Kiss News

By Marc Saltzman, Special for USA TODAY

Legendary rock group Kiss might open its shows with the classic Detroit Rock City, but you don't need to be in the Motor City� or even from the USA� to chat with the band in your mother tongue.

Launched in conjunction with the band's 40-city summer tour with M�tley Crüe, a new online tool called Kiss Social Hub (kissonline.com/socialhub) not only aggregates multiple social networks into one central platform (including Facebook, Twitter and Google+), but automatically translates text from 53 languages between fans and the band, in real time.

"For a group like us, an international audience is essential to continuing the growth and worldwide exposure of the rock experience we want to offer fans," Kiss bassist/vocalist Gene Simmons tells USA TODAY. "Connecting with them in their own language and familiar social networks makes the fan experience personal and direct, with no barriers of translation."By Marc Saltzman, Special for USA TODAY

Legendary rock group Kiss might open its shows with the classic Detroit Rock City, but you don't need to be in the Motor City� or even from the USA� to chat with the band in your mother tongue.

Launched in conjunction with the band's 40-city summer tour with M�tley Crüe, a new online tool called Kiss Social Hub (kissonline.com/socialhub) not only aggregates multiple social networks into one central platform (including Facebook, Twitter and Google+), but automatically translates text from 53 languages between fans and the band, in real time.

"For a group like us, an international audience is essential to continuing the growth and worldwide exposure of the rock experience we want to offer fans," Kiss bassist/vocalist Gene Simmons tells USA TODAY. "Connecting with them in their own language and familiar social networks makes the fan experience personal and direct, with no barriers of translation."

Kiss followers in Russia or China, for example, can write to the group at the Social Hub, but it instantly appears as English when viewed by band members and other fans. On the flip side, whatever Kiss writes back in English is viewed in the desired language a second or two later.

The band, which made its debut in makeup and platform boots 39 years and dozens of albums ago, says the ability to chat in real time with non-English-speaking followers wasn't possible until now.

"The experience for the international fan has completely changed over the past few years, (where) a global audience can hear from their favorite group in their own tongue," says guitarist/vocalist Paul Stanley. "Now it's a possibility for every member of the Kiss Army in the farthest reaches of the globe to reach us directly."

Kiss Social Hub is powered by a technology called Ortsbo, a leading real-time communications platform used by more than 200 million people, according to its parent company Intertainment Media. The multilingual social-media chatting service is available on computers, Web browsers and mobile devices. A free Ortsbo app for Apple's iOS devices (iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad) lets users chat live via Facebook with people in other languages. Coming soon is support for other social networks, including MSN, Yahoo! Messenger and Google Talk.

Kiss Social Hub will serve as the Web's command center for the band throughout the tour, which wraps Sept. 23 in Hartford, Conn.

"Expect live updates from us from each performance," Simmons says.

Simmons might not need this technology as much as the rest of the band, however, as his famously long tongue can speak five languages: English, Hebrew, Hungarian, German and some Japanese.

By Alysha Heers

Two of the baddest rock and roll bands have come together again after 29 years for The Tour. Kiss and M�tley Crüe are touring across the nation on a 43 stop tour this summer. The Tour started on July 20 in Bristow, VA and will run until September 23 in Hartford, CT. The Treatment a U.K. rock band will also join the bands this summer for one of the most hard core rock spectaculars of the summer.

Kiss and M�tley Crüe are "not a co-headline but a double headline," Sixx, bass player of M�tley Crüe said, according to USA Today. Each band will entertain the audience in their own elaborate ways with Tommy Lee's drum roller coaster and Kiss's rising platforms. Fire breathing, blood spitting, and pyrotechnics will always be had at the rock and roll shows.

However, they don't want to out shine each other so M�tley Crüe will take it easy on the blood this tour. Sixx said, "Gene has been doing the blood thing since I saw them when I was 14 years old, so we're obviously going to be respectful of that." The two bands will be blowing things up though: "We both perceive pyrotechnics in an entirely different way," according to USA Today.By Alysha Heers

Two of the baddest rock and roll bands have come together again after 29 years for The Tour. Kiss and M�tley Crüe are touring across the nation on a 43 stop tour this summer. The Tour started on July 20 in Bristow, VA and will run until September 23 in Hartford, CT. The Treatment a U.K. rock band will also join the bands this summer for one of the most hard core rock spectaculars of the summer.

Kiss and M�tley Crüe are "not a co-headline but a double headline," Sixx, bass player of M�tley Crüe said, according to USA Today. Each band will entertain the audience in their own elaborate ways with Tommy Lee's drum roller coaster and Kiss's rising platforms. Fire breathing, blood spitting, and pyrotechnics will always be had at the rock and roll shows.

However, they don't want to out shine each other so M�tley Crüe will take it easy on the blood this tour. Sixx said, "Gene has been doing the blood thing since I saw them when I was 14 years old, so we're obviously going to be respectful of that." The two bands will be blowing things up though: "We both perceive pyrotechnics in an entirely different way," according to USA Today.

Kiss has had a long 40 year old rocking career and they are not done. They performed a Farewell Tour in the Spring of 2000, but the band kept touring the world. In 2008, Kiss returned to the studio and made a greatest hits album, called "Jigoku-Retsuden," which was only released in Japan.

In 2009 Kiss released their 19th studio album, "Sonic Boom." This Fall, Kiss will released their 20th album, "Monster."

Kiss formed in 1972 and fans became infatuated with their wild shows, makeup, costumes, and heavy metal rock music. The band has sold over 100 albums, including 28 gold albums, which is more than any other American rock band in history. Kiss became eligible to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame back in 1999, however, the band has yet not be inducted.

M�tley Crüe say that Kiss is their biggest influence. They turned 30 years old last year and released their latest single, "Sex" on July 17, just in time for The Tour.

M�tley Crüe formed in 1981 and became heavy metal superstars. "Dr. Feelgood" sold four million copies and hit number one in 1989, "Theatre of Pain" made it up to number six in 1985, and "Girls, Girls Girls" sold two million copies and took number two in 1987.

Their greatest hits album, "Decade of Decadence" climbed to number two in 1991. Their latest album, "Saints of Los Angeles" was released in 2008. Many fans know M�tley Crüe by their rock and roll lifestyle and celebrity girlfriends. Tommy Lee married both Heather Locklear and Pamela Anderson.

The Treatment released their debut album, "This Might Hurt" in 2011 and they also released a five song cover EP in America the week of July 20, 2012. The band formed in 2008 and is influenced by AC/DC, Sex Pistols, and Aerosmith. Dhani Mansworth, the drummer, founded the band when he was only 15 years old and still in school at Cambridge, according to Examiner.com.

M�tley Crüe and Kiss had a tough time deciding who should open for them, but they announced The Treatment would be joining them on March 29. According to Gibson.co, Sixx, said "I am very happy for them. We played them nine months ago on 'Sixx Sense,' and fans really loved what they are about."

Kiss and M�tley Crüe also announced another show on September 29 in Mexico City.

By Dave Hoekstra

Every cruise is a theater of moving parts.

It is a full deck of anticipation, laughter, stress and escape. By the end of a good cruise a sense of community exists.

Everything is in its place.

Of course, this is not lost on a transplant surgeon.

Dr. Alan Koffron of Birmingham, Michigan, was aboard the first Kiss Kruise, a four-day affair held last October. Also featuring hard rock mavens Skid Row and Chicago-based Bad City, the cruise tooled from Miami to the Bahamas and back.

Yes, it is that Kiss: "Rock �n� Roll All Nite," party every day, greasepaint makeup and the fire-spewing tongue of bassist and Family Jewels star Gene Simmons. Kiss has been around since 1973, when they were considered really scary.

"I'm a huge fan," Koffron says as the band plays an unplugged set on the Lido Deck of the 15-year-old Carnival Destiny as it pulled out of Miami. "But everywhere I go, everywhere I've been, I say, �I'm a Kiss fan'�they're like, �Really?' It invalidates you."By Dave Hoekstra

Every cruise is a theater of moving parts.

It is a full deck of anticipation, laughter, stress and escape. By the end of a good cruise a sense of community exists.

Everything is in its place.

Of course, this is not lost on a transplant surgeon.

Dr. Alan Koffron of Birmingham, Michigan, was aboard the first Kiss Kruise, a four-day affair held last October. Also featuring hard rock mavens Skid Row and Chicago-based Bad City, the cruise tooled from Miami to the Bahamas and back.

Yes, it is that Kiss: "Rock �n� Roll All Nite," party every day, greasepaint makeup and the fire-spewing tongue of bassist and Family Jewels star Gene Simmons. Kiss has been around since 1973, when they were considered really scary.

"I'm a huge fan," Koffron says as the band plays an unplugged set on the Lido Deck of the 15-year-old Carnival Destiny as it pulled out of Miami. "But everywhere I go, everywhere I've been, I say, �I'm a Kiss fan'�they're like, �Really?' It invalidates you."

This isn't Dr. Love, as in the 1976 Kiss hit of the same name.

Koffron, 45, is a surgeon who is director of Multi-Organ Transplantation at Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oaks. Prior to coming to Michigan in 2007 he spent 10 years at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, where he was medical director of the Living Donor Program. "I love the music," says Koffron, a native of Iowa City, Iowa. "People go, �You are going on a Kiss cruise?' Absolutely. Why not?"

The Kiss Kruise was produced by Sixthman, the Atlanta, Georgia-based company that has been creating musical themed cruises since 2001. The Kiss Kruise was a near sellout with more than two thousand people representing twenty-six countries.

Sixthman had assembled thirty-seven musical cruises prior to the Kiss Kruise. Headline artists have ranged from Lyle Lovett to Lynyrd Skynyrd.

No cruise has attracted more international visitors. "Every one is unique," Sixthman CEO Andy Levine said in a Q & A with fans on the final day of the cruise. "But the one thing we see is that if someone is 20 years old or 90 years old, there's this attitude, belonging and family that forms from year one to year two to three. It's powerful, the relationships that come out of it."

Another Kiss Kruise will embark this fall, October 31 to November 4.

Kiss had never performed on the ocean. The band's roots are the landlocked boroughs of the Bronx and Queens, N.Y. "It was far beyond what I anticipated," Kiss cofounder, guitarist Paul Stanley says from his home in Beverly Hills, California. "Halloween would only increase the intensity. The feeling is much more of a tribe than a rock concert. Rock bands are age-specific. If you're there, you don't want your younger brother at a rock show�and God forbid, your parents. But this is the world's largest secret society. There is a sense everyone is in it together."

Just like Kiss, Koffron had never been on a cruise. He was with his fianc�e Julie Stein, who is a liver surgeon in Michigan. (Enter your rock �n� roll joke here.) They met when Koffron was presenting a paper at a medical conference. They were married in December.

The Kiss getaway was the idea of David Colling, who owns and operates the popular Vivio's restaurant in the Eastern Market in Detroit. He had seen Kiss thirty times prior to the cruise, dating back to the Cobo Hall days in downtown Detroit. Christine, his wife of 20 years, grew up with Stein in Detroit. They remain best friends.

Colling, 44, says, "I was looking for something for a long weekend because she is a teacher. This fell in our lap. Then we asked Julie and Alan, which made it even better. My big theme has always been around something I love.

"And this is something."

In his comments to the Kiss Navy, Levine says, "One thing we talk about when we're discussing whether to do a cruise or not is how deep the roots are between the band and the fans: how many years, how many albums, how many tours. Without question Kiss is the deepest roots we have seen. We challenged the band to bring it to life. If anyone can be creative, it is Kiss. We're not going to try to out-create Kiss. And we felt four days is a good time for everyone in the band."

Between catching three live Kiss sets in four days, Kiss fans amuse themselves with a Kiss look-alike contest that included hundreds of folks mimicking Simmons' long tongue, Kiss Karaoke and Kiss Trivia.

On the first day of the cruise, Koffron says his favorite Kiss song is the rather sedate symphonic version of "God Made Rock �n� Roll," recorded in 2003 with the seventy-piece Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and filmed for Kiss Symphony Alive IV. "It's a powerful thing," he says. "It builds and builds. It's a shifting crowd song. Their music absolutely resonates in Michigan." At the end of their second of two plugged-in, full makeup shows on the cruise, Kiss dug back to their chestnut "Detroit Rock City."

Koffron reflects, "One of the reasons I left Chicago is there wasn't the buy-in of loyalty like there is in Detroit. In Detroit, people live and love their place as good as bad as it can be. There's more transplants in Chicago. Since I moved to Michigan, it's been imparted on me to give a hug and let's go forth."

The healing power of music and medicine go together like Kiss cofounders Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley. "Music is like your fuel," Koffron explains as the band plays their hit ballad "Beth" in the background. "You wake up, music makes your day go. If you're having a bad day, you don't want a song to make you cry. It can charge you up.

"I don't listen to music during an operation. But before, we have it on �Let's go, let's go.' Its always a similar genre to Kiss, a powerful, driving music."

Kiss negates the aging process when they perform with their black and white face painting. It's not like watching Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones or Paul Simon add mileage over the years. Simmons' persona has always been "The Demon," while Stanley is "The Starchild." Stanley explains, "The longer we go on, the bigger we become. There's a sense of timelessness. There are times I see photos and I have to check out some of the details to know when it's from. And we have so much respect for our music and our fans that when we play a song we play it the way it was recorded. There's nothing more disrespectful to everybody than to turn your biggest hit song into a reggae number because you're bored. There's something invincible about Kiss, and it's more apparent when you see us live." The Kiss Kruisers appreciate the fact that the band plays the hits note-by-note the way they were recorded.

The Kiss Kruise was the third appearance on the high seas by Skid Row. They've been on Motley Cruise, Vince Neil's popular late 2000s cruise which raised money for the Skylar Neil Foundation (his daughter Skylar died of cancer at age 4), and Ship Rocked (the November 2011 cruise included Queensryche and Living Colour), produced by ShipRocked LLC in Nashville. "It's a good way to get face to face with hardcore fans," Skid Row's original bassist Rachel Bolan says. "Just be able to hang out, walk around. We take over a corner of the boat and whomever wants to come up, hang out."

But Kiss never left their cabins except to play their gigs. Stanley was seen from his cabin waving to fans as they tendered back to the ship from Half Moon Cay, Bahamas. "I want to make myself as available as possible without making myself a pest," he says. "You can't miss me if I don't go away."

Long-time Kiss manager Doc McGhee also appears in a 90-minute Q & A with hundreds of fans on the last day of the cruise. He admits some kinks have to be worked out. "I've never been on a cruise, Kiss had never been on a cruise," McGhee explains. "We didn't know what to expect. [Country star] Tim McGraw did a cruise. He never got on the boat. He flew into Nassau, did his show on the beach and left. But we have to figure out a way the band can be more transparent to everybody."

A common beef at the Sixthman Q & A was the lack of autograph sessions with any of the bands, including Kiss. Artists are very accessible on most cruises. Kid Rock has been known to join fans on the water slide of a cruise ship, and I'll never forget tendering into Montego Bay, Jamaica, with the late Muddy Waters piano player Pinetop Perkins on the 2005 Rhythm and Blues Cruise. Levine says, "It would be great to get more time to do signings. You can have a band sign things all day or have them play in an environment where they're comfortable, playing songs they haven't played in a long time."

During the acoustic unmasked show, Kiss played the hit pop ballad "Hard Luck Woman" for the first time since 1995 (and again during the electric show) and the Gene Simmons rarity "See You Tonite."

Skid Row's Bolan adds, "A performance is a little more laid back than a regular show. You can do an acoustic show or pull out rarities. Kiss's second show set list blew my mind. I was writing songs down as they were going along. You're paying good money to get on these things and fans should get something special."

Like Michigan surgeons�unmasked.

'If this was a first record by a new band, I'd be floored,' says Gene Simmons

By Dan Hyman

It's been just shy of four decades since KISS released their eponymous debut album. But as Gene Simmons says, the hard rock titans � who are set to drop their 20th studio album, Monster, on October 16th � are still firing on all cylinders.

"The band is more focused than ever," Simmons tells Rolling Stone. "The weather looks great for the band � reinvigorated, redefined, refocused and reborn."

While Simmons and lead singer Paul Stanley remain the band's only original members, Monster marks the second consecutive KISS record, following 2009's Sonic Boom, created with a lineup that includes drummer Eric Singer and lead guitarist Tommy Thayer. Simmons insists the new album ranks up there with some of the notoriously outlandish crew's finest work. "If this was a first record by a new band, I'd be floored," he says.
'If this was a first record by a new band, I'd be floored,' says Gene Simmons

By Dan Hyman

It's been just shy of four decades since KISS released their eponymous debut album. But as Gene Simmons says, the hard rock titans � who are set to drop their 20th studio album, Monster, on October 16th � are still firing on all cylinders.

"The band is more focused than ever," Simmons tells Rolling Stone. "The weather looks great for the band � reinvigorated, redefined, refocused and reborn."

While Simmons and lead singer Paul Stanley remain the band's only original members, Monster marks the second consecutive KISS record, following 2009's Sonic Boom, created with a lineup that includes drummer Eric Singer and lead guitarist Tommy Thayer. Simmons insists the new album ranks up there with some of the notoriously outlandish crew's finest work. "If this was a first record by a new band, I'd be floored," he says.

Monster was recorded at studios in and around Los Angeles and, like Sonic Boom, was co-produced by Stanley and Greg Collins. Though it has been finished for a few months, the bassist and perennial self-promoter says there was no point in rushing out something this epic. "Just because you have a lot of ammunition doesn't mean you have to shoot your wad right away," he says. "You have to pace yourself."

Monster itself does not pace itself: it's a full-on aural assault, from the first note of the opening track and lead single "Hell or Hallelujah" ("I rode the highway to heartache/ I rode the ship of fools" ) to the appropriately titled "Wall of Sound," a barn burner anchored by a snaking guitar lick. The album doesn't let up until Stanley lets out a final jarring wail on "Last Chance."

"If you like guitars and drums, this is right up your alley," Simmons explains. "Which is better than right up your ass. It's relentless til the end. We're not doing thrash. We're not doing any of that stuff. It's straight meat and potatoes. No messing around. And no ballads, no string choirs, no little boys doing a cappella, no eunuchs singing background." Simmons adds that Monster is less intricate than their classic 1976 album Destroyer, and that it hearkens back to the band's first three records. "Destroyer was a more produced studio record," he explains. "To reproduce Destroyer live, we would need keyboards. We love that, but it's more produced material."

Simmons admits he's taken inspiration from other classic rock acts performing their iconic albums in their entirety. To that end, he is toying with the idea of playing Monster from start to finish on tour.

"It's an interesting idea," he says. "It would sound the same as the record because that's the way it was recorded. You wouldn't have to add anything."

For now, Simmons is relishing being on the road with Motley Crue, one of several legendary bands, including Bon Jovi and AC/DC, he says he's proud to have brought out on their first massive tour years ago. "It's been phenomenal," he says of the two band's worldwide jaunt, dubbed The Tour, which kicked off its U.S. leg last week. "We come out there and we will kick you in the nuts as soon as we can." As for what it feels like for Simmons to be onstage at age 62? "I am the god that walks the face of this planet," he declares.

In decidedly KISS fashion, a mega-tour and a forthcoming new record are not all that's on the horizon for the rockers. In addition to a guessing game of sorts on the band's Facebook page that will slowly uncover Monster's cover art, in the coming months KISS will release a remastered edition of Destroyer, a DVD entitled Kissology and a mega-sized Monster book, a limited-edition 45-pound behemoth of a read that features never-before-seen photographs and will be signed by all four band members.

"You don't need a coffee table book," says Simmons of the over-the-top collector's item. "This is the coffee table."

By Paul Jordan

My name is Paul Jordan and I work for KISS. It is my dream job. But how did it all happen? Why KISS, and why hire me?

It all started in 1975, when I was 4 years old. A kid who lived near me came over to my house and asked if I could play. My mom sent him to my room. He was a few years older than me and not nearly as sheltered. He walked into my room wearing a down vest and acting very sneaky.

He pulled a record out of the vest and we played it on my little plastic record player. He said to keep it quiet; it had a curse word in it. In 1975, that was a big deal and fairly unheard of.

As the song �Black Diamond� started, we heard the word �bitch� and covered our mouths in amusement and disbelief. I grabbed the album cover to get a closer look at these crazy guys in costumes and face paint. The album was �Alive!� by KISS. I was hooked for life and have been a fan ever since.


In 1989, I saw a video on Army Rangers in a recruiting office and joined the Army as an infantryman. During my almost 21 years of service, I have been all over the world, including two peacekeeping missions in the former Yugoslavia (Bosnia and Kosovo) and combat tours in the Middle East (twice in Iraq and once in Afghanistan).

I retired in November 2010. Since then, the only jobs I could find were through temp agencies working in manufacturing and production. I have sent my resume out to countless companies, only to receive e-mails stating that they have filled the position but would keep my resume on file (when I heard back from them at all). It was very frustrating.

One day in March, a Facebook friend posted me an article that said the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Hiring Our Heroes, NBC News� initiative to put military veterans back in the workforce, had joined forces with KISS to hire a veteran as a roadie for the band�s 45-city tour across the U.S. this summer with Motley Crue. I said to myself: �That�s me!!!�

By Paul Jordan

My name is Paul Jordan and I work for KISS. It is my dream job. But how did it all happen? Why KISS, and why hire me?

It all started in 1975, when I was 4 years old. A kid who lived near me came over to my house and asked if I could play. My mom sent him to my room. He was a few years older than me and not nearly as sheltered. He walked into my room wearing a down vest and acting very sneaky.

He pulled a record out of the vest and we played it on my little plastic record player. He said to keep it quiet; it had a curse word in it. In 1975, that was a big deal and fairly unheard of.

As the song �Black Diamond� started, we heard the word �bitch� and covered our mouths in amusement and disbelief. I grabbed the album cover to get a closer look at these crazy guys in costumes and face paint. The album was �Alive!� by KISS. I was hooked for life and have been a fan ever since.

In 1989, I saw a video on Army Rangers in a recruiting office and joined the Army as an infantryman. During my almost 21 years of service, I have been all over the world, including two peacekeeping missions in the former Yugoslavia (Bosnia and Kosovo) and combat tours in the Middle East (twice in Iraq and once in Afghanistan).

I retired in November 2010. Since then, the only jobs I could find were through temp agencies working in manufacturing and production. I have sent my resume out to countless companies, only to receive e-mails stating that they have filled the position but would keep my resume on file (when I heard back from them at all). It was very frustrating.

One day in March, a Facebook friend posted me an article that said the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Hiring Our Heroes, NBC News� initiative to put military veterans back in the workforce, had joined forces with KISS to hire a veteran as a roadie for the band�s 45-city tour across the U.S. this summer with Motley Crue. I said to myself: �That�s me!!!�

I submitted my resume and started a Facebook event to get people to write letters of recommendation on my behalf. I was very active, but I never thought I would get chosen. Then I got the call from James Cunningham at Hiring Our Heroes. He asked if I was still interested, interviewed me, and asked if I could fly to New York to be on the TODAY show as one of three finalists.

So on live TV, with millions watching across the country, Gene Simmons announced me as the winner. I never imagined that I would be working for KISS.

And so the adventure begins....

Watch the Hiring Our Heroes blog for updates on Paul Jordan�s adventures as a KISS roadie.