Feb 28th -
Our new webmistress is Lisa Coburn. Please welcome her. John Richey, our former web master has decided to resume a normal life with his family. We wish him well and I'm sure you all agree he did a bang up job.
Feb 27th -
The powerful and attractive SHANNON TWEED will be seen in the debut of her television series MY GUIDE TO BECOMING A ROCK STAR on WB. Thursday March 14th at 8 pm and then Friday March 15th at 8 pm. Two shows will be broadcast back to back on the 14th and a single show will be broadcast on the 15th.
And thereafter, every Thursday at 8 pm two shows back to back...
I actually had the pleasure of seeing the pilot and loved it. Tune in.
Feb 26th -
Just got back from the Olympics. I'm told over THREE BILLION people viewed the closing ceremonies KISS was on. A newspaper reported that it was THE SINGLE LARGEST VIEWING AUDIENCE IN THE HISTORY OF MANKIND.
Remarkable...We had a ball. Ace flew in a day late, but made it. Kenny Ortega, the Olympic Closing Ceremony director couldn't have been nicer to us. Kenny and the band go way back to the early 70's. He wrote a musical called "BIMBO'S FLYING CIRCUS" that featured a remarkable song called "Reverie". Both Paul and I caught the show in '74 in Los Angeles and always bring up that song whenever we run into Kenny.
The other performers on the show were very cordial to us. Everyone seemed fascinated by our KISSBOOTS. Gloria Estefan, Earth Wind & Fire, Donnie and Marie Osmond, Moby and a host of other celebs hung out backstage. But, when it was time to put on our warpaint, we retreated to our sanctum sanctorium -- our private dressing room to put on our makeup and outfits. Eric Singer and Ace traded barbs and I was busy taking backstage photos for my GENE SIMMONS TONGUE magazine (out in early Spring -- 300,000 print order in America alone!!!). Paul posed. Joey Fatone from N'Sync came by (and assumed the position...you'll see what I mean when the photo is printed) and when we went onstage and sang "Rock and Roll All Nite"...and saw 60,000 people singing along with us...it tugged at our hearts.
We thank you all.
Ok. Haven't had a chance to post much news over the last week or so. Been much too busy...but here's a review of some of the cool stuff that's happening to me.
Feb 4th - I met in New York with a company called Greater Talent. They intend on booking me on a LECTURE TOUR. After I did the LEAP WIRELESS event in Las Vegas, people came up to me and in effect told me what I had to say needed saying. This works well into my own delusions of grandeur, or course...Be that as it may, I am booked into a University in Florida in the near future to lecture and maybe sign a book or two (Hint: KISS AND MAKEUP/Crown Books). More news later.
Feb 5th - SIMMONS RECORDS is well on the way to being reborn. I met with an investment house who expressed serious interest in funding the entity. The structure of the record company will be different than the 80's SIMMONS RECORDS/RCA version. This will be a wholly owned and operated record company. We will simply "rent" the distribution and marketing operation of a major. More news later.
Feb 6th - GENE SIMMONS' PORN STAR. That's going to be the title of a huge coffee table art book. This book is abit off in the distance. There are a lot of other projects that are taking center stage, but it WILL appear. This project is a good six months off.
Feb 11th - ASTRO BOY, a Japanese cartoon show I first saw and loved as a child in the 60's is having a rebirth of sorts. A Japanese television special is being produced in homage and I was proud to be asked to participate. I told the people involved I would be very interested in developing a feature version of the show. It has been in development at a studio for a number of years, however.
Feb 15th - EXTRA (the television show) recently interviewed the beautiful Shannon Tweed. I finally saw the piece. It was part of a larger section I saw last night (Feb 26th) that also featured my views on life and sex. Shannon laughed and said something along the lines of "If Gene was a woman, he'd be a slut." I love that!!!
Feb 16th - TERRY AND THE PIRATES, a cartoon staple of Sunday newspapers of America for 60 years is about to see the light of day as a cartoon show and as a feature film. Tribune, the owners of the property, have given me the right to develop the property. Mainframe Entertainment (the outfit I am developing the KISS CGI SUPER HERO SHOW) has expressed interest in developing the TERRY project with me.. Negotiations are ongoing.
Meantime, the feature version (probably a year or two in the future), may have Dan (THE HURRICANE) Gordon writing the script and myself producing.
Feb 17th - I met with GUILLERMO DEL TORO, the director of the upcoming BLADE II (which incidentally, will do to you with MATRIX did to you when you first saw it) to discuss a number of film projects. First and foremost might be a teaming between Giullermo, Barry Levine and I on LEGEND OF THE SEVEN GOLDEN VAMPIRES. More news on this later.
Feb 18th - Flew to Las Vegas for the MAGIC SHOW. This is an industry convention of buyers and manufacturers of clothing. I debuted my GENE SIMMONS DRAGONFLY clothing line with my business associate, Ed Dada. We had four beautiful girls modeling the "MONEYBAG LOGO" clothing line. There was a band playing and the lines were endless.
I then segued into a meeting early in the evening with a group of people that looks like it may turn into one of the biggest deals I have ever been involved with. BIG!!!. But, specifics will have to wait.
Later that night, Dada and I had dinner with Her Royal Highness, the Princess Of Brunei. She was charming and I was pleasantly surprised to know she was a fan. She was gracious and gave me a gold and diamond covered belt buckle. I was floored.
Feb 19th - started the day with interviews and the off to the Magic Show Convention from 11 am to 5 pm to sign autographs and talk up my clothing line.
Feb 20th - KZLA radio woke me at 8:30 in the morning and then off to the convention site. Later that day, I did a book signing at CAESARS PALACE/VIRGIN MEGASTORE. I stayed to the end.
The day ended with a dinner for clothing buyers, Spencer's Gifts.
I stayed in Vegas to do some work on other projects and flew directly to the Olympics on Sat the 24th.
Feb the 25th - GENE SIMMONS RESTAURANT PROJECT. Yep. As soon as I got back to LA, I went into a meeting with a gentleman whose family owns a number of restaurants around the country. He wanted to do a project with me. We threw the ball around and both liked each other enough to take the project further. I CAN say that this first flagship restaurant will be the start of a franchise restaurant chain. More news later.
Later, met with Steve Appleford (editor of GENE SIMMONS TONGUE magazine) and art director Kevin Robie. We reviewed the contents, talked about cover design and looked at various foto shoots. It's looking great.!!!
KISS will be rehearsing for a secret and private concert to be held offshore next week.
Feb 26th -
W.O.W. - WOMEN OF WRESTLING. I've been knee deep in getting this project off the ground. The owner of the project and I met last week and agreed to work together. Imagine the girls of Baywatch wrestling. I'm there...More news later.
SECRET KISS TRIBUTE ALBUM. Can't say much more about this but it promises to be a one of a kind event. I'm working out the contractual subtleties and as soon as paperwork is signed, we will announce it.
GROUPIES PLAYBOY PROJECT. I sold this idea to Playboy and we are currently finalizing contracts. I originally developed and shot the pilot for HBO, but could not come to terms with them about the contents or the deal. More news later.
GIRLS OF KISS PLAYBOY PROJECT. I also sold this idea to Playboy Video and will give you all the details as soon as contracts are signed. But, this project promises to be unique.
KISS; THE EARLY YEARS WARRING ABBOT BOOK has been finalized with Crown Books. Warring was a KISS photographer in the 70's and the book will recount stories and events, with commentaries by Paul and myself.
KISS CONDOMS. Or, KISS KONDOMS. Been working on this deal for a while. It looks like it's about to see the light of day. More news soon.
KISS THE SERIES for MTV. Dan Gordon and I pitched the concept to John Miller at MTV and within 10 minutes, he told us to call business affairs to make the deal.
Caution: negotiations take months. So, any questions you have about this project are premature and I will be vague until the time is right.
More news soon...
FEB 16th -
The kind folks over at KISSFAQ.com have archived the missing Gene interview with Terry Gross from NPR and they have broken it up into 4 downloadable parts.
http://www.kissfaq.com/news/index.html
Keep in mind that it's not text. This is a 30 minute audio file broken into 4 parts.
FEB 11th -
It's me. I'm in a hotel (NY Plaza) and here's the news:
Feb 10th -- Have been in New York for two weeks and have had a blast. On January the 28th (in LA) I interviewed Hugh Hefner at the Playboy Mansion for GENE SIMMONS TONGUE magazine. It looks to be the cover story. Hef couldn't have been nicer. We talked for hours about his life and his loves. He showed me his "fanzines" -- self published magazines he published as a young teen and I showed him mine -- COSMOS, FAUN and TINDERBOX. I self published, wrote and edited those when I was about fourteen.
I then caught the red eye to New York.
Some of the meetings about upcoming projects are too early in the development stage to talk about here, but it's some of the biggest things I have ever had the privilege to be associated with. They are huge projects.
On January the 30th, I caught Bruce Willis and his group in New York's BB King club. They rocked. Saw Anton Fig, who drums for David Letterman and who drummed on KISS' DYNASTY and UNMASKED albums.
On February the 1st, met with Larry Wilker, a Broadway producer of shows like TOMMY and TITANIC. We talked about teaming up for the KISS BROADWAY SHOW. Rob (Beauty And The Beast) Roth wants to direct. More on this as it develops.
I called Ace to see if he wanted to join me on ED TRUNK'S WNEW midnight radio show. Ace didn't show, but the Trunk was terrific as usual.
FEB 2nd -
I was invited to the NY STOCK Exchange's party of parties. Two thousand CEO's of the biggest companies were hobknobbing on the floor of the exchange. I exchanged pleasantries with Shimon Perez of Israel and was surprised to find out that the President of the exchange and I went to the same high school.
Feb 4th -
KISS got in town for the LANE BRYANT FASHION EVENT. We rehearsed at Roseland with the models.
Feb 5th -
The Roseland event couldn't have been cooler. The band was in great spirits. Ace was cool. Eric Singer was more powerful and attractive than I had seen him and the ever youthful Paul Stanley made me proud to share the stage with them. Ana Nicole Smith, Joannie (Chynna the WWF wrestler), Carrie Otis and lots of beautiful girls showed all assembled what women should really look like.
Feb 6th -
Met with Crown Books on a number of new projects. Upcoming is a new KISS BOOK, tentatively titled THE EARLY YEARS - KISS by Warring Abbott, and my second book BUY THIS VOL I. We also talked about a paperback version of my (ahem..) New York Times Best Selling Book KISS AND MAKEUP. Tentatively planned for a winter release, the paperback version will most likely sport a variety of different covers and spines and will be laced with new content.
Met with Allen Tuller, my partner in GENE SIMMONS TONGUE magazine to review the contents of the first issue and to plan and meet with marketing/sales people.
Feb 7th -
Went down to TOY FAIR to help promote ART ASYLUM's new KISS pop up (Jack In The Box) line that is shortly forthcoming. Cool stuff.
Later that day, I did CONAN O'BRIEN. If you saw the show, you may have noticed I was feeling pretty good...probably sugar withdrawls. Conan let me run with the ball and I appreciate it.
Feb 8th -
Did the GUITAR WORLD interview and then quickly went down to the VIRGIN MEGASTORE in Times Square to do the Instore. Again, I don't want to overstate how much this means to me. You guys blow me away every time. You wait for hours just to be able to say hi. I hope you felt when we finally met that this means the world to me. Thanks again.
For those of you who didn't get to hear the NPR radio interview: It caused quite a stir. The NY Post did a big piece on it and lots of you had a problem with how I came off. Read some of the letters and you'll get a taste of what I mean. I want to repeat what I said to some of the people: I stand by everything I said. Yes. I AM cocky. I DO believe in sexuality and the pursuit of my happiness, which doesn't always jibe with society's rules. Hopefully, we will get the right to post the interview and you'll judge for yourself.
The interviewer is allowed to agree or disagree with my point of view. But, I will not sheepishly allow anyone (friend or foe) to insult (no matter how subtle) or question my notions of happiness. You are allowed your notions...I am allowed mine.
Feb. 7th -
Allen Tuller and I will be meeting with execs at Warner Distribution to discuss GENE SIMMONS TONGUE magazine. As a side note, people tend to refer to the magazine as TONGUE magazine. Not quite right. Remember, it was ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS not PRESENTS. See?
Feb. 8th -
I'll be appearing in Times Square in N.Y. for a book signing at VIRGIN MEGASTORE. KISS AND MAKEUP is still on the New York Times Best Seller list thanks to you.
Feb. 14th,
I'll be back in LA and will do another book signing at BOOK SOUP on Sunset Blvd., directly across the street from Tower Records, where KISS did the BOXED SET signing. The event will be at 8 PM. Hope you see you all there.
