Ex-KISS Guitarist KULICK Says GENE SIMMONS' Last Solo Album Was 'A Bit Of A Mess'

Australian Guitar magazine recently conducted an interview with former KISS and current GRAND FUNK RAILROAD guitarist Bruce Kulick. An excerpt from the chat follows:

Australian Guitar: Recently you contributed to Paul Stanley's (KISS) solo record. Can you tell us about that?

Kulick: "Well, you know, it was kind of unusual how I got involved. First of all, Paul was doing the album, I guess, over the course of a year and a half. At the very beginning it started off with just the demos. He got me involved to play bass, to jus tbe there and go over the arrangements with the drummer and everything. A few of those never really got used due to covers and publishing. But he keeps getting more serious about his record and I didn't hear from him every time he cut a track. But once in a while, all of a sudden, he'd give me a call saying, 'Hey, I want you to play bass.' A lot of people aren't aware that through my KISS years I got to play bass, although more on Paul's songs than Gene's. I would be upset if Gene asked me to play bass on one of his songs. You know, 'Hey, you wrote it. Play the bass. Don't be lazy.' But I used to do a lot of the demo stuff with Paul, so it was easy for me to jump in and do it in the studio after we already had a shape of the song. So the same thing happened where he just felt like, 'I like the way Bruce plays bass, so let's bring him in.' I haven't heard the whole record, but I guess I'm on about five tracks [playing] bass guitar. I'd hit him up and say, 'Let me play some lead guitar,' and he'd say, 'Yeah, we'll get to that,' but it never really happened because I was busy and he worked with a lot of different people. I think he's going to have a really strong record. I know he's looking at getting it out sooner than later this year, that's for sure."

Australian Guitar: What did you think of Gene's recent solo album ["Asshole"]?

Kulick: "What's interesting about Gene [is] he has a strong personality and point of view. But on this record, ironically enough, I think he was all over the map. So he'd have stuff that was as heavy as songs from KISS' 'Carnival of Souls' and then he'd have like a syrupy ballad with pedal steel on it. It was very unusual. Some of the songs I like, but it was a bit of a mess. You know, with him there's no rules. Paul's solo album will be much more defined and much more where a KISS fan will be very pleased with it."

Check out a scan of the entire interview at this location.