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Artist News Awards
Kiss call off Hall Of Fame performance to overcome ex-member tensions
By Chris Cooke | Published on Monday 24 February 2014
Kiss have announced that they won’t play at their induction into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame later this year, after some potential squabbling over what version of the band’s line-up should take to the stage.
The current incarnation of the band, which includes founder members Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons, issued a statement about the upcoming Hall Of Fame event after fellow founder member Ace Frehley, originally with the band until 1982, and again between 1996 and 2002, expressed disappointment in a radio interview that the current plan was for the current members of Kiss, rather than the original line-up, to play at the awards event.
Frehley told New York’s Q104.3 FM: “I don’t think Kiss fans are gonna be too excited and happy about the news, cause at this juncture Paul and Gene have decided to perform with [current Kiss members] Tommy [Thayer] and Eric [Singer], and it looks like the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame is going along with it”.
He went on: “The last time I was on [this radio show], it was a very exciting and happy call. And the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame was very excited about having the four original members who are being inducted to perform at the ceremony. And that was shot down by Paul and Gene”.
But in a statement on the band’s official site, Stanley and Simmons insisted they hadn’t explicitly refused to play with any of their former bandmates at the Hall Of Fame show, but that given the growing tensions they’d decided it would be easier to just not play at all.
In their statement, the current Kiss set up wrote: “Our intention [at the Hall Of Fame show] was to celebrate the entire history of Kiss and give credit to all members including long time present members Tommy Thayer and Eric Singer, and additionally Bruce Kulick and Eric Carr, all who have made this band what it is, regardless of the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame’s point of view”
“Although Kiss has moved forward far longer without them, Ace and Peter are at the very foundation of what we have built and this would all be impossible had they not been a part of it in the beginning. It is over thirteen years since the original line-up has played together in make-up and we believe the memory of those times would not be enhanced [by a reunion at the Hall Of Fame. But] contrary to claims made through the media we have never refused to play with Ace and Peter”.
The concluded: “This is understandably an emotional situation where there is no way to please everyone. To bring this to a quick end, we have decided not to play in any line-up and we will focus our attention on celebrating our induction into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. We are excited and are looking forward to seeing you all on the Kiss 40th Anniversary worldwide tour”.
Nirvana, Peter Gabriel, Hall And Oates, Cat Stevens and Linda Ronstadt are all due to be inducted into the US industry’s Hall Of Fame on 10 Apr alongside Kiss.
