3/14/2023 0 Comments Sixtyfour dollr kiss![]() ![]() ![]() As always, his poodle-textured black hair hangs to his shoulders, in a style one comedian suggested was inspired by Planet of the Apes. He’s six feet two, with a build that doomed the band’s early attempts at performing in drag (“I looked like Phyllis Diller with glitter,” he says). On this cloudy afternoon, Simmons, 64, is wearing a tailored black blazer with a bright-red pocket square over a finely made black T-shirt, paired with black leather trousers and cowboy boots. “It’s bigger, even, than the guys who were in the band.” He means himself, too. “Kiss is like a cockroach that will outlive you all,” he says. In here, as Simmons likes to say, Kiss is a brand, not a band. So what if the actual founders of Kiss have written wildly contradictory memoirs insulting one another? Their dolls get along just fine. It’s the white-faced likenesses of the band’s signature characters – Simmons’ Demon, Stanley’s Starchild, Frehley’s Spaceman and Criss’ Catman – that matter, not the men behind them. In the land of merch, though, Kiss is always just Kiss. These days, Simmons and Stanley use two reliable hired guns instead, replacements who dress up as the old guys’ characters, to Frehley’s and Criss’ considerable distress. They brought them back, this time as salaried employees, for six years of wildly successful but strife-filled tours – with the makeup back on. They had already started work on an inevitable grunge album when, in 1995, Stanley and Simmons reunited with Frehley and Criss for an MTV Unplugged episode. Let the debate begin: Kiss’ Top 10 albums, ranked They stuck two new guys in weird new makeup, before finally unmasking themselves in 1983, beginning a long run as midlevel hair-metal hitmakers (Stanley looked pretty without his makeup Simmons, not so much). ![]() Kiss recorded a disco hit and a ludicrous concept album. “This box makes more money than most bands that tour,” Simmons says, stroking it with a huge hand.Ĭirca 1980, Kiss fired the tenderhearted, insecure Criss, who lost control of his drug use soon after singing the band’s biggest hit, “Beth.” The gifted but underachieving Frehley quit soon afterward, intending to pursue a solo career – which he did, though with less verve than he pursued the consumption of massive quantities of cocaine, tranquilizers and booze. Just outside the office, in a place of honor, is a Kiss video slot machine. “This room,” says Simmons, adding extra portentousness to his baritone, “didn’t happen by accident.” At the far end is a Kiss motorcycle, a brightly airbrushed Kiss Kasket (the late Dimebag Darrell, of Pantera, is buried in one), a Kiss pinball machine and a Kiss throne emblazoned with a cute Hello Kitty version of Simmons’ demon makeup – Kitty-Kiss hybrids are hot right now. On one wall is a plaque commemorating 100 million Kiss albums sold worldwide. Potato Heads sneakers bibs a bowling ball.Ī lifetime of Kiss: look back at the group’s long history in photos There are thousands of Kiss things in his lair, overflowing from glass cases: Halloween masks life-size busts of the band members’ heads dolls action figures coffee mugs motorcycle helmets plates blankets demonic Mr. He has stuffed a wing of his otherwise tasteful Beverly Hills mansion with Kiss merchandise, turning it into a shrine to his favorite guy, Gene Simmons, and the band for which he’s spent 40 lucrative years playing bass, breathing fire, spitting blood and waggling a tongue so freakish he’s had to deny grafting it from some unlucky cow. All that’s missing from Gene Simmons’ home office is a cash register. ![]()
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