KISS Scraps Rock HoF Performance over Dispute betw. Original and Current Lineup

[JamesG]

KISS' Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Performance Canceled after Dispute
Feb 23rd 2014


KISS won't rock and roll all night - or at any point during the day, either - when they are inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in April, the band said Sunday.

The 40-year-old group is unable to agree on which lineup should perform during the April 10 ceremony in New York City, and has decided not to plug in at all.

The dispute concerns whether original members Ace Frehley and Peter Criss would join Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley in a live performance, or whether the current lineup of Stanley, Simmons, Eric Singer and Tommy Thayer would play instead.





In a message on its website, KISS said it won't perform with any lineup, calling it "an emotional situation where there is no way to please everyone."

"Our intention was to celebrate the entire history of KISS and give credit to all members, including longtime present members Tommy Thayer and Eric Singer, and additionally Bruce Kulick and Eric Carr all who have made this band what it is, regardless of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's point of view," the band wrote on its web site.

"Although KISS has moved forward far longer without them, Ace and Peter are at the very foundation of what we have built and this would all be impossible had they not been a part of it in the beginning.

It is over 13 years since the original lineup has played together in makeup and we believe the memory of those times would not be enhanced. To bring this to a quick end, we have decided not to play in any line-up, and we will focus our attention on celebrating our induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame."



The band made no mention of former guitarists Vinnie Vincent, who helped kick off the band's unmasked era, or Mark St. John, who was with the band briefly in 1984 and who died in 2007.









The festering dispute was brought to a boil when Frehley called into the Eddie Trunk's syndicated radio show Friday night to say that Simmons and Stanley had rejected a reunion with the original four members for the induction.

"They just shot down any type of reunion with us," Frehley said during the broadcast. "It's very frustrating. It's what the fans wanted, it's what the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame wanted, and it's not gonna happen. You don't want to do something for the fans after 40 years of them supporting you?"





Criss, who lives in Wall Township, N.J., said he wanted to let fans know there would be no reunion before they bought tickets for the induction ceremony, which range from $120 to nearly $600.

"This is disgraceful, and I feel bad for the fans who were looking forward to the four of us being inducted together," he said.

Criss did not indicate whether he would attend the induction; Frehley said he is unsure whether he'll be there.





KISS began in 1973, and the original lineup played together until 1980.

They reunited from 1996 to 2000, but the band has continued with replacement members wearing the Frehley and Criss makeup and costumes.

http://www.aol.com/article/2014/02/2...disp/20836193/

[ABlairican Pie]

Is the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame really necessary? Nothing really ever beats the experience of seeing KISS live!!!! In any lineup.


The R&R HOF just makes it all just a museum piece. A "relic" of another time. Rock and roll should be ALIVE! like the 1975 KISS album, not just something that gathers dust. Why is it that the HOF attendees dress like undertakers--or the DECEASED???

[JamesG]

KISS' Gene Simmons on Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Drama: "Every Band is Dysfunctional"
2/28/14
by Tracey Davenport


In a new interview during The Michael Des Barres Show, which was taped on Feb. 1 and aired Feb. 27 on online channel TradioV, Gene Simmons talks about his band, KISS, and their upcoming induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, saying: “Every band is dysfunctional. But at the end, when you’re at the finish line, everybody in the band should get credit.”

“Ace and Peter must be up there, but they were the past,” Simmons says, referring to KISS’ founding lead guitarist and drummer, respectively. “When people say, ‘Don’t talk about your second or third wife, just talk about your first wife,’ you can’t do that.”





Simmons said that he’d intended to address Frehley and Criss with “the truth”:

“Thank you so much, Ace and Peter, for being in the band with us. Everybody’s equally important for the formation of the band. But if it wasn’t for Tommy or Eric -- we wouldn’t be up here. You took the baton as far as you could, because not everybody’s designed to be a marathon runner. And then you handed the baton over to those who are worthy to carry on the torch.”





However, in a Feb. 21 interview with New York radio station Q104.3 FM, Ace Frehley said that he would not perform at the ceremony alongside the members that came after him.

“I’m not gonna get on stage with Thayer wearing my makeup -- that’s absurd,” Frehley said, according to Blabbermouth.net.

In a statement on his own website, Peter Criss said that he and Frehley "have been denied a performance with Gene and Paul for our Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction," and called the situation "disgraceful."





Following the band’s indecision as to which lineup should perform at the Hall’s April 10 ceremony at Barclay’s Center in Brooklyn -- KISS posted a message on their website saying that the band will not be playing in any form.

It’s “an emotional situation where there is no way to please everyone,” the statement read.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/ear...ck-roll-684320

[Zebra 3]

I agree w/ Ace and Peter, not w/ what's his name...

[Dude111]

Thats kinda sad........ Are they using the same GOOD stuff they were using when they started?? (When they put out good analog music)

[JamesG]

Gene Simmons Blasts the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
by Dalton Ross
Mar 12, 2014


The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame will be having its next induction ceremony on April 10 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, but do not expect new inductees KISS to be performing.

Founders Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley have decided against it to protest the Hall’s decision of inducting only the original line-up of the group (which includes departed members Peter Criss and Ace Frehley) while ignoring other longtime (and current) bandmates like Eric Singer and Tommy Thayer.





I asked Simmons about his decision when he called into Entertainment Weekly Radio (SiriusXM, channel 105) to chat about his "CSI" guest appearance.

“Paul and I got on the phone and called Ace and Peter,” Simmons explained of what happened right when they found out about the induction.

“‘Hey, congratulations. It was an honor to stand alongside you then and we’ll be proud to stand alongside of you at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame to accept the award.’ And they were gracious and happy and God bless, and all of that, and we went off our separate ways.

And then we found out the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame will only be honoring the original lineup with Ace, Peter, Paul and myself, and we said, ‘Oh okay, then we won’t be playing there. We’ll just accept the award. Thank you very much.’ And they go, ‘What are you talking about?’ and I said, ‘Well, you have a group like the Eagles who continue to be our contemporaries…and every member that has even been in the Eagles has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

But you’re only gonna honor the first lineup that was together for seven years? We’ve been around forty years. Tommy and Eric have been in the band 20 years — two and a half times longer than Ace and Peter. You’re going to slap them in the face and we’re supposed to get you a sandwich and make sure you burp at 9 o’clock at night and get up on stage and do it? No, that’s not going to happen.’”





Simmons then went on to draw a comparison to fully illustrate his point.

“So imagine you’re being invited to be inducted at an award ceremony and you get to bring only the first person you ever went out with in your life. The one, your beloved right now? She can’t come, or he can’t come. They get to stay home, They don’t get honored. ‘And while you’re there, can you get me a sandwich?’ Really? That’s not going to fly.”





Okay, first off, I’m not sure what the sandwich thing is about. Maybe he was just hungry. Yes, Simmons has a point that it would kind of be a bummer for longtime members to be excluded. But he also has to know that the band is being honored for what they did when they ruled the rock world back in the 1970s, a time when the band included Criss and Frehley.

Those are the four people everyone wants to see on stage together, just like when the original lineup reunited back in 1996. In any event, you can listen to the full audio below, in which Simmons drops another bombshell.

Apparently, he’s been offered a role in the new Entourage movie!

http://music-mix.ew.com/2014/03/12/g...-hall-of-fame/

[Zebra 3]

I agree w/ the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, not w/ what's his name...