Kiss News

01/20/2023

Happy Birthday Paul Stanley!

Happy Birthday to our ringmaster Paul Stanley!

 

Here's our birthday boy rockin' with the us! 

 

01/17/2023

Gene Simmons on the 10 Albums that changed his life

By Ken Sharp / www.goldminemag.com

Photo by NBC NewsWire/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty Images.

He’s the fire-breathing God of Thunder. To the public at large, KISS’ Gene Simmons is the stalking bass-playing monster in dragon boots who howls at the moon. As for his listening habits, based on his dark, vampiric stage character, one would assume that his musical meter leans toward the heaviest of rock. But in reality, Simmons’ musical tastes are surprising and varied, as you’ll discover. 

Before we attended to the task at hand, Simmons insisted upon educating us, stressing the importance of roots music as the foundation of rock and roll: “As a preamble, when I first came to America as an eight-and-a-half-year-old boy, this was pre-Beatles. I came to America with my mother in 1958, and I had never heard of rock and roll, and I actually had never seen a television set. We didn’t have one. We were very poor in Israel, and I never could have imagined that there was a magic box where people flew through the air and there were monsters and the Empire State Building and King Kong. I never imagined. And the first music I heard in America was Chuck Berry and Little Richard and all that. I actually met Little Richard a few times and took my son Nick to see Little Richard. We went backstage, and he couldn’t have been nicer. ‘So good to see you’ and everything. And he said, ‘Who’s this young man?’ And I said, ‘That’s my son Nick. Nick, you know, Little Richard, this is a very, very important person.’ And Little Richard said to him, ‘Young man, rock and roll, I invented it!’ (laughs) He went on in his Little Richard way, saying, ‘You ain’t got no Beatles without me!’ (laughs). 

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01/16/2023

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.”

CLICK HERE to read the rest of the story now.

01/14/2023

KISS ARMY ROCKS!

KISS IS EVERYWHERE!

Gene Simmons spotted in Chapleau,Ontario,Canada! HA! Thanks to Tim Schmidt for sharing with us. Awesome!

01/12/2023

Paul Stanley Adds New Art Shows

Wentworth Gallery is proud to present Paul Stanley for an exclusive exhibition of his artwork. Paul will appear in person at Wentworth Gallery, Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, The Shoppes at The Guitar Hotel on Friday, February 3rd from 7 pm to 9 pm and at Wentworth Gallery, Town Center Mall, 6000 Glades Road Suite # 1089, Boca Raton, FL 33431 on Saturday, February 4th from 6 pm to 8 pm.

ON DISPLAY NOW EXCLUSIVELY AT WENTWORTH GALLERY!
Ask about joining Paul for a private dinner!


For more information and pricing inquiries, contact the gallery:


Friday, February 3rd - 7-9 pm
Wentworth Gallery - Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, Hollywood
The Shoppes at The Guitar Hotel
5804 Seminole Way Suite 103
Hollywood, FL 33314
954-314-7210
[email protected]


Saturday, February 4th - 6-8 pm
Wentworth Gallery Boca Raton
Town Center Mall
6000 Glades Road, Suite # 1089
Boca Raton, FL 33431
561-338-0804
[email protected]

View Paul Stanley’s Art: www.wentworthgallery.com/stanley.html

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