30 Years Ago KISS Got Their Groove Back With ‘KISS My A–’
The late ‘80s were a weird time for KISS. The band “unmasked” and revamped themselves on 1983’s Lick It Up. It was a risky move, but one that rejuvenated their career. Pop metal (or “hair metal”) acts started dominating MTV and the Billboard charts, so this was perfect timing. Their look and sound fit perfectly alongside Motley Crue, Bon Jovi, and Poison.
It worked really well. That is, until it didn’t: by the end of the decade, hair metal was yesterday’s news and was quickly becoming a punchline. Sure, KISS was still headlining arenas, and they had some pretty big pop hits (“Reason To Live,” “Forever”). Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley would probably protest the premise of this article: they’d say that their “bad” years were better than most bands’ best years. And that’s true. But this is also true: although they were never “hip,” if you grew up in the suburbs, no band was cooler in the ‘70s. If Gene and Paul had a nickel for every kid who bought a guitar or drumset because of KISS, they’d double their considerable fortunes. But a few years into unmasking, they were no longer cool.
Strangely enough, the bands that were banishing the pop-metal rockers to the discount bins turned out to be KISS fans, too. Gene and Paul, always aware of trends, knew this was an opportunity. 1990 saw the release of Hard To Believe: A KISS Covers Compilation on the indie label C/Z Records; that’s the same label that released the 1986 Deep Six compilation, the record that helped to launch the Melvins, Green River (featuring future Pearl Jam members Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament) Skin Yard (featuring future Soundgarden and Pearl Jam drummer Matt Cameron) and Soundgarden.
Hard To Believe: A KISS Covers Compilation had contributions from both the Melvins and Skin Yard, as well as legendary punk band All. Oh yeah, and Nirvana, who covered “Do You Love Me?” Always attuned to trends, and never shy about addressing or defending their legacy, Gene Simmons and Paul Stanely decided to take the reins to assemble their own tribute album.
To be fair, KISS was already changing with the times before they started working on the tribute: their 1992 album Revenge was a darker, heavier record than they’d done since they unmasked, and they adopted a new, mostly black look, a visual 180 from their bright garb from the past decade or so. But they were still playing to the shrinking KISS audience.
KISS My A– started the process of changing the perception of the one-time hottest band in the world. It pointed out that the core of their success came from the fact that they were great songwriters. It also showed how massive their influence was, and how widespread it was. All of the credible rock bands were taking great pains to point out their hip influences, like the Velvet Underground and Black Flag. The truth was, a lot of these guys probably started out listening to KISS. In the ‘80s, that would have been an uncool admission. But that was changing: famous fans were coming out of the KISS closet.
That was certainly true with the guys from one-off supergroup Shandi’s Addiction, who covered “Calling Dr. Love.” Shandi’s Addiction was Tool singer Maynard James Keenan, Rage Against The Machine’s Tom Morello and Brad Wilk and Faith No More’s Billy Gould. You couldn’t ask for a more credible group. According to legend, Keenan wouldn’t agree to it until Simmons apologized to him for the KISS album Music from “The Elder.” Meanwhile, two decades later, Morello would deliver one of the greatest speeches in Rock & Roll Hall of Fame history when he presented KISS at their 2014 induction.
While Shandi’s Addiction covered the Lollapalooza fans, the Mighty Mighty Bosstones’ ska-fuelled “Detroit Rock City” covered the Warped Tour kids. The Bosstone even made a music video that pointed out that before they were disciples of the Clash and the Specials, the guys rocked out to KISS in the ‘70s. KISS and the Bosstones even released a split 45” with each band’s version on opposite sides of the single; the artwork saw the Bosstones donning KISS makeup.
There was stuff that went even further into hipster territory with Dinosaur Jr.’s “Goin’ Blind” and the Lemonheads’ “Plaster Caster.” Apparently, Kurt Cobain planned to cover “Goin’ Blind” with the Melvins, but Dinosaur Jr. got to it first.
Of course, Simmons and Stanley aren’t too obsessed with credibility (and nor should they be). The collection also had radio mainstays Lenny Kravitz – with Stevie Wonder on harmonica! – on a funky take on “Deuce,” which actually got some rock radio play. Toad The Wet Sprocket did a country waltz version of “Rock and Roll All Night,” and the Gin Blossoms awoke their inner rockers on “Christine Sixteen.”
KISS, of course, addressed the Headbangers Ball crowd by including the more pop-leaning Extreme (“Strutter”) and thrash metal icons Anthrax (“She”). However, the most high-profile artist on the album – and the most surprising – was country superstar Garth Brooks. This wasn’t just stunt-casting, either. Yes, Brooks is country music’s clean-cut superstar and was incredibly popular back in 1994. But if you look at country music – and country music concerts – before and after Brooks, you realize that his KISS influence transformed the genre, bringing bigger rock guitars and massive stadium shows to country music. At any rate, Gene and Paul were all in on Brooks’ “Hard Luck Woman” cover (it’s really a country song anyway, so it wasn’t a big stretch): they backed him up on the recording and were his backing band when he performed it on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.
Gene and Paul clearly enjoyed celebrating their legacy; their next big move was to organize their own traveling KISS Convention Tour – kind of like a Comic Con for KISS fans. Kicking off in June 1995, the tour included licensed KISS memorabilia dealers, a museum of KISS artifacts, and the band did Q+As and also did acoustic performances. Those acoustic performances led to an invite to play MTV Unplugged in August 1995, which famously saw the band reunite with original members Ace Frehley and Peter Criss.
In February 1996, the four original members—in makeup and full stage regalia—shocked the world by appearing at the Grammys, introduced by Tupac Shakur. They didn’t perform—they just presented an award—but the place went wild. It was a great “soft launch,” in the parlance of the times.
Less than two months later, they appeared again at a New York press conference, announcing their reunion tour: the original lineup was back, so was the makeup and everything the fans loved about the ‘70s heyday. They sold out multiple nights at arenas, and tons of younger alternative rock bands wanted to open for them.
Stone Temple Pilots, one of the hugest bands of the era, were originally tapped to open the tour (sadly, they had to pull out because of Weiland’s drug issues). Alice In Chains opened four shows on the tour, which, tragically, were Layne Staley’s final concert performances. In an era where every legacy band was seeking acceptance from younger alternative rock bands, younger bands were lining up to pay respect to KISS. D Generation, CIV, 311, the Nixons, Stabbing Westward, the Verve Pipe, Deftones, and the Melvins — all bands that enjoyed credibility, radio play, or both — played on the bill with KISS.
The return of the makeup allowed for tons of new marketing opportunities, from KISS “Kondoms” to KISS “Kaskets” to sponsorship of a WCW Wrestler and an arena football team.
KISS remained in makeup from 1997 through their final concert in 2023. That’s 26 years, which is longer than they were together before the relaunch. Ace and Peter left (and talked a lot about why). There were three more albums with some respectable songs – but they couldn’t compete with the nostalgia attached to the older ones (with the possible exception of “Psycho Circus”). And tons of tours. A farewell tour was first announced in 2002, two decades before they washed off the warpaint for the final time on December 2, 2023.
But KISS My A–: Classic KISS Regrooved pointed out why the band’s popularity endured for five decades: yes, they looked cool as hell, but their songs were incredible. And who knows, maybe right now Gene Simmons is preparing a sequel.
