Huge Kiss fan. They were my first rock concert (second overall), and I've seen them on numerous tours, including twice on the End Of The Road tour. Also a big Ace fan - I've seen him a lot as well.
But this sh!t just gets old. 70-year-old second graders. I mean, you're the face(s) of the band, you're raking in the cash on the tour and the merchandising with complete control of everything Kiss, and you can't do an interview w/o bashing the two original members who are no longer in the band? All you have to do is bite your tongue for 10 seconds and say they helped make the band what it is, but everybody has moved on. But instead, every interview, they take advantage of the opportunity to bash Ace and Peter. Good on Peter for not taking the bait and staying silent about it (for the most part). But I guess Ace has been pushed too far. And in fairness, he's put out more records and more new music than Kiss in the last 20 years.
My buddy and I were talking about this driving to see Kenny Wayne Shepherd last week, about how so many of these bands let petty jealousy and ego turn them into bitter old fools who think the spotlight is only big enough to light them, and that any sharing of the glory diminishes them, instead of realizing that they had something special
together, and spitting on the legacy only makes them look like fools.
The current lineup of Kiss may be a better band, but they're not KISS. And I say that only in terms of the chemistry that the original four had. As Howard Reese said when the original Heart lineup played at their RRHOF induction, "Only the six of us can make
that sound." Somebody else can come in and play the parts, and maybe even play them better from a technical standpoint, but there's a feel that can't be replicated. Rick Nielsen's son is playing drums for Cheap Trick. He's very good, and he plays the parts very, very well - but he can't mimc Bun E. Carlos's feel. The same goes for Eric Singer playing Peter Criss's parts.
Frankly, at this point, it's just aggravating/frustrating/pointless to see this ridiculous drama playing out in so many bands (Kiss, Fleetwood Mac, Journey, Van Halen, name about 1,000 others). Then you turn around and see something like this Iron Maiden story, and you wonder why it's so hard for others to realize what they've had and what they could lose.
'It's been very expensive.'
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