Gene Simmons of Kiss is coming to Jersey for solo shows and everyone is invited.
Including Bruce Springsteen.
“He’s certainly welcome to pop up on stage,” Simmons said.
The Gene Simmons Band, which includes Brent Woods and Zach Throne on guitar and Brian Tichy on drums, plays Monday, May 5, at the Count Basie Center for the Arts in Red Bank, and Tuesday, May 6, at the Wellmont Theatre in Montclair.
“He’s done well for himself for a young man,” said Simmons of Springsteen from his Malibu home to the Asbury Park Press. “It’s a different pitch, a different kind of music. It’s funny, I spent a little bit of time with Bruce a long time ago and we grew up with the same kind of music, Gary U.S. Bonds, the Ronettes, everything else. But he went the way of saxophones and a big kind of band sound and I was much more an Anglophile. I much preferred the Who and Led Zeppelin and all that stuff, and I think that’s a much different point of view, shall we say.”
Former Kiss drummer Peter Criss, who last played with the band in 2004, is a long-time resident of Wall. He’s also invited to the shows.
“Sure, the door’s wide open,” Simmons said. “Yeah, why not? Anybody who wants to jump up.”
Simmons’ solo shows are a different beast than the Kiss shows.