KISS FAQ: All That's Left to Know About the Hottest Band in the Land

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The show is so sequenced, choreographed, and structured that it is impossible for anything improvisational or off-script. KISS has been noted for advancing stage concepts in rock performance, pushing hard-rock music at a time when most bands were giving up on it (albeit KISS has struggled with that as well), and showing that it was okay for musicians to actually be involved with the business side of the industry.

It’s also one of Ace’s best vocal performances on the album, which runs counter to his initial concerns about singing it. And the good thing about legends and tall tales is that they must be good enough to be continually told and retold decades later. I must say it is amazing to see new fans at shows and expos, fans from abroad, and to share KISS experiences with people I’ve met along the way. But things had changed for him once he committed to trying to make it on his own, and he professed, “The ten past years have been the greatest years of my life… but I would have hated to sit back when I’m forty and wondered if I could have made it on my own… Right now, I have an energy that is similar to the days of ‘Deuce’ and ‘Black Diamond,’ I feel like Rocky. When I look back on my early years as a KISS fan, I sometimes wonder how people tolerated the overbearing attitude of a teenager who couldn’t see beyond the makeup and the flash pots.So when I was approached by Dale Sherman—a man I met many years ago, whose books I proudly keep in my modest KISS collection—to add to one of his latest endeavors, I was flattered, to say the least.

I’m not sure if it’s the “blinded by science / blinded by fear” lyrics, or melodic elements such as “when all is said or done it’s like a loaded gun” seem overly familiar in a Guns N’ Roses 1991 way. Suddenly, for three to four minutes, you are back to the same level of sheer joy you had years before when watching the band working their particular magic. The production of his first post-Kiss album solo sounds dated to my ears now, but there are still some very strong (and weak) songs on Frehley’s Comet. Old hands at KISS history will no doubt wonder if there is any reason to go over the early histories of the band members once again. Yet some casual fans tend to look at KISS as suddenly springing up in 1974, fully formed with the makeup, costumes, and an album.

But a theme emerged, with his frustration creatively in the band built on the foundation that “Beth” had provided. The band has only added to the debates with promises to never do a ballad let alone perform one live, to never get the original group back together, or to put the makeup back on or take it off.