A Very cool painting I found of Eric Carr.

[Blazer]

He was cute. Gene Simmons only had nice things to say about him in his biography and Gene doesn't say nice things about a lot of people he's played with.

Gene is an asshole and he'll be the first to admit it. But he came from extreme poverty and has since learned by being an asshole he'll NEVER have to go back to being poor again.

Be as it may though, Gene has been put in place plenty of times and the most humorous of those times was when Kiss was on the Mike Douglas show. Gene's very first TV interview and it shows that he was still wet behind the ears. In a later interview Gene admitted that Totie Fields ripped him a new asshole as soon as a very nervous and embarrassed young Gene Simmons spoke up and tried to come across as a bad ass.


And another one was when they appeared in the Tom Snyder show in 1978 and a very drunk Ace Frehley puts Gene into place.

[Chris P.]

hmmm... I guess the meaning of my  got lost.

[Dave W]

hmmm... I guess the meaning of my  got lost.

Obviously. 

Someone is still in "beat everybody over the head with tons of unwanted information" mode.

[TBird1958]

"hmmm... I guess the meaning of my    got lost."

Not on me Sugar,  I guess I'm being a laid-back Drama Queenie this week 

[Freuds_Cat]

Seen Kiss live twice and was a big fan as a youngster. Great entertainment. Made me feel good and smile both times. These days as long as its not that over played disco tune of theirs then I will happily listen to any Kiss.

As far as the whole band members and who owns what percentage of the company goes. I was in a band that did  albums back in the 80's and as an original member I was also a 25% shareholder in the company even after I left to pursue a different musical direction. The guy who replaced me was always a hired hand right up until the last reunion gig which was a period of more than 20 years. I was with the band for the first 3 years and finally sold my share to the other 3 members at 5 years. Kev the replacement bassist who is a great guy and good player was given the option but declined. mostly due to the value being outside his reach. The other 3 guys however obviously only had to find 1/3 of the price Kev would have had to which made it easier for them.
I received 25% of the profits of that band for the 2 years after I left.

I would guess that this is quite a typical scenario having spoken to other musicians who have been on both sides of these arrangements.

Dont see why Kiss would be any different except maybe for the scale of it all. I very much doubt if Eric Carr would have been able to buy an equal percentage of KISS INC and thus become a full business partner.

[uwe]

Oh my, you can tell by the glares Gene and Paul give Ace during that Tom Snyder interview that they found his demeanor utterly unprofessional. I can just see Gene (who stops participating in the interview in bad mood after a while) taking poor Ace to task in the studio aisles along the line of an intimidating  "You play guitar in this band and nothing else, don't ever interrupt Paul or me again ...". It speaks loads about the band chemistry at the time. Not a happy family.

And since everyone seems to have something derogatory to say about "I was made for lovin' you", may I state: I think it's a great catchy, danceable and uplifting tune. Compared to the musical accidents scattered on earlier Kiss records, "I was ..." is sheer Mozart from a songwriting perspective. No Kiss album will ever oust Destroyer from its rightful throne, but Dynasty is another favorite of mine, brilliant for "Sure know something ..." and "I was ..." alone. Play those two on an acoustic guitar followed by Firhouse or Deuce and then tell me what the better songwriting is. The earlier stuff is bad enough to have been turned down by early Grand Funk Railroad as B-sides and that is saying something as Grand Funk took a while to learn how to write a song too.

Uwe

Uwe

[gweimer]

Well, love 'em or hate 'em, we're STILL talking about them.  I saw them on their very first appearance in Chicago (a very green and unimpressive Rush opened), and then again about 5 years ago (my wife had never seen them).  Both times were entertainment value that few bands can deliver.  They've put out a great album (Destroyer), a lot of good ones, and probably just as many bad ones (is anything on Unmasked even remembered?).  Still, they know how to endure in the entertainment industry, and that's more than can be said for 90% of bands in the past 25 years.

[nofi]

whenever i hear the name gene/jean simmons i still first think of the old movie actress. i think this is good.

[uwe]

Oh yes, Kiss are always an entertaining subject. I think Gene Simmons is highly entertainig, actually more off stage than on stage, on stage he's this one-dimensional monster, off stage I like his machiavellist-cynic streak (as long as you are not victim to it). Paul I find a bit naff, he always seems to be overacting whether on stage or off. And his "I want to be taken serious as an artist ..." is  a bit grating too. He should have thought about that before he put on kabuki make-up and became famous with it. You can't have it both ways.

I saw Kiss last year. My teenage son was arrogantly sceptical of them ("that is not even a real rock band, dad ...") and it took them about 30 seceonds to win him over. Arriving on stage from platforms descending from the ceiling befor a curtain of  fire and smoke might have helped though.

Uwe

[Lightyear]

Fraulein & me. What drama?

Please!  At least with you two I always at least get a chuckle

And if I were the Fraulien I would have a damn good prenup!