On November 16, the four members of KISS — Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons, Tommy Thayer and Eric Singer — took part in a question-and-answer session moderated by professional wrestler and FOZZY frontman Chris Jericho during the “KISS Kruise: Landlocked In Vegas” event held at the Virgin Hotels resort and casino complex in Las Vegas. Some excerpts appear below (as transcribed by Clay Marshall for BLABBERMOUTH.NET).
On their return to the stage in Las Vegas, where they performed two sets (one acoustic, one electric),two years after completing their five-year “farewell” tour, “End Of The Road”:
Stanley: “It was special for us because we know —– and there’s no false modesty — we’re really good as a band, and really solid. You can put smoke bombs on stage and you can put on makeup and boots and all that stuff, and at the end of the day, a crappy band is a crappy band. For us to get up and play just like this [referring to ‘normal’ attire], it feels really good for us… We wanted to be as good as we are. [It was] interesting for us after two years to get into a rehearsal room. It’s like riding a bike. We are who we are, and as soon as we plug in, that’s what we sound like… We’ve been together [with this lineup] for 20 years. We have a ball. Bands talk about being family and that they love each other — we actually have a ball together, and that’s why we’ve been together as long as we have. It’s fun.”
On the “Rock And Roll Over” song “Take Me”, which was a surprise inclusion in their electric set:
Stanley: “It’s really funny because some of those songs are not really age-appropriate anymore. I couldn’t imagine writing a song today [saying], ‘Put your hand into my pocket / grab on to my rocket.’ A nice place to visit, but I wouldn’t want to live there.”
On the band’s legacy:
Simmons: “Everybody talks about your dreams, aspirations, ambitions and other big words — here we are, over half a century [after KISS was founded]. We’re still here. There have been lots of heartbreak[s], devastation — Ace’s [Frehley] passing… and we continue, because the legacy of KISS has to continue. Despite the fact that some of you think that this is the sunset, I promise you, this is the beginning. This is the caterpillar that’s going to become the beautiful butterfly. We’ve seen plans for the future, and it will blow your mind.”
On Gene Simmons, the bass player:
Singer: “Gene is a great bass player. I’ve played with a lot of great musicians, and Gene is as solid as a rock. He doesn’t speed up; he doesn’t slow down… Gene’s very creative and melodic. Listen to ‘Goin’ Blind’ as a good example. Gene is so easy to play with, it’s, like, effortless. It’s an interaction [between drummers and bassists] — sometimes you fight each other, [but] I don’t fight when I play with Gene. It’s very, very easy.”
Stanley: “I have to say, I don’t think that Gene ever gets his due because Gene loves doing shtick. All that Gene does as far as his personality and the things he says, somehow gets in the way of certain people listening and going, ‘He’s a fantastic bass player.'”
On whether the band will record any new music to accompany their upcoming “biopic” “Shout It Out Loud” or their in-development avatar show:
Stanley: “There may be some music in the works. We like to tell you what we’re doing, the things that are planned. The problem is that so much of what we may bring up never comes to fruition, [but] music, yeah, that looks pretty damn… more than possible. Probable. I’m not going to give you any hints, but I only write when there’s a project — and I’ve been writing.”
On whether Simmons would do anything differently if given the opportunity:
Simmons: “If I have any regrets, it’s that I sometimes — and I think we all go through this — wish we were smarter and better at trying to help Ace [Frehley] and Peter [Criss] have better lives. All of us are guilty of it, and so am I — ‘I don’t want to start an argument. Let’s just continue doing the tour,’ because you want to get through it for selfish reasons because it’s working and the chicks and the money and [so on], and you don’t want to ruin anything. [In the] meantime, somebody who might be your brother is ruining their life by bad decisions. I think this goes to your friends, your lovers, your family members — I wish I would have practiced more tough love and been more in the face of people that we cared about… Tough love is a good idea in my opinion with your children, with the people you love, with the people you care about, with the people you work with. It’s not going to be a popular thing — you’re going to argue about it — but in the long run, you’re going to be helping that person hopefully change their life.”
On persisting during comparatively lean years following the band’s commercial peak in the late 1970s:
Stanley: “I think the key — at least [for] my view of success with the band – was pragmatism. You have to prioritize what’s important to you. If some people aren’t doing their job or holding their weight, or people are AWOL [or] not around, that’s true, but what matters to you? What mattered to me was KISS, and if somebody wasn’t bailing water and the ship was sinking – and it took on a lot of water at different times — I just worked that much harder, because I love the band, and the most important thing to me was to see the band survive… It’s a matter of having a clear vision of what you want and what it takes to get there, and what’s important to you. That’s really what I guess I’ve brought to the band consistently — the idea that I don’t want the band to die.”
On whether the band ever considered calling it quits:
Stanley: “Never. We did a tour where literally, we wouldn’t have this many people [referring to the size of the crowd in the 4,000-capacity Theater at Virgin Hotels] in an arena, and it was miserable. It was miserable to go out on stage, and at that time, really it came down to, ‘Do we go out there and take our frustration out on the people who were there who paid?’, or ‘Do we work that much harder so that those people would go home and tell other people what they missed?’ I remember doing an interview, and a journalist said to me — they can be pretty unkind, and they can forget that you are actually people — ‘How’s it feel to be on the Titanic?’ I remember thinking, ‘Nobody [else] is going to decide when this is over,’ and that’s enough of a reason for it to continue — to show those pricks that we decide how long this is going to go on. There are people who after last night’s show are going, ‘Oh, they said they weren’t coming back,’ and, ‘Why are they doing this?’ Those are the people who never wanted us around in the first place. We’re not here for them.”
On whether the band will play more shows in the future:
Stanley: “We haven’t talked about it. We’re really proud of what we did last night. We were no different than we expected. We know what we’re capable of, and it was great. What we’ll do at this point? I have no idea.”
Two years after the completion of their five-year, 250-date “End Of The Road” farewell tour with two shows at New York City’s Madison Square Garden, KISS returned to the stage at their “KISS Kruise: Landlocked In Vegas” event, which was held at the Virgin Hotels resort and casino complex in Las Vegas. After an hourlong acoustic performance on November 14, the band played an 85-minute set — their first “unmasked” electric concert on land in 30 years — the following night, where they were joined by former KISS guitarist Bruce Kulick on two songs (“Lick It Up” and “Rock And Roll All Nite”).
