KISS singer/bassist Gene Simmons was a guest on a recent episode of media mogul Andy Cohen’s SiriusXM program, Radio Andy. Simmons talks about President Donald Trump in the video below.
Photographer Lynn Goldsmith, along with Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley, will publish KISS: 1977 – 1980, a 336-page hardback coffee table book, through Rizzoli Publishing on October 10. The following is the official description and cover art:
The Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, The Police, Talking Heads, Frank Zappa, Bob Dylan, and Patti Smith are just a few of the notable rock musicians and bands that award-winning photographer Lynn Goldsmith has captured on camera. It’s likely that you have seen many of his iconic images. KISS: 1977–1980, which was published with the band, is the definitive photographic record of KISS during their most successful period. It features the band both on and off stage, in the photo studio, and in unguarded candid moments. Goldsmith has gathered fan favorites and numerous previously unreleased photos from her vault, all of which flawlessly represent the timeless phenomenon that is KISS.
With their lavish live performances that included fire-breathing, blood-spitting, flaming guitars, rockets, levitating drum kits, and pyrotechnic showpieces, KISS shot to fame. Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons, Peter Criss, and Ace Frehley used makeup and costumes to construct personas and origin stories that resembled the Starchild, the Demon, the Space Ace, and the Catman from comic books. When all was said and done, it was dynamic performance art that is still being performed today, not just a rock concert in a stadium!
Since many members of the KISS Army have been fans for almost 40 years and have introduced their kids and grandkids to the band’s music and live performances, Goldsmith, Stanley, and Simmons wrote this book as a thank you to the band. The finished product could be compared to a sort of bible, containing the treasures that its supporters treasure, and has a plain matte white laminated cushioned cover with gilding around the edges and highlighting the KISS emblem.