KISS News Bits

[Nitro Express]

C'mon...I'm sure Gene has entertained the idea of Nick wearing his Demon makeup? Sure he has!

All valid points though.

I think this is where Gene differs from Eddie. You aren't going to be the demon unless you earn the right to be the demon. Son or not. I think Ed made the mistake of putting his young son in the band when he hadn't earned the privilege. I think how he treated Mike was a stab in the back. You don't treat a long time loyal member of the band that way. Unprofessional.

What I'm saying is KISS is a franchise and someone owns it. I would imagine Paul and Gene have equal shares. The big question is what are the families going to do and is someone going to buy it later and keep it going? That's the interesting question. Let's say you get some guys who can pull it off. Are people still going to be interested?

I doubt Nick would want to be in KISS. It doesn't seem to be his thing. I bet if you brought out the demon costume and said, hey Nick wear this shit he would bolt off running. LOL!

[indeedido]

I agree only the original four members should be inducted. The others had no impact on the music scene. I like Bruce, but come on, 80s and 90s KISS did nothing to push anything. Still riding on '70s KISS coat tails with hairband formula crap. The original band brought stage and performance to a record high. Shit their stage act is still being used by bands today. Pyro, flying, etc. They deserve to be in there as much as Alice Cooper or any other band. Gene and Paul are caught in a bit of a pickle because they have scabs and didn't move forward after the reunion. Hard to have two Ace's and two Peter's up there without looking like the fight scene from KISS meets the phantom of the park.

[Never was]

In the end the solution is have them all play together current and old but without make up.
While there are hard feelings and a lot of grown men acting like children I place the blame on the fucktards in the middle the Hall itself.

Kiss had notified the hall in advance and has been consistent for years they wanted all members inducted. The Hall insisted it was just the make up line up and that brings us to Eric Carr who amongst the varied Kiss camps of Paul, Gene, Ace, etc... is the one member all agree was beloved. The Hall did not respond to that and restated make up as originals. They still refused the request to add the other members who have over a decade in the band Bruce, Eric, Tommy, and Singer. So be it so you get the pissy response from Paul and Gene. In the end have everyone perform no make up so that issue is avoided. Kiss has performed without make up already this year, Ace will jam with anyone so move on with it. The Hall should stay out of it, they are making bad worse.

Asking Kiss to betray current members who have worked with the band going back to the 90's is wrong.
Ignoring the foundation which all this is built is also wrong.
There is a way to deal with this if the Hall would STFU and members directly spoke.
The Hall's insistence on make up and reunion so it can hype itself and get better ratings is the biggest culprit.

[DrMaddVibe]

Everyone likes to bash Gene and Paul. The fact is, without those guys there would be no KISS. Ace and Peter would never have made it. They were too wild. You need someone with some brains and discipline to drive the train. Also Ace dressed up as a Nazi and fucked with Gene. Gene's mother spent time in a Nazi concentration camp during WWII. I would have beat the shit out of the guy and kicked him out of the band. Gene handled all that shit quite well. I love Ace. Love his timeless guitar riffs but man, he was a fuck up. Gene cut the guy more slack than I ever would have.

Gene's book "KISS and Make Up" went behind the curtain on several events where Ace and Peter...both given voting rights in the group and were valued members of the band...shirked their responsibilities through various stages of substance abuse, studio time and jackassery like Ace wearing a SS uniform and shooting a pistol at a recording hall. Anyone else would've fired them and told the story immedietly. Gene and Paul realized through their Wicked Lester band that they were going to have a band on THEIR terms. KISS, like them, love them...even if you hate them are Gene's and Paul's band. No ifs, ands or buts. When Peter and Ace quit they left with their voting rights and they reclaimed them. When Peter walked Ace didn't want to do The Elder. He wanted a more rock album and viewed it as going down the wrong path...he was right but he was out voted on the direction. That's when he realized he had no voice as it would always be 2 against 1...forever. When he left they were free to do what they wanted and shedding the makeup was a first step.

As for the other members not being as viable, I say BULLSHIT! They went on to have more hits and success despite Ace and Peter not being there. "Forever" is a great song and Vinnie Vincent singlehandedly wrote and played almost everything on "Lick It Up" because Gene and Paul were going in different directions...Paul wanted Broadway and Gene wanted Hollywood. They were brought back to the fold though and realized that KISS is home. To further that the other guys mattered..."Carr Jam" was dusted off as a tribute drum solo on "Revenge" (which is probably one of their best solid efforts since "Rock And Roll Over"! They gave Bruce Kulick a proper send off by letting him play have song rights on "Carnival of Souls" that kicked ass! They didn't have to do that...they realized he was good, and he was. He wasn't Ace...he wouldn't wear the makeup either and that's probably the reason why he isn't in KISS today. He valued Ace's contributions and we all should...that string bending pentanonic riff shredding pickup switch dittering guitar melting your face off player deserves it...but lets not sugar coat the facts that drugs and booze got in the way of a great band and half it's members. Gene and Paul weren't going to just quit and start another band...again. KISS is and will always be their baby. I applaud them for the chances they've taken throughout the years. They're one band that I can say I've seen upwards of 30 times in my lifetime...the first time being in Anaheim when they blew up their stage as a kid. The left on mark on me and they will always be that one band that brings the circus, strip bar, Fourth of July and comic book heroes to a rock concert. They're one of my favorites of all-time and I'm so glad they're finally getting a nod that should've been theirs long before Run-DMC, Madonna, Blondie and a host of others that didn't deserve to be in BEFORE them.

They don't need my money anymore...I'm glad to listen to them a lot...even "Monster and "Sonic Boom" have decent tracks where they prove they're not ready to hop in the hole and push daisies. If they want to keep on keeping on...fine...if they want to sell the "franchise"...good for them and I'm quite positive they'll have clauses to keep the new guys "real". Gotta hand it to them...they are a brand and Col. Parker is somewhere in hell biting his nails at all the angles they played that he didn't think of! This band has had members quit, members die, members fired...man...what a legacy and if they only would've been given the opportunity to do it right, I know they would've done it with a bang...fireworks, confetti and laser lights!

[Never was]

Tommy Thayer has worked for Kiss since the recording of Revenge, he was with the band during the "reunion" as well. His onstage contribution was natural since he is a Les Paul player and already had a decade plus working with the band before ever walking onto stage so kinda a no brainer. He is not a recent scab and even Ace said publicly he hates the make up but would have picked Tommy if he was running Kiss after he was bounced.

[FORD]

Anything KISS did that was worthy of Hall of Fame induction was before that fucking disco album, which began the disintegration of the band.

So in other words, the original lineup IS the only thing worth talking about, in the context of the Hall of Fame.

If you like those 80's albums with the Desmond Childmolestor ballads, or the current scabs in Ace & Peter's makeup then by all means listen to them. But don't delude yourself that it's what got them the nomination. And that includes you, Chaim and Stan.

The revolving door bullshit is what kept them out of the running as long as it did. Same with Van Halen, and we all saw what a joke that ceremony turned into, with no current band members showing up, and only one original band member making an ass of himself with that tequila shilling chedhead whose ass he can't seem to remove his skull from.

[78/84 guy]

Gene is a fucking asshole. Case closed ! Ace and Peter should play with them. The fact that they want the clones there too play is a fucking joke !!!!!

[fraroc]

Don't even get me started on this.

I don't give a fucking shit about the hall of fame. I swear, I'm one of the few people who totally fucking saw this coming. I knew right from the motherfucking beginning that the originals getting back together was too good to be true. Am I surprised that the originals are not going to be perform at the HOF? Fuck, I would have been surprised if they DID perform again.

[Nitro Express]

Gene is a fucking asshole. Case closed ! Ace and Peter should play with them. The fact that they want the clones there too play is a fucking joke !!!!!

Gene is proud of being an asshole. He's the demon. Bob from sesame street ain't going to fit into that role.

[Nitro Express]

they are a brand and Col. Parker is somewhere in hell biting his nails at all the angles they played that he didn't think of! This band has had members quit, members die, members fired...man...what a legacy and if they only would've been given the opportunity to do it right, I know they would've done it with a bang...fireworks, confetti and laser lights!

David Lee Roth once said "If you can't do it under one light bulb, you can't do it at all." Paul Stanley said the show is icing on the cake. The songs are the cake. KISS is still around because they have a large repertoire of solid songs. Many of them being classics people still love to hear. If the music sucked and they sucked at playing it, all the rest of it ain't going to save them.

In short. They still deliver the goods people want to pay for. End of story.

[Never was]

Why is the Hall ok inducting over 20 members for some bands including members who literally did session work only but for Kiss originals or nothing, total double standard that makes zero sense regardless of the personalities involved.

Hagar, I can't stand the guy but it was right in my mind for the Hall to include him. He was there over a decade and sold significant records. I do not like it as a fan but it is fair. The only request to exclude anyone has come from the Hall itself and they are getting a free pass.

[FORD]

Their induction policy is definitely inconsistent at best.......

Black Sabbath - originals only, though Dio was definitely deserving.

Van Halen - SHOULD have been originals only. Hagar was definitely NOT deserving.

Ac/Dc - should have been inducted based on their original 6 pack, but the year they got in suggests they were voted in on the basis of "Back In Black" alone. Bon Scott deservedly inducted with the current lineup.

Heart - Pretty sure that was originals only (as it should have been. Their 80's lineup was cheesy)

Fleetwood Mac - Inducted both the early Peter Green/Danny Kirwan/Jeremy Spencer lineups and the more commercially successful Buckingham/Nicks era, but strangely omitted Bob Welch who anchored the band in the early 70s. Also left out the scabs who replaced Lindsey and Stevie in the late 80s, but nobody really cared about that part.

Grateful Dead - easily the most inclusive of all nominated bands. They even included Vince Welnik, who played in the 1990s, and Tom Constanten (their "forgotten" keyboard player from the late 60s. And given the premature death of all the other Dead keyboard players, he's probably happy to be forgotten!) Hell, they even included lyricist Robert Hunter, who never played on a record, but was obviously a key player in their musical creation)

....point is, they don't seem to have any consistent rules on who is or is not eligible. They seem to avoid such controversies by delaying induction of bands with high turnover rate as long as they possibly can. Can't really blame them for that.

[Nitro Express]

Who need the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I would love to see them put on a free concert in Cleveland with all the members of KISS who wanted to do it just to send the message, "Fuck You Hall of Fame! We can do it without you and do it better!"

[VHscraps]

with the RRHOF, it obviously depends how 'cool' the self-styled tastemakers who vote on all this think a particular band / performer is ... and how begrudgingly or otherwise they are at finally inducting them. With KISS, I think it is begrudging on the RRHOF's part - but they are running out of legitimate inductees, and will soon be inducting acts that have not had the impact of the artists of the 50s-70s.

When the Stones requested that their road manager and sometime touring pianist be inducted - Ian Stewart - he was inducted along with them.

What will be interesting is the Nirvana induction - they are in at first ask, but it is 25 years after their very first Sub Pop records, which were not what made them famous or had the impact that merits this induction at the very first opportunity.

So, are they inducting the original drummer as well as Dave Grohl? Seems to me that they have to, or else the 25-year rule is revealed as bullshit. My feeling is that Nirvana should have been up for nomination 25 years after Nevermind, and that would not be until 2016, with induction in 2017. But, hey, I guess Nirvana are too cool not to fast track into this gigantic cabinet of fossils.

I always thought that awards and gongs and grammies and all that crap had nothing to do with rock'n'roll - how many grammies did the Stones win when they were making their best records?
Answer - zero. As it should have been, because they were perceived to be not the safe kind of crap that usually garnered such awards.

The three best responses to induction to the RRHOF, in my opinion were:

1: Sex Pistols. Sending letter to RRHOF saying 'fuck off, we don't want any part of it'

2: Van Halen. No one who was a member of the band, at the time of induction, even showing up - we don't need you! And, thereby leaving Sammy Hagar and Mike Anthony (felt sorry for Mike) looking a bit stupid.

3: Rush. Or, more specifically, Alex Lifeson's acceptance 'speech', which I thought was a sustained 'up your sanctimonious asses, tastemakers' kind of performance. I am sure after years of overlooking them that Jann Wenner and those dicks thought they would hear speeches full of gratitude.

[FORD]

I suspect that Krist would insist on Chad Channing being included, and that Kurt would want him there too, if he were available for comment (though Kurt might also be inclined to give a Johnny Rotten style "piss off" response, or at least wear his "Corporate Rock STILL Sucks" t-shirt to the event)

I also doubt that Dave Grohl would have a problem with Chad being there. Arguably, if Bleach hadn't been as successful of an album as it was, Nirvana never would have gained attention outside of the Puget Sound club scene, and Grohl never would have got the gig.