GENE SIMMONS: KISS DIDN’T JUST PLAY SHOWS — THEY TRIED TO BLOW THE ROOF OFF

Actually, the truth is stranger than fiction and life actually happens to you while you're busy making your also important plans. We were four knuckleheads off the streets of New York who had no resume, no experience, nothing. Scientists call that a singularity. It just happened. The right mixture of chemicals get together and it becomes volatile and You know, it gets incendiary, in other words, explodes. You put the wrong mixture together and it just sits there like pablum. Notice all the big words like gymnasium I'm using. So we want the self-ordained sort of mandate was let's put together the band we never saw on stage because we were so sick and tired of bands coming up there and looking at their shoes when they're playing as if to say we're doing you a favor by being up here and charging you full price for a ticket when there's nothing to look at. You may as well stay at home and just, you know, use your ears and listen to the music you love Because when you... When we saw those bands that we all loved, you know, I love those songs, Love and Spoonful and Sly and the Family Stone, all that stuff. And then live, they're just standing there by the microphone. That's it. No light show, no screen, no nothing. So we decided to take all the money we were making and put it right back in the show and break all the rules. Nobody ever spit fire on stage before in a rock band, but why not? I decided to... drool and spit out blood because I saw a scene from Horror of Dracula with Christopher Lee for no reason. Then as a kid, I thought, that's cool, that cool quotient. And by the way, I wear these shades for a very important reason. Take note, the sun never sets on planet cool. That's important. Gene, your hair did catch on fire. You had extra hairspray. If I remember reading it right, you were in a humid atmosphere. I think it was an outdoor concert. You used a little extra hairspray. Oh, my God. I told you, I was an idiot. The first show we ever did, and everything's tied back now. Trust me, that's all mine. So. And we're playing our first show, New Year's Eve, 1973-74. Maybe it was 1873, I don't know. And we're going on fourth on the bill. Nobody ever heard of us. Our record had yet to come out. And we really want to kick them in the nuts, go out there, do that. And by the third song, we're doing a song called Firehouse. And, you know, I thought, you know, I should spit fire in that song. Why? You know, I don't know. Thank Of course, before the show, I'm trying to get the hair as big as possible. So you spray, the girls will tell you, you take the roots, grab a handful and you spray you the roots so that it dries on the bottom and then the top stands up. You don't want to make the top heavy, right? very So it looks like you were going out there, you know, like a porcupine. Everything's all, all that. Well, what happens? much. I started to. Spit fire. And of course, I caught fire, which made the audience crazy. Wow. Look at these guys. They're going to kill themselves and all this stuff. And I didn't know what was going on. Somebody just came out with a wet towel and put it on my head. So the whole idea was if you're going to be in a rock band and you're going to be the same old, same old, you better hope you have hit records. Thank you very much. If not that, at least give the audience a show, you know, get out there. Well, speaking of that, this is, this is a fascinating story. You know, I think at one point, who was it? Was it, was it, was it Paul or Ace? I think Ace had grabbed a railing once and he took 220 volts and he was stuck to it. He survived that. I want to talk another story. You had this idea that you would put some sort of gunpowder or some sort of material, Here, a flammable material in a... In one of those flash papers. And you were going to throw them over the audience. And what happened? You threw one in. Tell us what happened to that audience member. And what the aftermath of this is fascinating to me. Go ahead. Well, this is the very first show we did as Kiss, you know, in a large arena. It was 3,000. For us, it was like an army. And during that show, I caught fire by the third song. And then they put it out. So I'm playing, you know, on stage with. Some singed hair a little shorter than the other. And we go on to a song called 100,000 Years. And for some crazy reason, we thought, yeah, we're going to put some gunpowder in flash paper and roll it up like a candy kiss, you know, on top. And I had a candelabra on stage. And as soon as you touch the flash paper to the candelabra, it burns really fast. So I toss it over. The idea was to toss it over people's heads. So all of a sudden they got fireworks over their head. And of course, you hope that it doesn't float. Well, that was the first time I ever tried it with an audience. So some guy stood way in the back, really high on his chair. I don't know if he had lifts or something. And all I saw was and then the guy went backwards and we looked at each other like, oh, what's going on? And we hope, gee, I hope he's OK and everything. And then when we went backstage, we were talking amongst ourselves with management. Oh, my God, I hope the guy doesn't come back and sue us. And the door opens up, and one of our security guards brings in the guy. And my hand to God, the right side, as I recall, on top of his eyebrow, was melted skin over his eye. you know like when you when you melt cheese you know for a cheese sandwich it was just melted over and he's saying something like man that was the best show i ever liked he was just going on and on and we're looking at each other oh my god is he going to sue well what happened was that our manager at the time bill of coin had already taken him to the hospital Shot him up with painkillers and all that stuff. And he signed a waiver like it's not their fault. I shouldn't have been. Well, needless to say, that was the last time we did that gag. So you were it is interesting.