American Songwriter January/February Cover Story: KISS Forever and Ever
BY TINA BENITEZ-EVES / Americansongwriter.com
Shortly after releasing their self-titled debut in 1974, Kiss bassist and singer Gene Simmons read a periodical clipping where someone declared that it was unlikely the band would be around much longer. Now, 5o years later, that prediction could not have been more erroneous as Kiss is one of the biggest bands in the world.
“That guy, he’s the mulch on the ground behind my mansion,” jokes Simmons of the unnamed writer. “Well, one of my mansions.”
Formed in 1973 by Simmons from Queens and singer and guitarist Paul Stanley from Manhattan, KISS represented four corners of the five boroughs of New York City, including founding guitarist Ace Frehley from the Bronx and founding drummer Peter Criss from Brooklyn. And they wanted to take over the world.
“As your wet-behind-the-ears knuckleheads off the streets of New York, we never dared dream that Kiss would be as successful as it’s become,” Simmons tells American Songwriter. “We would never dare dream that we would last half a century.”
Born out of the four members’ desire to create something they had never seen on stage before, there was a clear mystique around forming a band that was part spectacle—Stanley as the “Starchild,” Simmons as the “Demon,” Frehley as the “Spaceman,” and Criss as “Catman”—and part hard rock show, unlike anything their influences could ever deliver. “We are the loins of the fans who dreamed of putting together the band we never saw on stage because we were so disappointed by the bands we grew up with and went to see live,” shares Simmons. “There was always something missing. The songs were good but somehow the live experience just didn’t deliver.”
Taking their personae from comic book-like characters—their faces painted in clown white and black, the band’s warpaint, and heavy metallic garb, footed in sky-high platform heels and staged around cued-up pyrotechnics and over-the-top theatrics—Kiss delivered something else and dubbed themselves the “hottest band in the world.”
