Bruce Kulick has talked about leaving Kiss and why he wasn’t overly upset when he didn’t get a call to join the band again in the early 2000s.
Kiss has brought on a number of electric guitar greats over the years, including Mark St. John, Thayer, and Vinnie Vincent, whose contentious guitar solos infuriated Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley.
Another name on the list is Kulick’s, but his time with the band was especially noteworthy because he was a major contributor to Kiss’ no-makeup phase and remained when the group started experimenting with a gritty sound in the 1990s.
But Kulick’s contributions are sometimes overlooked, and he was not asked to participate in Kiss’s “End of the Road” farewell gigs. Kulick’s tenure in the band ended with the first Kiss reunion in the mid-1990s.
Additionally, it wasn’t the first time Kiss declined his invitation to return. Simmons and Stanley chose not to rehire Kulick after their initial reunion failed and instead hired Tommy Thayer as their guitarist.
Although he misses being in the band and would have liked to have played in the farewell gigs, Kulick says in the most recent edition of Guitar World that he isn’t really upset and wouldn’t have wanted to compromise on who he was as a member.
“I’ve made peace with not being included in Kiss’s End of the Road,” Kulick says. “That said, no, they never called me
He goes on, “I’ve always missed being in Kiss, but I wouldn’t want to be the Spaceman like Tommy if being in Kiss meant that.” And I would prefer to stay at home if I had to request to be present for the final performances. Ace has always treated me with kindness and respect, so I suppose that’s why.
Kulick never considered wearing the Spaceman makeup, and because he would have had to if he had returned, he isn’t particularly unhappy with the way things played out.
He clarifies, “I’m not disappointed they didn’t ask me to be in Kiss again.” “I would have needed to play the Spaceman in Kiss again, wouldn’t I? Had I done that, I would have negated my entire non-makeup era.
“Tommy Thayer did a fine job playing Ace’s riffs with some swagger. He did the Spaceman well, but I never wanted to.”
To read the full interview with Bruce Kulick, head over to Magazines Direct to pick up the latest issue of Guitar World