not support local music while you’re at it. This robbery took place in Virginia, home state of Gwar. The fully costumed and completely ridiculous thrash metal outfit is from Richmond, about 80 miles from where the great KISS pizza shakedown of 2012 took place.

Then again, it’s harder to get away in massive, spiky, foam latex armor than it is to do so in a Paul Stanley mask.

Julia Kathan | ABC News

Michael Caulfield

Dick Clark, the music industry maverick, longtime TV host and powerhouse producer who changed the way we listened to pop music with “American Bandstand,” and whose trademark “Rockin’ Eve” became a fixture of New Year’s celebrations, died today at the age of 82.

Clark’s agent Paul Shefrin said in statement that the veteran host died this morning following a “massive heart attack.”

Born in Mount Vernon, N.Y., on Nov. 30, 1929, Richard Wagstaff Clark began his lifelong career in show business began before he was even out of high school. He started working in the mailroom of WRUN, a radio station in upstate New York run by his father and uncle. It wasn’t long before the teenager was on the air, filling in for the weatherman and the announcer.

Clark pursued his passion at Syracuse University, working as a disc jockey at the student-run radio station while studying for his degree in business. After graduating in 1951, Clark went back to his family’s radio station, but within a year, a bigger city and bigger shows were calling.

Clark landed a gig as a DJ at WFIL in Philadelphia in 1952, spinning records for a show he called “Dick Clark’s Caravan of Music.” There he broke into the big time, hosting Bandstand, an afternoon dance show for teenagers.

Within five years, the whole country was watching. ABC took the show national, and “American Bandstand” was born.

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KISSasylum

Atlanta KISS Expo

Making his first ever KISS Expo appearance – we are very excited to confirm that multi-platinum singer / songwriter Robert Fleischman (original vocalist of Vinnie Vincent Invasion, previously with Journey) will be one of our very special guests here in Atlanta on Sunday May 20! Robert has an extensive and diverse career in the music industry, and we are looking forward to hearing his stories!

For more ‘Monster’ details about this year’s Atlanta KISS Expo please check out our website: www.kreaturesofthesouth.com