Gene Simmons: “Many guitarists call their instruments ‘axes’, but nobody trademarked it. Except this guy!”

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Guitar World

Gene Simmons’ activities outside the scope of music – his womanizing, his love of money, his reality TV shows and various minor controversies – has often overshadowed the fact that, first and foremost, he is a musician in one of the world’s biggest rock bands.

It might explain why Gene isn’t always given the bass props he deserves, despite being one of the exponent’s most famous players. His skill is certainly evident on Kiss’ recordings, particularly in the early days on tracks such as Goin’ Blind, Black Diamond or 100,000 Years.

His style is a little unconventional for some, playing solely with a pick, but, as drummer Eric Singer stated before the interview started, “Gene’s on the fucking money. I’ve played with the very best – and Gene is up there with all of them”.

Given Eric’s CV, that’s high praise indeed. Kiss are currently embarked on their final tour – not to be confused with their farewell tour of 2001 – and I find myself backstage at London’s O2 Arena, marveling at the sheer scale of the stage production being put into place by the crew, before finally being introduced to the man himself. The first thing to note is his presence.

Not just his size, he’s a big guy even without the platforms, but the way he effortlessly commands the room. He’s clearly a man comfortable being the centre of attention, teasing the various members of crew and attendant venue staff with a roguish charm.

He immediately makes fun of my posh accent, launching into a fairly mangled impersonation, before picking up a piece of bread and waving it at me, saying “I can’t touch this stuff, can you believe that? I have to stay away from the bad stuff… I can’t eat all the stuff I like any more.”

So, Gene, it’s your final show in London tonight.

“That’s not necessarily so. It’s our last show at the O2 Arena. Ever. This is a long tour. We’re going back to America and we’re playing for the final time at whatever venue we’re playing.”

On the Kiss website, the last show listed is in Japan.

“Nobody knows anything except for us. We are the be-all and end-all. It would be nice to come back to do Hyde Park, maybe a free concert? I don’t know. I’m 70 now, and I still look fantastic by the way, but there are bands who stay on stage far too long. That’s their cross to bear – I’m Jewish, see what I did there?

“The other thing is that we’re the hardest-working band out there. If you talk to any girl who wears high heels for two hours then she’ll tell you how her back feels. We’re on eight-inch platform heels, so imagine walking around with bowling balls connected to your legs. They’re heavy!

What’s your fondest memory of the UK?

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The Hidden Meaning Behind the Lyrics of KISS’ Most Maligned Song.

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By John Ricard, photographer and lifelong KISS fan. 
 
“Let’s Put the X in Sex” is widely regarded as one of the worst KISS songs ever.  The title is stupid, the song simplistic and the video is derivative of videos by groups like Winger, Warrant, Ratt and Poison.  It was released at a time when KISS were popular, but no longer ground breaking.  Paul Stanley has famously said, “A trend is your friend,” and it was during the mid to late 80’s that the band were most definitely following the glam rock trends of the day.  
 
On the surface, the song appears to be nothing more than a mild wordplay on the term “X”, as in X-Rated.   It’s as if Paul is saying, “Let’s put the X-Rating in sex.”  The song was released on the “Smashes, Thrashes and Hits” compilation alongside another new song titled, “Rock Hard”.  That song had some of the worst KISS lyrics ever -no easy feat from the band who gave you, “Don’t need no doctor, putting me to bed / Give me the nurse and I’ll make sure that she’s fed.”  But in “Rock Hard”, the band reaches an all time low when Paul sings, “You make me rock hard, baby all night / Love’s like a glove and it fits just right.”  So it isn’t surprising that no one looked for a deeper meaning in, “Let’s Put the X in Sex”.  
 
But let’s do just that.
 

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The time Gene Simmons issued a bomb threat

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BackstageAxxess

“We were back at the hotel after the show, and people were going back to their rooms, ordering room service and that sort of thing,” he told BackstageAxxess in a recent interview. “Gene Simmons is a real stickler – if he’s in a hotel and he calls down to the front desk or room service or whatever, if it takes more than two or three rings for them to pick up, he really goes ballistic.”

Thayer recalled he was “sitting in [his] room… and the front desk [receptionist] calls and she says, ‘We got a real problem. We just called the SWAT team, the police, to come in, because one of your group has just threatened to blow the hotel up. I was thinking, ‘I think I know who that might be, actually.’ He says that jokingly – ‘You gotta pick up the phone, or I’ll blow this place up’ – that’s a Gene Simmons kind of thing.

“But it kind of got us into trouble, because the police showed up and they thought it was a real bomb threat. I had to assure everybody that it was okay, that this guy … just wanted his cookies and milk after the show.”

 

KISS Is ‘At Least Halfway’ Done With Documentary, Says TOMMY THAYER

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Blabbermouth

KISS guitarist Tommy Thayer has confirmed that the band is working on a “definitive” documentary which will include “rare and compelling” KISS-related media submitted by the group’s fans.

“I think we’re at least halfway into it,” Tommy told Niclas Müller-Hansen of Sweden’s RockSverige.se. “The director is John Dorsey and he’s done great things before. We’ve done interviews on camera and he’s putting together a lot of historic footage and talking to a lot of different sources, including us and our archives. It’s coming along. I’ve seen a little bit and I think it will be really exciting and really well done.”

As for the fan-submitted material that will be included in the documentary, Thayer said: “I know some guys that are big collectors and there’s this guy called Mark Cicchini, he’s one of the ‘Three Sides Of The Coin’ [KISS] podcast guys and he’s not only contributed material, but he also pointed John Dorsey in a lot of good directions as far as making contact with a lot of fans. We have a lot of great stuff in our archives for certain, but there’s still a lot of other unique and rare stuff out there that we don’t have. It’s a matter of sourcing that stuff.”

Tommy also talked about the recently announced KISS biopic, which is tentatively due in 2021. KISS manager Doc McGhee previously revealed that producer Mark Canton, who worked on the movie “300”, is involved in the project.

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Cher and Gene Simmons Broke Up After He Went Christmas Shopping with Diana Ross

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Yahoo

Who: Grammy-winning singer and Oscar-winning actress Cher, 73, and Kiss guitarist and co-lead singer Gene Simmons, 70.

How They Met: Though Cher and Simmons both belonged to the mainstream music scene, they didn’t exactly run in the same circles. Their meeting was a “fluke,” precipitated by both their shared support of former California Governor Jerry Brown and Cher’s son Chaz Bono’s love of Simmons’s band, Kiss. In early 1978, Cher and Simmons both attended a fundraiser for Brown. Chaz, then nine years old, reportedly begged his mom to help him get an autograph from the flamboyant musician.

By ’79, Simmons and Cher were going strong (enough). Cher, who’d been married and divorced twice by this point, called her and Simmons’s time together “the best relationship I’ve ever had with a human being.” But still, this being the ‘70s and all, neither party was monogamous. “Gene might spend time with another woman and stay the night, but he wants her to leave in the morning so he can get on with his day,” Cher told People about her boyfriend’s tour, uh, habits. While she herself admitted to the occasional dalliance “for companionship,” she admitted, “Gene is the one I’m crazy about.”

Why We Loved Them: Despite Simmons’s hardened rockstar exterior, he was actually quite sweet to Cher. He told People the pop icon was his “first love,” calling her “an untainted soul who has never done anything bad to anybody.” He even loved her “wonderful” kids, Chaz and Elijah Allman. “[Chaz] is going to be President of the U.S. someday,” he gushed. “[He] busts me.”

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