ANOTHER Open Letter To Gene Simmons About Doing The Right Thing (And This Time, Let's CC: Paul Stanley)!

Will you welcome "Kissted Sister"!

After my first Open Letter on the subject of Kiss choosing to not play their own induction ceremony because they (aka Gene) can't decide which line-up should play, it appears that Simmons' yes-man Paul Stanley has gone on-record as saying some unkind things about Ace Frehley.  What Gene (and, by default, Paul) forgets is that Ace played a very significant role in helping make him the legend that he is today. Or was there another guitarist whose likeness could be found on more bedroom walls during the '70s than Frehley?

I mean, based on the fact that Gene no doubt saw a cut of each poster sale, one would think Gene would have learned a little more tolerance.

When things are going that great, only a real douche-nozzle rocks the boat.  Those who like their mansions and private jets plural do what they have to do to prop up the guitarist for the requisite 90 minutes a night, thereby reserving the right to grumble all the way to the bank.

The Stones did it.

All songs aside, the main difference between Kiss and the Stones, Gene, is that you essentially kicked Keith Richards AND Charlie Watts out of the band and you're actually pissed at THEM for putting you in that position.

I'll say it again, THEY PUT YOU IN THAT POSITION.  See that mansion you're sitting in?  Or the limousine that you take for granted?  THEY put you in that position.

Notice how the two guys in the Stones that we KNOW were hooked on smack during the period of their greatest fame AND relevance (mid-70's, untouchable) were never, even for a second, the subject of any replacement chatter?  Can you imagine the asshole who fires Keith Richards?  And, yes. I'm looking at you Chuck Berry, but that's another rant.

This is Kiss without Ace Frehley.

And in 1996, after you obviously noticed the drop-off in interest, you came up with the big reunion tour featuring Ace and Peter.  It was a shrewd, calculated move that completely rejuvenated the brand, which is what it was by this point.  The whole time, you think you're doing these guys some giant favor - for which you recognize the renewed interest - but never realized that THEY were the ones we were here to see.  You and Paul have your fans, don't get me wrong, but Ace and Peter have always been cool.  They've never done or said anything to make us love them any less?

And of the four solo albums you guys released before Christmas '78, that every kid over the age of ten begged for and GOT for Christmas.  You could always tell how much money a kid's family had by how many of the four they had after Christmas.  I had one.  Thing is, I can't remember which one I got because the minute I heard my brother's Ace album, it was all over.  That album still blows my mind.  It was ten times than ANY Kiss album, thereby setting in cement our belief that Ace was the main reason Kiss was cool.  Let Gene and Paul primp and pose, Ace was the ramshackle Richards that EVERY great band has had post-Beatles.

Come on man, you sing about rocking and rolling all night and partying every day and then you go and kick out the two guys who are actually doing it.  You think if Micheal Jordan had been a heroin junkie, the Bulls would have EVER thought "let's get rid of him."  THEY SAW THE PEOPLE IN THE SEATS.

Gene, I hate to be the one to break it to you, but without Ace and Peter, there would be no Kiss, which means what you've been doing ever since is not Kiss.  There is only one Kiss.

My apologies to Bruce Kulick, who seems like a nice enough guy.

As for Paul's Stanley's ridiculous remarks about Ace blowing his potential, again, why are you guys busting the balls of the one guy who most embodied what it meant to be a rock star?  I would say Ace reached his full potential, or did anyone else sell more posters in the '70s?  See where I'm going with this?

You only get inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame once and, believe me, your current decision is not sitting well with the fans who put you on top not once, but twice.  You can either thumb your nose at the very men who took a leap of faith with you back when you were a nobody or you can do the right thing and play with Ace and Peter.

To put it in terms Gene can comprehend, the future of the brand rests on it.  If you want people to keep on giving a shit about Kiss, then you play with Ace and Peter.  And if you don't, then you don't.