‘It’s a Shame It Was Killed’

Bruce Kulick says he understood why Kiss leaders Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons decided to stage an original lineup reunion, complete with makeup, in the ‘90s – but it took him a while to accept it.

And the guitarist pushed back against the pair’s dismissal of the work done during his twelve-year stint that started in 1984, arguing it compared favorably to the group’s best output.

His termination as a band member came in December 1996, after Ace Frehley and Peter Criss had successfully taken part in that year’s reunion tour. By that point, Kulick had been retained with full pay for a year.

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“Paul and Gene did the right thing by keeping us on salary for a year, but they had to do that because they could go back if the reunion blew up,” he told Guitar World in a new interview. “But once success came, and Ace and Peter did their jobs, the writing was on the wall.”

He continued: “I’ve always looked at it as I was never fired from Kiss; I was left behind for a wildly successful commercial venture. You don’t have to be an accountant to understand Paul and Gene. What Kiss would make with Eric [Singer] and me was like five million, but with Ace and Peter, we’re talking about netting 50 million; that’s truly obscene.”

Responding to the suggestion that the lineup change had been made “at the expense of chemistry and musical integrity,” Kulick said: “True. All the cracks reopened. If you look at [1998 album] Psycho Circus, that was not a band album. It’s got Tommy Thayer on guitar, Kevin Valentine on drums, I’m playing some bass – and Ace and Peter are barely there. Sure, the four of them toured in support of it and did that ‘final tour,’ but the truth is that putting the makeup back on at the time was a purely commercial decision.”

He replied cautiously when asked if the return to makeup had “killed Kiss as a creative entity,” saying: “That’s tough to say because you’ve got people who like the music they did after the reunion… [D]id they turn their back on what was a very creative and solid band? Yes, they did. But it was for the popularity and massive success of a reunion tour, which I can understand.

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“Our version of Kiss had a lot of promise. We clicked, got along, and shone brightly. It’s a shame it was killed. I understand why it happened, but it took me time.”

Kulick went on: “In the ‘90s, musically speaking, we were as good as any Kiss era… I’ve heard Gene pick on [1993’s] Alive III… It’s like, ‘Dude, give me a break. We were killing it then.’ Here’s the truth… we could play the old shit right, and we played the new shit right. I’m not saying we had the magic of the original band, but don’t put that era down because you’re trying to sell the makeup.”

He added: “I also don’t buy Paul putting down some of that stuff. He was there. He sang his heart out. He worked hard on it. Is Paul entitled to his opinion? Of course. But to reduce an era to nothing? I don’t buy it.

“We persevered and would have made it out to the other side given a chance. It wasn’t grunge that killed that era; it was a reunion tour.”