It’s been four years since the rock group Kiss announced their final farewell tour, which began in January 2019. The “End Of The Road” tour is also continuing due to the pandemic. Kiss, who celebrate their 50th band anniversary next year, continue to fill the big halls with anthems like “Rock And Roll All Nite”, “Detroit Rock City” and “Shout It Out Loud”. A two-part documentary regarding the New York cult band on Friday (9:55 p.m.) on Arte shows that this was not always the case.
The documentary premiered in the US last summer, but is now being broadcast in Germany for the first time. “Nobody ever laid it on like Kiss,” enthuses Dave Grohl. The Foo Fighters frontman and former Nirvana drummer is one of the prominent Kiss fans to have their say. Another is Tom Morello, influential Rage Against The Machine guitarist for whom Kiss as a teenager was a revelation. “They were the most dangerous and feared band in America,” he says.
In the first part of “Kiss – The Hottest Band in the World” singer and rhythm guitarist Paul Stanley aka “Starchild” and bassist and singer Gene Simmons known as “The Demon” describe their arduous first steps in the music business, the unsuccessful beginnings and finally the dizzying one rapid rise of Kiss, which overwhelmed everyone involved. “We were four idiots from the New York street who didn’t have a clue,” says Simmons.
Together, the duo visited Electric Lady Studios in the New York borough of Greenwich for the film, where they once recorded songs for an album with their band Wicked Lester. Simmons, who was born in Israel, was still called Chaim Witz at the time, and Stanley Bert Eisen was on his bandmate’s birth certificate. The dream of becoming rock’n’roll stars, their ambition and their tenacity connected the two.
Together with guitarist Ace Frehley and drummer Peter Criss, Kiss won an audience with the visionary idea of make-up, imaginative stage outfits and truly explosive live shows. But three studio albums – now classics – flopped. Today unthinkable: the manager took out a mortgage on his house, the label boss allegedly borrowed money from the mafia because both were convinced of Kiss.
The live album “Alive!” brought the breakthrough in 1975. live album? Oh well. Simmons and sound engineer Eddie Kramer admit relatively openly how tricks were used in the studio to bring a perfect Kiss concert experience to vinyl. The end justified the means.
The album broke sales records at the time and finally made Kiss superstars. But with the success came tensions in the band. “Fame doesn’t change you,” says Stanley. “He just allows you to be the asshole you already are.”
Ex-members Frehley and Criss declined to be in the film. They did not share the views, it is said at the beginning. No wonder. Stanley and Simmons, who always rejected excessive drug and alcohol consumption, do not shy away from criticizing the two: too much partying, too much alcohol and drugs, selfishness, erratic behavior.
An archive interview in which Frehley drunk and ridiculed his colleagues in front of the camera should prove this. Apparently, Simmons and Stanley still resent the two to this day. It’s a shame, though, that Frehley and Criss only appear in archive interviews.
The second part is dedicated to the turbulent 1980s, which Kiss sometimes neglects. The decade was marked by a search for meaning, the curious science fiction film “Kiss Meets The Phantom Of The Park” (run as “Kiss – Von Phantomen gejagt” in German cinemas), the numerous cast changes, falling record sales and falling audience numbers, at least in their homeland – in Europe and South America Kiss were still popular.
After all, the quartet even did without the famous make-up for 13 years. So Kiss were an ordinary rock band. They also lost drummer Eric Carr, who died of cancer in 1991. It was only as a result of an unplugged concert on MTV that there was a temporary reunion with Criss and Frehley (and make-up), who re-established Kiss as a top band from 1996, playing in stadiums and large halls.
Simmons is a bit too derogatory regarding the Kiss albums of the 1980s, which were very popular with many fans. That’s amazing, because the band still regularly plays 80s hits like “Heaven’s On Fire”, “Tears Are Falling” or “Crazy Night” at their concerts. But overall, it’s refreshing that the Kiss musicians, who are always self-praising, especially in the person of Simmons, also admit what didn’t go so well and how disappointing such setbacks were for them.
Star producer Bob Ezrin, who produced “Destroyer” (1976), the opus magnum of the Kiss studio albums, also has his say, Tommy Thayer, lead guitarist of Kiss for 20 years, longtime drummer Eric Singer, ex-guitarist Bruce Kulick and Manager legend Doc McGhee. Despite the absence of the two founding members Frehley and Criss, a reasonably complete picture emerges of the almost 50-year Kiss career, which is now regarding to come to an end. Or not?
Increasing doubts might be heard from those close to Kiss that these will really be the very last concerts. Perhaps Kiss haven’t reached their “End Of The Road” yet.
(SERVICE – “Kiss – The hottest band in the world” on August 19 from 9:55 p.m. on Arte. www.arte.tv)