Manager Denies KISS Use Backing Tracks In Concert

December 23, 2004

KISS manager Doc McGhee has rejected a Rolling Stone magazine report suggesting that KISS regularly use backing tracks in concert to recreate the studio sound of their albums.

In an early November article published in the magazine, Rolling Stone quoted a concert-industry source as saying, "A lot of the heavy acts do that [use backing tapes] — they thicken up the guitar sounds when they play live. KISS has backing tracks galore."

In a letter to the magazine published in its latest issue, McGhee responded to the article with the following:

"During the nine-plus years that I have managed KISS, they have been adamant in their commitment to performing all of their more than 500 concerts without backing tracks, samples or any type of instrumental or vocal augmentation. The sole exception was when 'Beth' was sung by the drummer to a prerecorded tape, and the rest of the band left the stage to avoid misleading the fans. Having built their career on their bombastic live shows, KISS to this day believe that the demands of a high-energy show are neither a valid excuse or alibi for the use of canned music or prerecorded singing by any live act."

Find more on

Prev More News Next

Comments Disclaimer And Information

BLABBERMOUTH.NET uses the Facebook Comments plugin to let people comment on content on the site using their Facebook account. The comments reside on Facebook servers and are not stored on BLABBERMOUTH.NET. To comment on a BLABBERMOUTH.NET story or review, you must be logged in to an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. User comments or postings do not reflect the viewpoint of BLABBERMOUTH.NET and BLABBERMOUTH.NET does not endorse, or guarantee the accuracy of, any user comment. To report spam or any abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic or threatening comments, or anything that may violate any applicable laws, use the "Report to Facebook" and "Mark as spam" links that appear next to the comments themselves. To do so, click the downward arrow on the top-right corner of the Facebook comment (the arrow is invisible until you roll over it) and select the appropriate action. You can also send an e-mail to blabbermouthinbox(@)gmail.com with pertinent details. BLABBERMOUTH.NET reserves the right to "hide" comments that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate and to "ban" users that violate the site's Terms Of Service. Hidden comments will still appear to the user and to the user's Facebook friends. If a new comment is published from a "banned" user or contains a blacklisted word, this comment will automatically have limited visibility (the "banned" user's comments will only be visible to the user and the user's Facebook friends).