Earlier this year, KISS legend Gene Simmons offered the chance for fans to be his roadie for a day. “The Ultimate Gene Simmons Experience” featured several perks including a bass guitar used and signed by the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer. The $12K price tag, however, had some fans doing a double take.
In a recent interview with 95.9 The Rat, Simmons explained why the experience to be his roadie for a day is so costly. “Here’s the deal: when I was a kid and I went to see Hendrix or somebody, of course I enjoyed the show and really got off on it — we talked about it forever and stuff — but I didn’t know what it was like,” Simmons explained.
“What’s the beginning of the day like? What’s it like to sit and have breakfast or lunch with my favorite rock stars, and then get in the limo, go to the gig, set up the drums, do soundcheck and then be on stage with your video, ’cause nowadays everything’s on video. You can’t take a poop without a camera coming in under the stall. And then you get pulled up on stage to sing along with them. Now, having said that, we only do one roadie for a day per show. And I’ll tell you why — because nowadays everything is so litigious. That’s a big word, like gymnasium. That means everybody sues everybody for no reason. So if you get a paper cut, somebody gets sued. And that’s just the way life is here in America — much more in California, by the way. It’s crazy out here. So, I can’t even, if I wanted to, bring out do roadie for a day with 10, 20, 30, as many people (as we would like). So we do one, because the insurance costs for that are astronomical. And so this ain’t cheap. It’s not for everybody. And for that one person, you do have to pay premium numbers. That’s just life.”
Simmons full interview can be viewed below.
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