Kiss - Kiss band's bassist Gene Simmons - Interview

Interview, August, 1999 by Dimitri Ehrlich

In their unstoppable quest for world domination, Kiss are not content to be mere circusy relics from the '70s - they're back in a big way, with a blizzard of new tie-ins and featured roles in a new movie. Onward Kisstian soldiers!

Consider this: After the Beatles and the Stones, the group with the most gold albums in its portfolio Is Kiss. How is it possible that four guys who proffer a mixture of nerdy adenoidal sci-fi fantasies and three-chord rock 'n' roll while dressed in cartoonish makeup and seven-inch heels trail so closely behind the two greatest bands of all time? What has allowed Kiss to remain an active musical force decades after their original peers retired?

Psycho Circus (Mercury, 1998), the first studio recording in nineteen years to feature Kiss's original lineup, was nominated for a Grammy. The group was featured on the cover of Forbes magazine after having headlined the biggest-grossing tour of 1996-97. And this month New Line unveils Detroit Rock City, a movie set in 1978 in which four boys flee an oppressive Ohio high school for a verboten road trip to see Kiss in the motor city. There's also a new Kiss Visa card, a Kiss Internet-access program, Kiss toilet paper, and a Kiss car you can drive with your electric guitar plugged into the dashboard amplifier (should you have $75,000 to spare).

What does the resurgence of this blood-spewing band of archetypal rock 'n' roll rebels signify? As Gene Simmons, the group's macrolingual bassist, once said: When you go for a ride on a roller coaster, don't ask what it means.

DIMITRI EHRLICH: Detroit Rock City opens with a scene emphasizing how threatening rock music once was. Do you think that doing the shock-rock equivalent to what you guys did in 1976, like the Prodigy do, still has any meaning?

GENE SIMMONS: I don't think the Prodigy mean anything, unfortunately. You walk down the street and say Prodigy, and nobody has a clue what that is. Even if they sell a million records. Because if you don't know how to work the media, you mean nothing. [Marilyn] Manson knows how to work the media, so he means something.

DE: What does he mean, though?

GS: Each act means just as much, and more, to each new generation. There will always be the magician pulling the rabbit out of the hat. But it means less than nothing to those of us who are also magicians. You've got to be a virgin to life for it to have impact.

DE: In the movie, one of the kids' bedrooms has a Kiss album cover juxtaposed with a big crucifix. Christianity and Kiss are set up as mortal enemies, in a way.

GS: Well, we are. When you're a kid, you can't wait to experience life, and religion - in this case, Christianity - tells you you shouldn't. Christianity tells you, "Save yourself until you're married." Rock 'n' roll tells you, "Go out and fuck everything in sight."

DE: The mother says to the kid, "I hope you never have a son like you." Do you have children?

GS: I have two kids I know of. And I've never espoused rebellion. I think it's the height of fucking lunacy. I've never been high, I don't drink, I don't smoke. A rebel would do that stuff just because you're not supposed to. Well, you're not supposed to shoot yourself in the head with a gun either. I believe in a strong work ethic. I believe you take responsibility for all your actions. But I consider myself an epicurean hedonist, which means I live for the pursuit of happiness. Therefore, if something or someone gives me pleasure, that's what I'm going to do. If it happens to be at odds with society, then that's their problem, not mine. But you have to be an idiot to numb yourself with chemicals.

DE: Just to play devil's advocate, from what I've been told, certain drugs don't numb. Heroin apparently feels really good at first.

GS: I'm told that jumping off a building is the thrill of a lifetime. The problem is, without the rope, you hit bottom.

DE: The soundtrack to the movie features songs by Ted Nugent, Thin Lizzy, and the Runaways. Kiss seem to have endured in a really different way than these artists.

GS: We have been fortunate enough to figure out, either by accident or by design, the grand scheme - which is that rock 'n' roll is not just music. It's also about heroes.

DE: Are you attracting a new audience?

GS: Without planting new seeds, you're yesterday's news. So, maybe there's something intrinsic about the idea that each of us has our own personality. If it was just Gene Simmons, then every guy in the audience would look like a Cro-Magnon - big, beefy guys all banging their fists. The girls are there in the front too, and each of them has her own agenda. The ones who seem to like me are really not interested in a candlelight dinner. They want to spend a night with a beast. They're not interested in the niceties of life; they want me to go drill for oil.

DE: The movie depicts the conflict between disco and hard rock as really violent. But Kiss had a disco song, "I Was Made for Lovin' You."

GS: Sure! We're whores. I have no credibility. I don't want credibility. I want to do whatever I think works and is a lot of fun. You know, to me, a prostitute has always been much more ethical than a wife, and here's why: Before a prostitute gives you a blow job, she will tell you it's going to cost twenty-five dollars. Not your wife! Your wife-to-be is never going to say a word about money, never! Love, love, love, love, love. Once you get married, your ass is hers. 'Cause if the day ever comes you get divorced, one of your two god-given balls is going to be ripped out of your body, entrails and all.