Most die hard fans of KISS can tell you that guitar icon Eddie Van Halen actually asked Gene Simmons if he could join the group in the early ‘80s following the departure of Ace Frehley. Ultimately, that didn’t happen, but it’s a fun “what if?” scenario for rock fans to think about.
In a recent interview with MusicRadar, Simmons explained the situation that led EVH to inquiring about the opening in KISS and why he turned the guitar great’s attention back to Van Halen. “Eddie told me, ‘Roth is driving me nuts. I can’t take it. I gotta leave. I know you’re looking for a lead guitar player. Do you want me in the band?’” Simmons said.
“Where Eddie lived, it wasn’t far away. So he got into his Jeep and came to the studio. Him driving that Jeep was the scariest thing in the world – it had no doors and he’d drive at 100 miles an hour. It was insane. So he came down and we had lunch across the street, and then he came into the studio and heard some of the tracks and was like, ‘Oh, I really like that!'”
Simmons told the guitar great that Van Halen was better suited for his talents. “I said, ‘Eddie, a band is worse than a marriage. You’re going to have ups and downs and stuff. But with Van Halen, everything begins and ends with you – it’s all about the guitar. And likewise for AC/DC or Led Zeppelin with Jimmy Page – those riffs, that’s the backbone of what it is. That’s the sound. It’s a point of view which is not necessarily the point of view of KISS.'”
Simmons continued: “There wouldn’t be room for Eddie in KISS. It would be like putting Jeff Beck or Hendrix in AC/DC. Hendrix would suck up all the oxygen. He needed just one bass player and a drummer so he’d got that room without a rhythm guitar player there. Eddie was like Hendrix in that sense. He needed a lot of room. With Van Halen it was a lot of room for the guitar player to take up, and there just wasn’t that room unless we wanted to gut what KISS was all about. And Eddie would have taken over.”
