BludBrutha
Educated Fool
Massive narcissist with lifelong mental issues from a damaged upbringing. His sister was mentally ill, tried to knock his door down with an axe like The Shining. His mother was weird as well.
KISS
- Thread starter Forostar
- Start date
BludBrutha
Educated Fool
Nah that’s crap. That’s the image he wants to portray but it’s not true. Paul said in his book the biggest business success Gene ever had was portraying an image of having business success. Just about everything he ever did outside of being in KISS was a massive flop. His magazine in the early 00’s, his speaking tours, Simmons Records (both times), managing BAG (who?), he was brought in to do the marketing for IndyCar and it was such a disaster one of the owners actually MADE A PUBLIC APOLOGY for ever bringing him in, he was a disaster on Celebrity Apprentice (alienated and offended the judges and the company he was meant to be working for, got fired and then doubled down when he came back for the final episode and said he was right and Kodak (a billion dollar company) was wrong. The list goes on.
He’s great at pretending he’s a big success and that KISS are much more successful than they ever were. That’s been the game plan since day one. Sad more KISS fans haven’t seen through it.
Sheriff_of_Huddersfield
Not a KISS Fan
On a cosmic level, it’s hilarious that the two most uptight personalities in hard rock were partnered with two of the biggest chaotic fuck ups.
A writer couldn’t come up with a bigger rock satire than KISS’s band member composition in the 70s.
A writer couldn’t come up with a bigger rock satire than KISS’s band member composition in the 70s.
Sheriff_of_Huddersfield
Not a KISS Fan
That tracks.
From the autobiographies I’ve read so far, only Ace seemed to have a relatively normal family, and he says good things about them.
Peter Criss blames his Catholic school nun teachers for many of his bad childhood experiences but said his mom had a drinking problem, etc.
With Gene, it seems like his mom, who was already traumatized by the holocaust and living in Israel during conflict, was overprotective and made him her whole life until he grew up. His dad was mostly absent and then left.
JudasMyGuide
The incorrigible papist
Yep.
It’s interesting how much people who don’t like Kiss are interested in talking about kiss. I get it to some degree, my fascination with their history is greater than my love of their music, although at the same time I still enjoy their music just fine.
Gene definitely made a persona for himself that doesn’t seem very grounded in reality. It’s pretty obvious that without Paul guiding the ship in the 80s and 90s, Kiss wouldn’t have made it through those tumultuous periods. It also seems obvious that sometime in the late 80s, Gene lost quite a bit of credibility and consequently control of the inner workings of the band. They still publicly put out the image of being an equal partnership, but I doubt anybody (including Gene) is allowed to say no to Paul Stanley. This is a contrast to the early 80s when the band continued with the makeup on when Paul had expressed being ready to take the makeup off. Obviously once the makeup finally did come off, it became Paul’s band.
Gene definitely made a persona for himself that doesn’t seem very grounded in reality. It’s pretty obvious that without Paul guiding the ship in the 80s and 90s, Kiss wouldn’t have made it through those tumultuous periods. It also seems obvious that sometime in the late 80s, Gene lost quite a bit of credibility and consequently control of the inner workings of the band. They still publicly put out the image of being an equal partnership, but I doubt anybody (including Gene) is allowed to say no to Paul Stanley. This is a contrast to the early 80s when the band continued with the makeup on when Paul had expressed being ready to take the makeup off. Obviously once the makeup finally did come off, it became Paul’s band.
Sheriff_of_Huddersfield
Not a KISS Fan
I hope the humor isn’t lost in my running joke about not being a KISS fan.