BRUCE KULICK On His Open-Heart Surgery: 'For Me To Come Out Of It Doing As Well As I'm Doing Now Is Just A Testament To Medical Science'

In a new interview with Mike Preston of Rock From The Heart, former KISS guitarist Bruce Kulick spoke about the heart valve surgery he underwent in April. Regarding how he found out he needed the operation, he said in part (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I always believed in every year I got a physical, especially by the time I was, like, 40 or 50, [to] just see my doctor. And it was my primary back in California about 12 years ago, and he's listening to my heart and he goes, like, 'You have a murmur.' And I go, like, 'Okay. I don't know what it means.' And not every murmur means you need surgery, everybody out there. But it could also mean there is definitely something unusual with your heart, and you should get it checked out. So then I'm at a cardiologist in L.A… And he was, like, 'Okay, you have...' They did whatever test it was back then, I don't remember, ultrasound, this or that, 'You have a bicuspid valve.' And to be quite honest, back then, all right, it was a name, but I didn't really understand the mechanics of what that meant. But I knew it was something... They said, 'We need to keep an eye on this, 'cause later in life you're gonna need to do something.' That's all I knew. And every year I'd go, I didn't feel that different from year to year, basically. Except you get a little older. And every year it was, like, not much of a change. 'Okay, see you in six months for this next test,' or a year. And then finally I did the tests in November of '25, and when I saw the cardiologist in December, he said, 'Okay, now you're severe aortic stenosis from your bicuspid valve.' And again, I didn't feel that different, so I was kind of like staring at the floor. And he's explaining everything to my wife, Lisa, who came with me. And he says, 'Now it's much more common. Not to wait. You're 72. You wanna consider repairing this while your baseline is strong,' meaning, for the people listening, that you're generally healthy, so you can handle [it], instead of being in some bad way. So at that point, he said, 'Well, we need to do a few more tests to see. Maybe we can do the TAVR [Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement]. We'll see. Not sure.' Now, I was always told about the TAVR, which is a less invasive repair. Although, as soon as I started to do the research in early January, I was realizing, 'I'm gonna wind up with open-heart surgery.' I mean, he never took that off the table, but those other tests were gonna tell — the CT scan and then, of course, an angiogram. But he knew from the CT scan that I needed open-heart surgery, that trying to put a valve in through a vein, [which is] less invasive, of course, it wouldn't be a great fit and I wouldn't get great results."

Bruce continued: "I knew one other guy — I'll keep him out of it, but he's a famous actor that I've met and we've been in touch; he's had a lot of heart problems — and he told me… He also had a bicuspid many years ago, but he's had other issues. Fortunately, he's well, but I know he's had a lot of experience, and he said, 'I've had some friends do the TAVR for the bicuspid, and it was not a good result.' Which is exactly why my cardiologist and then the surgeon I met did not wanna go that way. Why would somebody else choose that? Well, if you think you only got five more years of your life, go for it. 'Cause it's a hell of a lot less invasive. You're only in the hospital a few days. And open-heart [surgery], we know, is minimum two months and more likely three months until you're much more healed, et cetera, et cetera, with a lot of rules and regulations. But I already knew by the time I went in for the angiogram, which, by the way, they said, 'Oh, you have beautiful vessels.' Just in case, at that point, they would give you a stent, if you needed it. And they certainly don't wanna go into your heart to repair a valve if you're already blocked elsewhere that they can't see. Hence the angiogram. And you're in twilight when you do that, so you kind of hear them. You don't really feel any pain or anything. But it was just so funny, after 20 minutes, the nurse just says, 'You have beautiful vessels. We don't need any stents. You're fine. You're gonna go relax for a couple hours, and then you're going home.' But, of course, he was able to see that the calcification from the bad valve was severe… That's from having two flaps instead of three, which is a normal heart, and the two flaps make that valve work like a fish, and blop, blop, blop, and it's gonna leak, and you will get calcification no matter how healthy a diet you eat."

Kulick went on to say that the most common lifestyle factors related to the incidence of cardiovascular diseases weren't to blame in his case.

"A lot of people were really surprised. 'Why does Bruce need open-heart surgery? He looks like a healthy guy. We know he's not a drinker or smoker.' And I had to be really clear that this was a birth defect, this was planned," the guitarist explained.

"I'm not telling everybody that you should go see your cardiologist, but you gotta listen to your body. Make sure you get a physical. They'll hear a murmur. Your cholesterol and what you eat and how you behave, they're all very important, 'cause our bodies are not that much different than an engine in a car. And I have to admit that because I'm pro medical, pro doctors, and I have a couple of dear friends who are genius surgeons. I've met them from playing guitar, of course, through the years. And I can always throw something at them as a second opinion. But, really, right now, there's so much research medical online, and through A.I. even, that a good A.I. program's not gonna tell you, 'Oh, yeah, you can ignore that.' But they're gonna tell you what it is."

Kulick continued: "I can't believe how many procedures there are and all the things that go wrong with a heart, between the AFib [atrial fibrillation] things and all the people that wrote me saying, like, 'Yeah, I'm having triple bypass.' I always heard the term. I didn't even know what it meant. Oh, now you're taking a vein out of someone's leg and repairing the heart with that. Why would I have to know everything? If it didn't happen to a family member… I know my brother had something that wasn't what I had. But one cardiologist really wrapped this up very well. He wasn't that much fun when he came in to visit me at the hospital. Every day you had a cardiologist come in, and he goes, 'Yep, all right. Well, let's face it, your parents didn't build you well.' He caught me off guard and I [was] probably still high on morphine sitting there. And I got a little kick out of it. But what I like to say now when I do interviews, my parents blessed me with a great talent that I am so fortunate to have — music, the ability to play, hear it, create and perform, and have a professional career from it. That is genetic too, even though, of course, I worked hard at it and I'm professional with the approach. Because it doesn't matter —there's a lot of talented people stuck in a bedroom, and they're never gonna be heard, 'cause they don't know how to do it, how to work with people or understand the big picture. But honestly, yeah, I get it. It wasn't their intention."

Bruce added: "Birth defects are very common. I don't know where it comes from — three generations above or whatever… Another thing that I was a little surprised, I do know other people that had the same birth defect, but they knew about it way younger, and they had it repaired way younger than me. But it wasn't suggested to me… I would've been, like, 60 when I found out. But no one said, 'We should get ahead of this and deal with it now.' I mean, I still am blown away completely with the technology. I know that it keeps getting better, and whatever they did in that operating room in April was a miracle. And for me to come out of it doing as well as I'm doing now is just a testament to medical science. So I'm blessed that I followed it."

On April 25, Bruce revealed on his social media that his operation was "a success" and went on to thank his "heart surgeon and their fantastic staff for looking after me like a rockstar". He added that he was "on the road to recovery" and "taking it one step at a time". He also wrote that he was "grateful" for his wife Lisa and all her "love and support".

After a media outlet erroneously reported that Bruce had undergone an "emergency open heart surgery", Kulick clarified that "this was NOT emergency surgery" and explained that "an aortic birth defect caused a valve to become a danger".

Kulick's former bandmate in KISS, Gene Simmons, was among the people who offered words of support to Bruce on social media, writing: "Go Bruce, Go. With Lisa by your side, you can lick anything. You know we're all rooting for you. And can't wait for you and Lisa to cook up a new batch of pancakes for all of us."

According to the Mayo Clinic, "heart valve surgery is a procedure to treat heart valve disease. Heart valve disease happens when at least one of the four heart valves is not working properly. Heart valves keep blood flowing in the correct direction through the heart."

Kulick joined KISS in 1984 and remained the band's lead guitarist for 12 years.

Bruce accompanied KISS on the "Animalize" tour and continued with the band until the 1996 reunion tour. Bruce is heavily featured on "Kissology - Vol. 2" and "Vol. 3", the band's DVDs spanning KISS's historic career.

Kulick — who in 2024 launched his own brand to offer period-correct guitars inspired by his KISS era — played on six KISS studio albums and two live records.

Bruce performed at last year's "KISS Kruise: Landlocked In Vegas" weekend-long event at Virgin Hotels in Las Vegas on November 14-16. He is scheduled to play at the 2026 edition of the same event.

Kulick did not take part in either of KISS's farewell tours, in 2000-2001, and 2019-2023. Tommy Thayer has been KISS's guitarist since 2002.

In addition to his years in KISS, Bruce toured or recorded with Meat Loaf, Billy Squier, Michael Bolton, AVANTASIA, LORDI, UNION and many others. He frequently makes appearances at guitar shows, clinics and fan autograph events.