ERIC SINGER: PETER CRISS' Book Is His 'Chance To Get Some More Attention For Himself'

During a brand new interview with Rock Music Star, KISS drummer Eric Singer (pictured below) was asked to respond to the comments the band's original drummer, Peter Criss, made about Singer in Peter's book, "Makeup To Breakup: My Life In And Out Of Kiss", in which he called Eric a "schlep" and claimed Eric was being disingenuous when he suggested to have Peter play at the 1995 Los Angeles KISS Konvention which then led to the KISS live performance that was recorded for "MTV Unplugged".

"That's funny because it wasn't disingenuous," Eric said. "At the time when that happened in '95, Gene [Simmons, KISS bassist/vocalist] asked me, saying 'Eric, Peter Criss wants to come down to the expo and bring his daughter. Do you have a problem with that?' I am the one that actually said, 'You should have him come up to play.'"

He continued, "Let's just put it this way, Peter doesn't know me. Peter's met me a couple of times, through all the years that I've been around. It was literally like, 'Hi. How ya doin'?' Other than when we did 'MTV Unplugged', where we were at rehearsals on and off together, that one week, other than that, Peter does not know me. He doesn't know my character. He doesn't know what type of person I am. If he wants to take it that way, then that's fine. That's his prerogative. I don't have nothing against the guy; he's done nothing to me personally. I may have my own personal opinions of how I feel about him as a drummer, or how he's conducted himself, that I may or may not agree with everything, but that's really their [Peter and Gene and Paul Stanley's] beef.

"For some reason, Peter really hates [current KISS guitarist] Tommy Thayer. Why? I don't know? All that Tommy ever did was try to help the guy. When Peter came back to the band in the very beginning, for the reunion, Tommy's the one who that sat in a room with him and Ace [Frehley, original KISS guitarist], teaching them the songs, and working them through the routines, before they even got together with Gene and Paul. He put the time into helping the guy, and now for some reason, he's got some real venom towards Tommy, and I don't know what that's about.

"The sad thing is that the fans who like a particular person, or a particular band member, they're going to believe everything the person says, whether it's true or not.

"You've gotta remember, this is Peter's chance to get some more attention for himself. Because, he really hasn't done much since he's been out of KISS.

"Obviously, Peter has his point of view on his time and his experiences, on what he feels and how he feels about his time in KISS, and all of the players that are all part of it.

"I think the ultimate good way is to take the high road in life.

"We've all had good and bad things happen in our lives. A lot of times, when things don't go our way, it's understandable why people become negative, or bitter, or cynical about something, but hopefully, they say that time heals, and I do believe that's true. Hopefully we all get to that place in our lives when we look back at our experiences, and we try to remember the positive and the better things about them, rather than the negative and bad things about them. We do get affected by what happens in a given situation, but we make the conscious choice about how we wanna deal with those experiences. If we want to turn them into a learning experience, and be able to look back on the accomplishments and things we've done in our lives, and maybe crack a smile, that's hopefully what we should all be able to do. We're supposed to learn from life and learn from our experiences.

"I think everyone who's been involved with KISS has done some pretty remarkable experiences that they should be able to be proud of, and look back and smile on."