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Kiss’s Gene Simmons says he’s glad friendship with Paul Stanley doesn’t involve any “backbiting”
The bassist says that while some high-profile musical partnerships – John Lennon and Paul McCartney and Mick Jagger and Keith Richards – have descended into spats, he’s thankful for his enduring relationship with Stanley.
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Gene Simmons has spoken about the camaraderie between him and fellow Kiss bandmate Paul Stanley and how proud he is that there’s never been any “backbiting” between the two of them.
Speaking to Piers Morgan in a new interview, the bassist opens up about Kiss’s five-decade career and his thoughts on everything they’ve achieved as the countdown to the band’s final show draws near.
“I really feel proud. The best part was when I ran into my buddy Paul Stanley,” Simmons says. “We continue to have this astonishing relationship, and I’ve always been so sad when [John] Lennon and [Paul] McCartney and [Mick] Jagger and [Keith] Richards started backbiting. I mean, even Cain and Abel didn’t get along so well.”
“It was always so sad to me, but Paul and I have this resilient sort of ‘brother-I-never-had’ kind of thing,” he adds. “And we don’t agree on very much at all, but there’s an abiding admiration and respect for the talent that he has that I will never have, and hopefully, the piece of the puzzle that I bring to it that he doesn’t have.”
Expanding on the extraordinary bond between him and Stanley, Simmons says, “It works. You don’t know everything, and I don’t, and when you meet somebody that’s a kindred spirit, you can run and be bigger than you ever were.”
Last week, Simmons revealed that former KISS members Peter Criss and Ace Frehley have declined his (multiple) invitations to perform at the band’s final shows.
Explaining that the pair’s absence on their End Of The Road farewell tour was not due to a lack of asking on his part, Simmons said, “For the older fans, the ones who’ve been around for 50 years, they’re old, and some of them wanna see Ace and Peter. The newer fans never saw them and they don’t know.”
“But the older fans wonder about Ace and Peter. Well, I asked both Ace and Peter a few times ‘Do you wanna come out for the encores? Do you wanna do some shows?’ And they both said ‘no.’ So, I don’t know what to say about that.”