Kiss - You Wanted The Best, You Got The Best!! (1996) --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Paul Stanley - Lead Vocals, Rhythm Guitar Ace Frehley - Lead Guitar Gene Simmons - Lead Vocals, Bass Peter Criss - Lead Vocals on "Beth", Drums Executive Producer: Jason A. Linn. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Track Listing 1) Room Service (Stanley) 3:38 2) Two Timer (Simmons) 3:15 3) Let Me Know (Stanley) 3:38 4) Rock Bottom (Intro - Frehley, Song - Stanley) 3:33 5) Parasite (Frehley) 3:37 6) Firehouse (Stanley) 4:00 7) I Stole You Love (Stanley) 3:32 8) Calling Dr. Love (Simmons) 3:35 9) Take Me (Stanley, Sean Delaney) 3:06 10) Shout It Out Loud (Simmons, Stanley, Bob Ezrin) 3:14 11) Beth (Criss, Stan Penridge, Ezrin) 2:33 12) Rock And Roll All Nite (Stanley, Simmons) 4:01 13) New York Groove (Russ Ballard) 4:10 - Japanese bonus track 14) KISS Tells All 17:34 - Interview --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 14) KISS Tells All 17:34 - Interview Gene: 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3 Peter: Testing, testing Jay: Testing can you hear me? Ace: Testing Paul: 1, 2 Ace: Testing 1, 2, testing 1, 2 Peter: Ah Ah Jay: Where exactly are these vaults? You know I always hear record people say I was in the vault, I mean you must go by other stuff to get to this stuff in the vault. Where exactly is it like behind the mayonnaise I mean where is he vault. You guys have been together how many years now? Gene and Paul: 22 or 23 Jay: 22 or 23 so at some point you just pass by this stuff. Where in the vault is this? Paul: The vault, you take a left at the fortress of solitude and the vault is the next door to the right. And that's where KISS keeps their stuff. We split the rent with Superman. Jay: I see. Gene: Well we actually, we actually uh we really save almost everything, we're anal only in that way. We save every piece of Kisstory that we can get our hands on, that includes fan memorabilia. So almost any live show that we've done, especially in the 70's we have locked up in vaults, the vault. Jay: But why now, at what point, why not after 15, why not after 8, why not 30, why not wait 6, 7 years more? Why now? Ace: I think, you know, when we did the unplugged thing for MTV that kind of, that was the first time the four of us had played together in well over 15 years and I think when we realized the magic was still there I thought everybody kind of figured maybe there was a chance of putting the makeup back on, and making it work again. Paul: We really, we separated and parted in a haze of ego, drugs, alcohol, and all the other ills that go along with. Jay: And that would be a haze. Paul: That is definitely a haze. Peter: That is a haze. Ace: I don't know if it is a purple haze. Jay: Any one of those is a haze on their on itself and when you put them all together that's pea soup. Paul: Well it's very interesting because you have four people's perception of how it ended. And it's all very different. But you know we swore that we would never do this again, and most of us had no interest in getting back together, but I think what we were really saying is that we had no interest in getting back together if we were going to feel about each other the way we did when we split, but when we got together it really became apparent to us that everybody have grown and everybody was straight, clearheaded and actually instead of recreating the past we could pick up where we left off. And I think nowadays people are ready for entertainment, when we were originally on the scene. Jay: Up with people's singers. Gene: I think we are, we always have been committed, but not in the way with the men with the white suits, Ace: I think were ready, we'll be ready for that in a couple of years. Jay: Yeah, how did you all get, and why did you decide to even do MTV Unplugged, did you see other artists and say that was it, or what was the reason? Peter: I got together with Gene and Paul before that. They were doing a KISS convention in LA I wanted to bring my daughter. Paul: The KISS convention was a traveling museum that we took through America and Australia, where people got a chance to spend 9 hours with the band and to see really a retrospective of what costumes, a lot of the vintage equipment. Then at one point there would be a tribute band in makeup doing a 70's style KISS show and then we came out and did an acoustic set, and that was really the start, or the seed that sprouted into unplugged. Peter: That to me was actually the beginning of, I felt it started when the three of us got together without Ace. Gene: We played at the convention. Peter: Yeah, i sang at the convention, we actually did Hard Luck Woman. Gene: And then we should bring Ace into it. Ace: I was a little hesitant and nervous about it. I didn't know how it was going to be walking into SIR, studio instrument rentals, in New York. You know and the first day of rehearsals where we haven't played and I wasn't sure what kind of vibe it was gonna be. But I honestly have to say you know after 5 minutes, it was like 15 years had just disappeared, and you know it was like old times, the chemistry was still there Jay. Jay: Yeah, who caught on first, Europe or America? Gene: Detroit. Jay: So that would be another whole country all together? Paul: That's a world unto itself. Jay: Neither Europe nor America, just Detroit really. Gene: We came out of, off the streets of New York, and we love New York and it has always been our hometown. We started off at the end of 73 early 74, but by the beginning of 75 we were headlining big halls in Detroit. They were the first city who caught on. And, uh, which is the reason Paul wrote a song called Detroit Rock City. Jay: Well let me ask you this, in the early days did magazines agree not to publish photos of you guys? Paul: They really did. Jay: Because, you know, that seems simply impossible today, you know nowadays I mean any scoop, anything, Hard Copy, all these shows, because I remember I wonder what these guys look like, and I never ever saw any photos. Peter: We did have, we did get tricked once, tricked one time. Paul: Yeah. Peter: Remember that, just one time. Ace: Cream. Gene: There was a sort of cat and mouse game. If we'd go to a restaurant with a starlet, or whoever we were going out with at the time, they'd be waiting for us outside but always at a respectful distance. It is sort of a different paparazzi. Jay: That amazes me at the fact that the FBI can't get CBS not to publish photos of the unabomber, yet you guys... Gene: There you go. On the other hand the unabombers not very good live. I mean he blows things up, but there's no music. We blow things up but we play Rock And Roll All Nite. Jay: Now what did Cream do to burn you? Peter: They lied. They said our manager, right, said it was ok or something like that. Gene: We were young, inexperienced. We walked into a magazine called Cream Magazine, which was very big at the time, in Michigan, and met everybody, and they said can we take your photo without the makeup. We said absolutely not you know were KISS we believe in the magic and the mystique and the fans do not want to see us without makeup. Then someone comes in and says, uh I just got off the phone with Bill Aucoin their manager. He says OK you can take one photo only without makeup, and we looked at one another. Paul: And we go... Gene: Ok, DUH. Jay: Now with all the explosions during the shows any close calls, anything? Ace: Like in Florida. I was a, we had the large set with the staircase coming down and I would walk down. Anyway, I touched the metal railing. I got hit with 220 volts, and uh I had all burns on my fingers, and they had to carry me off. I was out for about 10 minutes, and Paul went out and made the announcement. Paul: Is there a guitarist in the house? Ace: Yeah can somebody get up, does anybody know Ace's licks, but eventually what happened was I came out of the... Paul: You were a trooper. Ace: I came out of it and the kids started chanting Ace, Ace, Ace, Ace, and my adreniline started pumping again, and I finished the show, even though I had no feeling in my hand. Jay: How did you decide on the makeup, exactly, and the different characters? I mean did you just... Ace: We all created our own characters, and basically they were all our alteregoes. You know I was always fascinated with science fiction, and space travel. And Gene was always into old monster films and stuff, and we all kind of created our own characters and designed our own. Jay: I mean is it something you came up with, you said lets think of something, oh ok and that was it or. Peter: I got tired of living in a litter box. Jay: Or did you think about it for weeks. I mean did it take weeks to come up with it or was it instantaneous, this is what I want to be. Peter: It took a while. Ace: It evolved over a couple months before we got the initial designs down. If you look at pictures from the first album cover and look 5 or 6 albums down the makeup kinda got a little more perfected. Paul: We were always trying to become the band that we never saw. We always felt that we were people in the audience who had been treated poorly by bands that we paid to see. So in essence what we did was designed the show that we would've paid 5 years before to see in concert, we became our fantasy act. Ace: I concur. Jay: When does the book of groupie photos come out, as a book? That seems like that would be a piece of history that should somehow not be in the vault. Gene: In all seriousness it's a private, it's sort of a tourists guide to the galaxy. Why take a shot of anywhere you haven't been to? So the point of you on that, its a very romantic book, to everybody else it's a kind of circus. Jay: It's a romantic book. Gene: Absolutely. I see it as a very, I see it Jay: How is it romantic? Gene: It's, It's the momentos of the memorable point soft my life, and un television. Peter: Every night. Ace: Each lasted about 45 minutes. Peter: Every night, twice a day three times a day. Paul: Other people call it a livestock show. Jay: It would be romantic. Gene: No, I mean, I think people on the outside see this as swinging from the chandeliers, but it's not true because hotels don't have chandeliers. Jay: They don't have that anymore. Peter: Your room does. Gene: Not anymore. Jay: It must be gratifying I mean so many contemporary artists credit you guys as an influence. Paul: The coolest thing with alot of people who've been influenced by us is that they're not mere copies of us. And I think the ultimate compliment is when somebody cites you as an influence but then goes on to develop their own style. It's great that you can have a Garth, a Lenny Kravitz who you wouldn't see a direct influence but, uh, I mean that's the ultimate compliment, that there's all these groups around, and people that somehow this virus has seemed to permeate, this KISS virus. Gene: I think every artist has a responsibility to show anybody else they've influenced that their just another chapter in the book of Rock and Roll. There is somebody before, and somebody's gonna come after. Jay: Let me ask with this whole makeup thing did you guys ever do the show in makeup, quickly take it off, then go wander through the crowd just to get reactions. I mean or would you have been, because you weren't especially in the early days, immediately recognized. Ace: I wandered through the crowd. I remember one day somewhere in a show down south, a friend of mine had flown in, and I was walking through the audience prior to the to us going on. But, nobody knew who I was because at that point in time nobody knew what we looked like, and we hadn't been photographed without makeup, and that was a kick. Peter: It was pretty obvious though. We walked through an airport with heels this big, and you know really different clothes, who we were it's hard not to notice that. Paul: There was always this misconception people had that we had this duality, this Clark Kent, Superman, identity, and the fact of the matter was even without the makeup when saw somebody wlaking down the street with blue-black hair and 6 inch heels and 6 1/2 feet tall either the circus was in town or it was a member of KISS, so there wasn't a whole lot of animinity. Jay: And what did the groupies prefer with makeup on or makeup off? Peter: Both. Gene: Good question, there were certainly ones that, incidentally, why do you always look at me when you bring up the question? Peter: He likes you Gene. Gene: You know you immediately turn, now Gene tell me about. What, so, uh, there was certainly girls who just wanted a night of pleasure and so on, and other ones who wanted the fantasy, you know leave it on. Paul: Please. Gene: And Paul's came up like this Please Leave It On. Jay: How is the night of fantasy different from the night of pleasure. I'm trying to figure out what the difference is. Gene: Well, the fantasy, if we do our jobs right, becomes pleasure but I think some, you know sometimes people, and I certainly want the same from girls. I don't want them to appear in my room nude, immediately. I want the stiletto heels, the corset, I want the... Paul: And then you take it off. Jay: You want the 7 great seconds of romance. Ace: And then I'll take it off. Peter: He's so good. Gene: You got it, son of a bitch. He's makin jokes look. Peter: We don't let Gene get away with anything, he just goes on and on about the women and we know. Ace: He knows. Gene: But I think fantasy is every bit as important to anything, dressing up is half the fun, and the rest is just digging for gold. Peter: Or taking it off. Jay: The song Rock and Roll All Night and Party Every Day, was the first breakthrough hit, did that really change things is that the song that changed things for you? Paul: At that point the president of our record company sat us down and said 'you guys need a song that really states what you believe in' and it was completely Greek to us. And we said what are you talking about? And he told us about a song by Sly and the Family Stone, and he was talking about a rallying song, something that the crowd would be able to say 'this is what I believe in, this is what the band believes in', and in Los Angeles we went back to the hotel, I came up with the chorus, I want to rock and roll all night and party every day, and Gene came up with the verse, and there you have it. And it really was a turning point, because on KISS ALIVE! it was the song that people really, I guess it was like a battle cry. Everybody said 'this is who I am, this is what I believe in.' Jay: Tell me about the early influences, who were the early influences, for you guys starting out you know you put the band together. Peter: Beatles for me. Beatles, Stones, Led Zeppelin. I was into Jazz, actually a lot of Jazz. The Big Band. swing, Gene Kruppa. Jay: I used to open for Jazz, Stan Goetz, Melissa, Almond Jamal. Pete: Great stuff. Great stuff, Jay. Jay: Miles, I used to open for Miles. Peter: My parents used to play Jazz in the house all my life. And I grew up on it. As a matter of fact when I got in the band I was more of a Jazz drummer I believe than a Rock and Roll Drummer. Jay: What did your parents think of KISS early on. Did they go what are you doing, what are you doing with the makeup thing. Straighten yourself out boy, what is the matter with you. Peter: My mom used to make the costumes, help make the costumes, come to rehearsals, she was very supportive. Jay: Mom made the costumes, Dad had the barn, what the hell let's put on a KISS show, yeah come on everybody. Peter: I got an Irish mom and an Italian father, there is always screaming on the house. Tons of hollerin. Ace: I remember when I was 16 I cut school one day and I went to see a Murray the K show and it was Mitch Ryder was the headliner, and so and behold the opening acts were Cream and the Who. It was their first NY appearance and when I saw Pete Townshend smash his amplifiers and smash his guitar and Keith Moon wreck his drum kit and smoke bombs go off I said 'wow, that's incredible'. I go I know I can do that I'd love to be in a theatrical rock group. You know and then as time went on groups like Alice Cooper came out, the New York Dolls, and we just decided to take it a step further. Jay: In Rock and Roll, as in what I do, it isn't, it's fun making it and it's fun to see the figure of how much you make, but once you make it you don't really care about it. Paul: Very early on you have enough, and once you have enough money then all it gives you the opportunity to do is to stop worrying about the money and to do what you do as good as possible so the money becomes irrelevant very very quickly and then pride becomes much more important. Peter: I mean if your going to be miserable all the money in the world is just not enough if it's just a nightmare everyday. I would give it all up to be happy. Jay: Do you miss the intimacy of a club in a big stadium or is a big stadium just that much more of a rush? Peter: I just did clubs for enough years I don't miss em. I don't miss em one iota, it's great to be back in big arenas. I love it, but I didn't like the clubs at all, I'll be real honest with you. Paul: I think most of the time when people say how great it is playing clubs it's usually because they can't fill an arena. Sure it's nice to go do a club once in a while to get a taste of that but anybody who says that the clubs are the way to go clearly can't find their way into a stadium and arena. Peter: We were talkin' about that on the way here in his car. Paul: And more power to them, but the reality is what we do translates and transfers very well into a large audience and I think we're at our best in a large arena rather than a small one. Peter: I mean you play the clubs, to me they're bars, they're a bunch of drunks, no one really cares, they're shooting pool, you're singing your heart out, you're playing your heart out. I didn't like it, I did it for a while and it's great to be back with these guys. I mean as far as I'm concerned, clubs you can take the clubs and shove em. I don't miss em, it's just not cool, you're freezing your ass off half the time the amps don't work, people are not even there all the time. Clubs are hard man, clubs are hard. Ace: When I played in stadiums I wasn't able to see the audience very well, and then I realized that my eyesight was starting to go. So I got contacts last week, so now I'm really going to enjoy playing. Jay: How does one find the edge after all these years, being comfortable making money, being successful, this, that, now you go out again. If I come to you and go ok, I'm like 18, or I'm 15 why should I listen to you. What's the edge? Show me where my edge is. I mean all the bands that are like way out there how do you get the edge back? Gene: Edge starts with self. It doesn't matter how many bones you've got through your noses or how many razor blades you've got through you're eyes. That's all outer surface stuff. That's style and fashion if you've got something to prove to yourself, that's all the edge you need. It's the same adrenaline and stuff that makes a fighter go into the ring and become a world champion, and if you've got something to prove to yourself that is all the edge you need. We are so pumped up about going out there and showing everybody that what they've heard all those years isn't just a fairy tale, that there is a KISS, there once was a KISS and we're gonna knock your socks off. We're gonna get up there and prove literally, we're gonna show all the bands out there how the big boys do it. Jay: Is this a world tour or just the United States or... Paul: The tour has real long range plans, and as long as it's fun for us were gonna keep coming back to visit our friends. Gene: And you're invited. Jay: Thanks you guys that was a lot of fun. Ace: Thank you very much, it was a pleasure. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------