Kiss News

By Ken Sharp / GOLDMINE

Back in 1975, a passionate KISS fan from Terre Haute, Indiana named Bill Starkey took matters into his own hands in attempt to get his favorite band played on the radio. In short stead, the KISS Army was born. That blood, sweat and tears ethos mining fierce dedication and commitment to championing the cause of their musical superheroes continues unabated more than 40 years on. And as KISS Kruise VI: Creatures of The Deep sets to leave the port of Miami, Florida with stops in Cozumel, Mexico and the Grand Cayman Islands for a five-day excursion of frolic, fun, hijinks and rock �n� roll debauchery on the high seas, that same KISS Army are now getting their sea legs adopting an altogether different guise, the KISS Navy. Over 2,400 passengers from 35 countries are back to share an unforgettable journey with the hottest band in the world.

Standing in the port, I�m witness to friendships being rekindled and allegiances reignited as thousands of fans from Germany to Japan, Australia to Brazil, England to France, Russia to Sweden, most decked out in KISS T-shirts, many wearing full KISS makeup, scamper onto the ship with the excitement of the Tin Man, the Scarecrow and the Cowardly Lion off to see the Wizard on the yellow brick road; and in this case, that yellow brick road leads them face to face with their heroes, Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons, Tommy Thayer and Eric Singer � KISS.

This is the band�s sixth cruise and they�re selling out quicker than ever. Greg Hounshell, 46, a realtor based in Wytheville, Virginia has been waiting all year to make it back on the ship and he enthuses: �It�s time for the KISS Navy Reunion. I look forward to this all year. There is simply nothing like it. As a fifth time cruiser, it�s my chance to spend four days with the friends I�ve made from past years and make new friends for the future. The band works seamlessly to give the cruisers dozens of activities to choose from. The band lineups are always good and this year there are some new faces and groups to enjoy. I�ve been blessed to be on these KISS Kruises and wouldn�t miss it for the world. The friends I see on the boat are some of the best people I know. I�ve even started meeting up with them on activities throughout the year. There are no fans like KISS fans and there is no cruise like the KISS Kruise.�

Joining KISS on this rock �n� roll party at sea is a solid assemblage of musical talent numbering Whitford/St.Holmes, a group featuring Brad Whitford of Aerosmith and Ted Nugent�s lead singer, Derek St. Holmes; �80s hard metal hellions Skid Row; the prog-metal funksters King�s X; glam rock/power poppers, Enuff Z�Nuff; The Dead Daisies, fronted by ex-Mötley Cr�e singer, John Corabi. Plus Nick and Sophie Simmons, Gene�s son and daughter, and The Dives, a power-pop outfit, which features Paul�s son, Evan, on guitar and lead vocals, also set up to perform.

Sixthman, a leading company in music cruises, is truly the benchmark by which all cruises should be measured. As usual, the company has created a cruise teeming with activities that upend the decades old perception of the cruises of the past, which were relegated for the over 60 �blue hair� crowd, spending their golden years wallowing away the hours playing checkerboard, bingo and bridge, drinking watered down blue Mai-Tais, feasting on a limited choice of food options � mystery meat or fish anyone? � and taking long naps.

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By Ken Sharp / GOLDMINE

Outspoken and brash, arrogant and opinionated, profane and vulgar, supremely narcissistic and sexist, are among the colorful descriptions both the public and media foist at KISS founding member Gene Simmons. Acutely aware of how he is perceived, Simmons even named his last solo album, �Asshole.�

When meeting with the �God of Thunder,� he�s polite and gracious proving there�s much more behind the self-proclaimed �Man of 1000 Faces.� The band, or brand, as Simmons often likes to describe the Roll and Roll Hall of Famers, are not content to rest on their laurels and count their mountainous pile of greenbacks, but continue to press the envelope with a keen understanding of the transformative power of how a rock �n� roll band can be marketed in the 21st Century. Yet as Simmons attests, his aspirations for KISS have far exceeded his expectations.

�It is really weird that KISS, which never really started out as anything, but this bizarre dream of four knuckleheads off the streets of New York just wanting to do one record, that four decades later, the RIAA crowned us as the No. 1 gold record award-winning group of all time in America. It�s amazing especially since we�ve only had three hit singles, �Beth,� �I Was Made For Lovin� You� and �Forever.��

For a group routinely dismissed by short-sighted critics as a flash in the pan, a joke band comprised of talentless cretinous musical goons soon to be forgotten and quickly discarded on the junk heap of failed rock bands past, KISS are having the last laugh. Detractors be damned, 43 years since the original band � Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons, Ace Frehley and Peter Criss � first came together, KISS continue to transcend the parameters of what a rock band can do; whether starring in their own Scooby Doo cartoon (�Scooby Doo & KISS: Rock & Roll Mystery�), teaming up with menswear designer/clothier John Varvatos or collaborating with Japanese teen sensations Momoiro Clover Z on �Samurai Son,� the band�s first No. 1 single in the �Land of the Rising Sun,� yesterday and today KISS stubbornly follow the beat of their new drum and continue to thrive, loudly.

We sat down with the band�s resident �God of Thunder,� Gene Simmons, who offered a primer in all things KISS, past, present and future.

Goldmine: The act of songwriting was something you worked hard to master.

GENE SIMMONS: Well, initially I just sang in bands. We did cover songs; everything from Otis Redding to Wilson Pickett to The Ventures and, of course, Beatles songs, whatever was happening at the time. Listening to The Everly Brothers helped me learn how to sing harmony, too. Then my mother bought me a Gibson SG Standard and I didn�t know what to do with my fingers so initially I was just pressing single notes. Then I noticed the way people were holding C chords and G chords and all that and started to fool around.

GM: How would you describe the early songs you wrote?

GS: The first songs, in retrospect, were the kind of things Lennon and McCartney wrote but I don�t mean anywhere near as good. People would ask them what their words mean and both of them would say, �We have no idea, we just put words on there that sounded good.� And initially, the kinds of songs that I wrote as a kid didn�t really mean a hell of a lot. I had a song called �My Uncle is a Raft.� One of the lyrics was �My uncle is a raft and he always keeps me floating.� I had fond feelings about my uncle George and I�m sure all that McCartney stuff like �Uncle Albert� and the lyrics �hands across the water� really don�t mean anything. It�s not like �Penny Lane,� which really meant something about his childhood memories. But a lot of the words in Beatles songs like �I Am The Walrus� don�t mean a lot; they�re just interesting words that are stuck against the melody and the meter. So those first few songs of mine were very simple. Stylistically, they were vaguely Beatlesque or Everly Brothers-ish, �Wake Up Little Susie,� that kind of stuff.

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Thanks to Andres Salazar  for sharing his great KISS artwork with us! We love it!

by Jeremy Housewright  / www.reviewstl.com

Rock Icon and Kiss-founder Gene Simmons will be appearing at Wizard World Comic Con St. Louis on Saturday April 8 and Sunday, April 9. Simmons will also play a concert on Friday, April 7 to celebrate his appearance at the convention.  

Simmons co-founded KISS 42 years ago. KISS is America�s #1 Gold Record Award Winning Group of all time, in all categories (RIAA). The band, which has sold over 100 million CDs and DVDs worldwide, is celebrating their 43rd anniversary. They continue to sell out stadiums and arenas around the world, breaking box-office records set by Elvis and the Beatles. KISS was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame at the 2014 induction ceremony, and the band is recognized with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for its pioneering work.

Simmons recently spoke with to ReviewSTL�s Jeremy Housewright about his upcoming appearance at Wizard World, comics, the state of the country and much more.

The Kiss frontman explained what led to him getting involved with Wizard World.

�To further elucidate, which is a big word like gymnasium, I�ve been a comic book geek for longer than you�ve been alive,� Simmons said. �Going all the way back to the 70s, or even when I was a kid, I used to read them veraciously and I still do.�

In the 70s Marvel started the KISS comic series, which was their biggest seller at the time. Throughout the years the KISS comic series has been published by many companies.

�Now, I have the new generation, which is a spectacular hit with Dynamite Comics,� Simmons said. �Along the way, I�ve also started Simmons Comics which also publishes my characters.�

While he will appear for photos and autographs at Wizard World, Simmons will be joined by a live band to play a show on Friday night.

�Wizard World asked me if I wanted to join the convention to appear and answer questions and blow up little balloon animals and make little dog figures out of it, you know,the usual,� he said. �Then the question came up if I could do a few songs. That developed real quickly into why don�t we do it for real, and get a band to do all the hits. That�s how it developed.�

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BY KEITH SPERA  / The Advocate

KISS will finally consummate its relationship with the superkrewe Endymion during the 2017 Mardi Gras season.

The band will headline the post-parade Endymion Extravaganza in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome on Feb. 25, sharing the bill with rapper FloRida and disco-era favorites KC and the Sunshine Band.

Additionally, members of KISS are slated to ride in Endymion for the final few blocks of the parade route. The plan is for them to board a float near the Joy Theater on Canal Street, then wave and toss throws the rest of the way to the Superdome.

Endymion founder Ed Muniz, the krewe's captain for its entire 51-year history, announced the entertainment roster Wednesday at Mardi Gras World.

The members of KISS were supposed to serve as the 1979 Endymion parade's grand marshals. But a police strike that year canceled most Carnival parades in Orleans Parish. Endymion rolled in Kenner, but bassist Gene Simmons and his bandmates opted not to ride.

Muniz took Simmons out to dinner in Metairie anyway. At one point, the rock star put his girlfriend at the time, Cher, on the phone with Muniz.

The four members of KISS were depicted on a float in the 2016 Endymion parade, which commemorated the krewe�s 50th anniversary.

KISS joins a long list of celebrity entertainers associated with Endymion. In 1976, rocker Alice Cooper, then at the height of his popularity, rode as the parade�s grand marshal.

�That was a big deal,� Muniz recalled earlier this year. �That was the first time Endymion went super.�

In 2015, country superstar Luke Bryan rode aboard Endymion's grand marshal float for the entire route, a span of more than six hours. He then rallied for a midnight performance at the Extravaganza, which, with its ice chests and tables piled high with food and drink, is akin to a mass tailgate party in formal attire.

The 2016 Extravaganza headliners, Pitbull and Steven Tyler, did not participate in the parade itself, although Tyler did make a brief appearance at Endymion�s pre-parade Samedi Gras celebration on the Orleans Avenue neutral ground near City Park Avenue.

The 2017 Samedi Gras event will kick off at noon Feb. 25 and feature local cover bands the Topcats, Groovy 7 and the Bucktown Allstars. 

With more than 3,000 members, Endymion stages the largest parade in Carnival. It will roll at 4:15 p.m. Feb. 25 on its traditional Mid-City route. The 2017 theme is "The Constellations." Individual floats will depict celestial bodies.

Muniz, who made a fortune in the radio business before getting into Jefferson Parish politics, still keeps abreast of popular music. For the Extravaganza, he books acts to appeal to the krewe's diverse membership.

"That's what I learned when I was operating radio stations � you don't go for just one demographic," Muniz said Wednesday. "I would think FloRida is a different demographic than KISS. FloRida is younger."

Overall, "the membership seems happy" with this year's selections, he said. Most of the 20,000 tickets for the Extravaganza already have been sold. The only way to buy one now, Muniz said, is from a member of the krewe.

Headlining acts at the Extravaganza are paid hundreds of thousands of dollars. They are invited to ride in the parade but are not contractually required to do so.

"We book them to perform," Muniz said. "We invite them to ride. If they don't ride, we don't get upset about it."

Some performers opt to skip the parade because they don't want to wear themselves out by spending hours on a float leading up to show time. Others would rather spend the early evening rehearsing or doing sound checks at the Superdome. 

But the members of KISS have tentatively agreed to climb aboard a float when the parade reaches the Joy.

"In a perfect world, that's what is going to happen," Muniz said. "It all seems to work out. I think God loves Mardi Gras."

The coolest KISS 18 wheeler hauler collectible toy truck by New Ray Toys has arrived, and now we have a link so you can get your own!

http://bit.ly/2kghR7r

Next Generation KISS Army Member

She is Kool with a capital K! So cute!

KISS - How kool is my little niece Ellen Jay -aged two & already a KISS fan! - @DevinylSound

Check out this KISSWORLD street banner for KISS' May 20th show at BVV in Brno, Czech Republic.Thanks to Paul Pile for sharing the photo!

Tickets are still available for the Allstar Salute to the Oregon Military on February 18th, http://eventsavvyllc.tofinoauctions.com/ommp�/homepages/show.

If you would like more information on this great project, or would like to donate, visit http://oregonmilitarymuseumproject.org/.

KISS IS EVERYWHERE!

Thanks to Samantha Spall for sharing this great photo of the Crothersville high school sectional cheer block with us! We love it!