Kiss News

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by Maggie Wright / www.fullmetalrock.com

FULLMETALROCK
- Hi, this is Maggie at Full Metal Rock and I am here with Tommy Thayer of Kiss! I�m really excited for you. This is the fourth night of nineteen European date leg of the KISS World tour. How�s it going so far?

TOMMY THAYER
- It�s going fabulously. We did Moscow and Helsinki, and Stockholm last night, and we�re here in Oslo speaking right now. It�s really going great. We always have huge crowds in Scandinavia, and it�s just exciting to see so many people come out and be so excited to see the band. So the show�s been big, the stage, and our production is really going well, but it�s always� there�s some tweaking going on to begin with, at the beginning of a tour, as with anybody, in terms of the sounds, lights and the pyro and video and all that sort of thing.

FULLMETALROCK
- Yeah, the thing about KISS for me is that it�s an experience! It must be incredibly difficult to narrow down to the number of songs that you select (to play).

TOMMY THAYER
- That�s always a challenge because there�s so much back material and so many records that have been recorded over the years. The first KISS record came out in 1974, so we�re looking at 43, going on 44 years now, and that�s a lot of material to choose from. And of course you have the classics, and so many people are depending really on hearing those songs that if you don�t play some of them, they get pretty pissed off. Then there�s die hard fans, that are very, you know, the purists, that want to hear those deeper cuts. We try to throw a few things in, but, then again, the masses� it�s crickets sometimes with some of those songs. It�s a fine line. We try to balance it out the best we can though.

FULLMETALROCK
- I�ve noticed so far you haven�t played anything from the �Monster� album. Is that a deliberate decision, or is just, you�re going with the flow and seeing how things go?

TOMMY THAYER
- Well, again, you�ve got the classic songs, and I�m just gonna be honest with you, not as many people know the stuff that�s on �Monster�, the most recent record that came out a couple years ago, just because, as you know, records aren�t selling like they used to, the record business is in huge decline, so the sales aren�t there, people aren�t getting the new music as much, so, I guess that�s reflected when we decide on what songs we�re gonna play.

FULLMETALROCK
- And when you talk about the fans, and making them happy, because you now have a whole �nother generation of fans that have come into it, and possibly even a third generation. That�s got to be a bit mind-blowing!

TOMMY THAYER
- It is mind blowing. It�s really multi-generational, like you said, it�s not just younger kids or a certain window of age. It�s all ages, and families. It�s interesting to me that so many kids get into KISS because their dad and the family brings them to the show. Sometimes it blows me away! There�s so many young kids out there, I�m thinking �How in the hell did they find out about KISS now!� And so I ask people, and it has to do with fathers bringing their sons and other people talking about it, or the reputation the band has for the show and the theatrics and the big rock show that KISS has really made famous in the first place. You know, these big pyro shows, and the big spectacular like we do is, a lot of it is, forged by KISS through the years and we have that reputation and that kind of legacy. I think people come to see that, too. It blows us away though, �cause every night Paul will say, �How many people haven't seen KISS before?� and it�s amazing how many people raise their hands. But that�s a good thing because that means you have new people coming in, �cause guys need to keep re-inventing and bringing in new people, �cause there�s a certain natural attrition to anything in entertainment. You slowly lose people, and you have to keep gaining more people.

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