KISS
What do country superstar Garth Brooks and the hard rock group from the Seventies KISS, have in common?
According to KISS founding member and lead vocalist / guitarist Paul Stanley, plenty. “Nobody should ever think that just because Garth Brooks is a good OLE boy,” Stanley said,” that he doesn’t know what’s going on. He’s not a rube. Garth’s entire stage show is based on what we were doing in KISS years ago.”
Stanley went to see Brook’s show a few years ago, when he first heard that Brooks was a big KISS fan. Brooks had been stating publicly during interviews that growing up in Oklahoma, he went to see KISS in concert and the circus-like spectacle left an big impression with him. So when Stanley caught one of Brook’s shows several years ago, he was amazed at the similarities between his show and Brook’s. “I went to see Garth and I smiled throughout most of the show,” Stanley said,” because it was a KISS show.
It was a KISS show with a guy with a cowboy hat on. Whether Garth was dividing the audience in half and trying to see which side could cheer louder, or he was swinging on a rope, it was me.
After Garth’s show, I went back to meet him and he said to me,’ Anything that you saw out there tonight that you liked, you were responsible for.’ It was a very heartfelt comment from Garth and I found it a much appreciated and gratifying comment from him. It’s very easy, when you become as successful as Garth has, to forget your influences or to deny them. Garth has done neither of the two. In this business, the people with the real goods and the real deal, are people like Garth.” Another area that Stanley says Brooks is using the same KISS strategy, is in the scheduling of his concert tours. “When we started out in the Seventies,” Stanley said,” we played cities that other rock bands would never touch. We would go into middle America and play places where most bands thought they were too big to go into.
Now, all those bands want to go there and gain a fan base while, we’ve still got our fans there. So it makes for a really great tour for us. Garth is doing that same thing today.” With the current KISS “Psycho Circus” concert tour and “Psycho Circus” album, the rock group has launched their own world-wide media blitz behind the projects. While the original members of KISS, Gene Simmons(bass/vocals),Paul Stanley(guitar) Ace Frehley(guitar) and drummer Peter Criss, have always marketed KISS related products and memorabilia with all the clout and savvy that only the best Wall Street advertising firms could buy, the current KISS promotional campaign is the biggest one they’ve undertaken in years. Along with the album and tour, a KISS, “Psycho Circus” comic book is in the works and a limited edition KISS hot rod car that sells for $75,000 is available.
There’s new KISS toys, costumes, clothing and action figures and even KISS commemorative coin set. Yet, with all these areas that KISS is looking to exploit, the most ingenious is found in the world of Cyber Space on the Internet. While there is an official KISS web site that is accessible via downloading a program for their new CD, a search of the Internet through one of the online search engines, comes up with well over 240-plus web sites dedicated to KISS by their fans. “To tell you the truth,” Stanley said,” I just bought a computer two weeks ago (he laughs). However I have been browsing on the Web and some of the sites made by KISS fans are awesome. Not just because we’re in them. It’s amazing how well researched and laid out some of these sites are. The KISS Army (official KISS term for KISS Fan Club) has always been there for us.”