We all know that KISS gets a bad wrap. They are hugely successful, and often toted, 'not worthy' of that success. They are rich, bloated, egotistical assholes. Now, as KISS fans, you know, as well as I do, that this is not the entire picture. And, it’s also important to note, that Gene and Paul did not do it all by themselves. Without Peter Criss, Ace Frehley, Bill Aucoin, Sean Delaney, and Neil & Joyce Bogart, KISS would not have happened. Having said that, the following is based solely on Gene and Paul. What THEY did as a partnership. How they left WICKED LESTER, an almost guaranteed project at the time, with a record contract in hand, to fulfill a much bigger dream. THAT takes balls. THAT is dreaming big, and believing big. And, in all my days as a KISS fan, I have never read those dreams, summed up better than the following quote from Nick Simmons, taken from an article he wrote for VICE (2015), in which he ends the piece, summing up ALL that Gene and Paul have accomplished. The following is the best written description I have ever read of the bands early days. Simply perfect.
“This lesson applies as much to my father's professional legacy as it does to his fatherhood. He is worshipped and surrounded by yes-men almost constantly now. But his greatest achievements, arguably, were during times of friction, before the yes-men. When he formed the band Kiss, he was a gangly, awkward kid in New York. No one said "yes" to him. He didn't do well with women. People thought he was stupid because he couldn't speak English well. My father and Paul had to fight for every deal and every concert, had to fight against bad reviews and debt and day jobs, had to fight everything, in order to achieve what they did. They had to disagree with everyone. They had to believe that everyone else, every authority, was wrong.” - Nick Simmons (Vice, 2015)
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