With the exception of maybe The Beatles, no other rock band has spawned more tribute acts than KISS. There are well renowned KISS tributes all over the world including one (Kuarantine) fronted by the namesake of this website paying homage to the band’s non-makeup era.
During a recent appearance on “Howie Mandel Does Stuff”, KISS frontman/guitarist Paul Stanley talked about the many bands on the touring circuit making a living imitating the group. “ There are some KISS tributes that we’ve allowed to continue,” he said. “It’s a matter of giving them the license to do it that can be revoked at any time, because all the makeups, all those personas are trademarked and nobody can use those for any purpose.”
Stanley was asked if the band ever forced a tribute act to stop playing for how they presented the band’s show and catalog. “If it becomes big business, that goes beyond a tribute,” he said. “Yes, it’s okay to make some money, but your heart has to be in the right place.”
Stanley previously said he thinks there are plenty of good KISS tribute bands, but that no one has quite captured his onstage persona. “Honestly, I think all the KISS tribute bands are great, but none of them have a good ‘Paul,’” he said. “So I’d like to see somebody who incorporates what I’ve done with a lot of the things that inspired me. And it’s not a matter of a puppet being me; it’s somebody who comes in and contributes and adds something new to it while still following the template that’s been set.”
Two KISS tribute bands will appear at the group’s November “KISS Kruise: Landlocked In Vegas” event — the aforementioned Kuarantine and Mr. Speed.
Chris Jericho previously shared with Youngstown Studio what Paul and Gene think of Kuarantine. “Paul loves all the Paul songs,” Jericho said. “Anytime I send him a Gene (song) he’ll send a puke emoji or something like that. I think for ‘Love’s A Deadly Weapon,’ he wrote, ‘Bad Van Halen.’ I’m like, ‘It’s your song!’”
He continued: “We’ve done ‘Heart Of Chrome’ from ‘Revenge’ and ‘Silver Spoon’ from ‘Hot In The Shade.’ And ‘Silver Spoon’ got to No. 21 on the charts, and Paul really loved both of those. He was very complimentary. With Gene we’ve done ‘No, No, No’ and ‘Love’s A Deadly Weapon,’ but we just did ‘Good Girl Gone Bad,’ and that one went to No. 10 on the charts. Gene is very appreciative — they both are. I think it’s cool for them to know that you can release these songs to the radio and people will listen to them. Getting a top 10 song isn’t easy, and to do it with an obscure KISS song from 37 years ago, that’s not easy. But the reason why it works is that these songs are very good songs.”
Stanley’s full interview with Howie Mandel can be viewed below.
