GENE SIMMONS: 'ACE And PETER In The Beginning Belonged In The Band And Later On They Did Not'

Billboard.com recently conducted an interview with KISS bassist/vocalist Gene Simmons. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Billboard.com: What is the biggest myth about KISS?

Simmons: That there's some grand master plan. That we're brilliant beyond belief, that we're masters of merchandise and all that stuff. That's giving us a lot more credit than we deserve. It's a simple idea. When you love something, and people use the word "passion," you tend to look at every rug and pick it up and see what's under it.

For argument's sake, if you're a stamp collector worth your salt, you'll know every minutia about it, you'll spend all the free time you have, above and beyond your job, because you love it. And you'll know every obscure stamp, which date it came from, what condition it's in, what's the marketplace. You'll know about it because you care about it. So everything begins with a tug of the heart.

People see this cold business savvy and it starts the other way around. It starts with, "Wow, I'm in KISS"; everything else is the what-if, could-it-be, what could it be? You start with a dream without limitations. It's only when we wake up that we say, "It's not going to happen, it probably won't." Never listen to people, and believe in your own dreams.

My point of view is "Earth," that's not such a cool name for the planet. "Planet Kiss," now you've got something. If every inch of ground is KISS ground, and the air you breath is KISS air and the food you eat is KISS food, then we've got something. Brand everything. And you should pay us for every step along the way.

Billboard.com: The [fans have] been amazingly loyal to KISS, even through lineup changes.

Simmons: We had to [make lineup changes]. We had to, because there's an ethical and moral commitment that we made to ourselves and our fans: We treat the stage as holy ground. This is electric church. And when we get on that stage, our call to arms starts off with "you," our fans, not "our" or "we." "You wanted the best, you got the best, the hottest band in the world, KISS!" We say our name last, you come first. And the vow we made to ourselves was, "Dear God, if you ever give us the chance, we will never take it for granted, ever, not one single show, at any time. And if any one of us doesn't deserve to be out there, we will kick his ass off that stage." And if you use drugs or alcohol in KISS, you're out. If you can't respect yourself and your body, how the hell can you respect the band, and especially the fans who put you there in the first place?

[Guitarist] Ace [Frehley] and Peter [Criss], in the beginning, belonged in the band, and later on they did not. They belonged home so they can save their lives and try to turn their lives around, not onstage. This is not a babysitting service, this is the Olympics and if anybody catches anything in your bloodstream, you should be thrown out on your ass. Your medals should be stripped, you're gone. And [current drummer] Eric Singer and [guitarist] Tommy Thayer are professional, they love it.

Billboard.com: What did you like about the exclusive Wal-Mart deal with your new "Sonic Boom" album, and why did the band decide to go that way?

Simmons: The world's a different place. I'm not a fan of downloading for free. I don't believe in anything for free. The kids next door that we think are sweet and have freckled faces were never punished for stealing everything. You can literally point to a million people out of work-the truckers that truck the records to the stores, the stores themselves that used to hire people, the gasoline they used, the warehouses-an entire industry is wiped out because some college kid didn't want to pay for songs. And who's to blame? The record industry, for never having a repercussion.

If you try to break into my house, I'll shoot your head off. Are you out of your fucking mind? But fans were allowed to break into stuff that people created and simply take it without paying for it, and that is nobody's fault but the record industry. It was lax. Wal-Mart is a real company. We met the Walton people-they're fine upstanding people, we're big fans of them, and they give millions of people jobs and we're all for it. And they're willing to charge for the product. Last time I checked, KISS is not a charity. I will let you know when I want to give my stuff away for free. I don't want you to determine that.

Billboard.com: Does it bother you when people say you're just in this for the money?

Simmons: Anybody who simply wants to do it for free should give me any dollar they don't want. They're all full of shit. Everybody lies, but we don't. Of course we want to get paid for what we do, but there's also a tug of the heart, of pride. We created this thing-this ain't THE MONKEES, baby. We're the mother and we gave birth to KISS and I'll be damned if anybody's going to tell me what it is, how it walks and how it talks. And do I want to get paid for that? You bet your ass I do.

Read the entire interview from Billboard.com.