ERIC SINGER On Rejoining KISS: 'We All Change Our Minds'

KISS drummer Eric Singer was recently asked by the Kiss Underground Archives web site to explain why he decided to return to the band in light of his previous statement that he couldn't imagine working with KISS again unless Ace Frehley was involved. "We all feel different about a situation at any given time, but situations change, and sometimes we feel differently," Singer replied. "That's our own prerogative for everybody. We all change our minds about things all of the time. I have no problem playing in the band in the lineup it is now. I've known Tommy Thayer for a long time. With no disrespect to anyone else who's ever been in the band, Tommy's great. I've always known Tommy's ability as a guitar player, because I've known him outside of KISS. Tommy's a better player than a lot of people even really know. He's got a great sound, a great tone, and a great feel. I really respect that he really goes for playing the KISS songs as authentically as possible. People want to hear those songs pretty much the way they were. For example, when I play those songs, I try to play those songs in a KISS tradition. I'm not trying to imitate either Peter Criss or Eric Carr. We're going to play 'Creatures of the Night', for example. I'm not going, 'I'm gonna try to sound like and be Eric Carr.' I'm never going to be Eric Carr. I'm never going to be Peter Criss. What I can do is to try to pay homage to the music and try to make it sound the best that I can. The thing that's great about the setlist that we're doing now is that we're doing songs that I originally played on. We're basically doing songs from all eras of the band. So that gives me the opportunity to play the songs the way I played them, because that's me on them. For example, when we play 'Unholy' or 'God Gave Rock and Roll To You', those are my drum parts. That's me doing what I do."

Regarding the possibility of the band playing more obscure tracks during their upcoming tour, Singer said, I already saw the list [KISS] did on the last tour with AEROSMITH. From what I've seen, half the set has changed. That's 50%. That's a lot. But there are also songs added to the set-list (to make it longer). If we changed 100% of the set, you wouldn't hear 'Detroit Rock City', you wouldn't hear 'Deuce', or any of those songs. I even said to Gene the other day, when I told him about working on some older songs that, 'Tommy Thayer and I have the unique perspective, that no one in KISS will ever know or understand.' We were fans that ended up playing the band. We were fans when we were kids. I know what it's like to be on both sides of the fence to a certain degree. Not the same as a diehard fan, because I'm not that kind of mentality. I know what more obscure songs I liked as a kid, mind you that was 30 years ago. But I can relate to what the diehards want in regards to that. So I'm trying to encourage us to play a lot of cool old songs, and so is Tommy. This band has the ability to play ANYTHING from the KISS library. I mean ANYTHING. There's nothing musically the band can't play. Any song, from any era, off of any record, we can play. We really have to wait and find our feet and see how things go. We have plenty of material to inject in there, and I think this tour will be really good."

Read Eric Singer's entire interview with the Kiss Underground Archives at this location.