DEREK SHERINIAN: I 'Reinforced' PAUL STANLEY On KISS' 'Alive III'

March 19, 2009

On the March 14 edition of "The Classic Metal Show", keyboardist Derek Sherinian talked about his latest solo release, "Molecular Heinosity", and his involvement with KISS on the band's "Alive III" tour. An excerpt from the interview follows below.

The Classic Metal Show: From looking over your catalog of music, the one release that really stuck out to me was KISS "Alive III". What did you do on that one?

Sherinian: On the KISS tour, I was the off stage keyboardist. As you know, KISS doesn't have a keyboardist. My main function was to double Paul Stanley's parts, his rhythm guitar parts, with a guitar sounding keyboard patch. You know… Paul's a great performer and he's running around stage a lot, so I was reinforcing him there. I was singing background vocals, and I was triggering samples and sound effects.

The Classic Metal Show: When do do something like that, is it difficult to be the "off-stage keyboardist" instead of letting your presence be there?

Sherinian: Well, of course, I want to be on stage, but the bottom line is that it's KISS, and they are what they are. It was a great opportunity. I wanted to be exposed to Gene Simmons and learn as much as possible. It was a fun tour. Those guys have a lot of fun and it was three or four months, or something like that. It was the only time in my career that I've been off stage. I figured that it didn't hurt, and I'm honored to be part of Kisstory, as they say. I was on "Alive III", then I also played on the RAMONES tribute record where KISS played a song. They included me playing keyboards. It's all good.

Listen to the entire interview below.

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