STRIKE 39
NOT DEAD YET
PRESS CONFERENCE ON THE AIRCRAFT CARRIER
That day it was raining a lot, so instead of arriving with an elicopter, KISS reached the aircraft carrier with stretch limos.
The president of Mercury introduced this event, and then Conan O’ Brien, a famous TV show presenter, took the microphone and spent a few more words to celebrate the band. He introduced a new promo video of “Rock And Roll All Nite” with live footages from different tours and then the curtains opened up and KISS came out with a bright KISS logo behind them, they posed for photos for a few seconds and then the press conference started.
At the end they posed for more photos and did some interviews with different TV crews, hanging around the mannequins and toys that they used to have at their KISS Conventions last year. They answered questions for 20 minutes not just from people there, but also from people connected live in Internet from all over the world. In fact the press conference was aired live in audio and video on Internet. But here we go with the Press Conference.
PAUL: We are here to answer whatever questions you have, obviously we’re really psyched out about being back together and going out on this world tour. So anybody who’s got something to ask?
INT: I’ve got a question for you guys! What was it like when you put the make up back on again and looked at each other, what went through your mind, what was the feeling like?
PAUL: We had safe sex.
INT: Seriously what was the feeling like?
ACE: We still look as silly now as we did 15 years ago (with a laugh).
GENE: You know, it’s a little tough to see who’s talking so try to wave at us, we want to be able to see who’s asking questions.
INT: I just want to know when you guys come to Detroit City are you going to give interviews to just mainstream press like the big stuff, or also to the local press.
PAUL: We’re gonna try to do as much press as possible and in the same way we’re trying to make sure that ticket prices really range from very low to whatever. (audience laughs) We want to make sure that everybody has a chance to see the show, cause for us to see the show is awesome. It’s gonna be something spectacular.
GENE: Next question?
INT: I just wanna know what era of music you guys are gonna pull for this tour, are you guys just gonna stick to the stuff that was from the original form?
PETER: The classic Kiss stuff. (audience cheers)
INT: Are you gonna do anything from the solo records? Any unmasked stuff?
GENE: We’re open to all kinds of things, this tour and the whole event is really a combination of more than a decade of fans being on top of our asses saying that we have to do it, so...
ACE & PAUL: Not literally
GENE: So we’re gonna give the fans exactly what they want, they want to hear Rock And Roll All Night, we’ll do it, if they want to hear songs from a certain period, we’ll do it. We are here for the fans.
PAUL: You’ll hear it.
INT: Given how preliphic the band has been over the years, can you give us any details of this up and coming project, that you guys have to coincide with the reunion and world tour.
PAUL: Well the first thing that is happenhing is we’re digging into the vaults and putting together an album that pretty much celebrates the past. For us, we’re as bigger fans as the band as anybody could be, so we’re putting together an album that contains all kinds of rarities live stuff from the era of the first 2 live albums and mixing them together and ditally remastering to do a ‘best of’, like a comemeorable Alive 1 and Alive 2 with the never before heard live tracks from that period, all stuff that comes out of the vaults. (crowd cheers: Ace is God)
PAUL: Ace is God and that’s what he told me too.
INT: Guys first of all, thank you, there is a Jesus, there is a God, you guys are back!
What is the future of this band?
ACE: History of the band is the world tour.
GENE: A world tour! We’re gonna visit every country that is formed or is about to be formed.
PAUL: We’re not gonna finish until we have hit every city, every country, we’re committed to this for a year... 2 years...
Whatever it take and that’ll be the first tour.
INT: What about Bruce and Eric?
GENE: Bruce Kulick and Eric Singer are every bit apart of the band, they have given this thing their full blessings basically because they are fans of the band as well. And we’ve just finished a brand new studio record which will not come out for a while and they’re gonna come to the show just like everybody else.
INT: Have they got good seats? (laughs)
PAUL: They have got the best seats.
GENE: They have given us their full blessings and that’s the way it should be.
PAUL: When we started talking about doing this, we talked to Bruce and Eric first obviously and they said, Go do it! We want to be there and we’ll be there for you. So, we’re doing this with their blessings. I mean we had a great time doing unplugged and that really was the seed that got this whole thing going and I mean we’re so gased to be here, this means so much to us. You know it’s funny cause after 17 years of not being together you kind of forget why you stop being together anyway. So give us another 17 years and we’ll be able to figure it out.
(audience cheers)
PRESENTER: This press conference is broadcast through Netcast around the world on internet and we’ve been taking questions from Kiss fans, the first one we’re gonna run by comes from Derik in New Zealand and the question is:
The landscape of music has changed quite a bit since Kiss last wore make up, does the band see any similarities between the last stage presence in todays music and the early 70’s?
PAUL: We will not be wearing flannel shirts or shorts on stage. (crowd cheers)
GENE: Everything is on to its self. We’re not here to figure out what’s right for any other band except Kiss. We know who we are and what we are and what we should be, every other band has got to figure it out fot themselves. But we’ve always taken great pride in taking the best of the best in our opening acts. All the way to giving the brand new bands their first tours, from AC/DC, Rush to Motley to Anthrax.
PAUL: John Melloncamp, Bob Seger, Tom Petty. We’ve always been big fans of bands, this time it’ll be Stone Temple Pilots as guests for us because they’re one of the bands that we really think alot of.
INT: With Stone Temple Pilots, a couple of years back they played a show in full Kiss face paint, did that influence your descion to get them opening for you?
PETER: No.
GENE: No, we’re easy but not that easy. (audience laughs) Anybody sitting here with a set of ears should be able to tell immediately that this is legitimate music that the Pilots have, terrific tunes and have a great vibe and have their own sense of idenity and thats the most important thing for any band, and we like them. That’s a good enough reason to have them open the show.
(crowd shouts: Gene you better go to the ladies room)
GENE: Yes sir.
PETER: You gonna meet him in the ladies room?
INT: Tell me about the album, did you realize it turned on a love of new fans to Kiss in other parts of the world?
PAUL: Well I think everytime we put out an album, somebody new hear it and... we stopped a long time ago thinking, what was cool, what we should do and what we shouldn’t do, we were crazy in the first place to get dressed up in make up and this morning some other people were saying we were crazy to put it back on, and we do what we want and that’s really why we are here.
INT: Are you gonna do a set list?
PAUL: Yes, do you have any suggestions? (crowd yells out their suggestions)
PAUL: The answer is you’ll hear them all.
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