Gene Simmons talks about Eddie and Alex demos

[Halenizer]

Gene Simmons of Kiss talks about the demos he did with Eddie and Alex during the Love Gun album sessions. He also mentioned seeing Eddie a month ago and he looked great. He mentioned some cool stuff about Van Halen. Go here to listen....

Part 2 of Gene Simmons interview
http://www.eddietrunk.com/interviews/

[Vinnie Velvet]

Unfortunatley, I can't play the interview from where I am.

Could you tell us what he said?

[Brett]

I listened to it, here's what I got from it.

Gene saw Ed he said about a month ago and Ed was doing well, "fighting it and looks like he's gonna be OK." He said everyone should say a prayer for Ed.

Then he talked about how he discovered VH, and recorded a demo with them. He kept saying they recorded everything on the first album, which to me is strange, since VH themselves has said they only did four songs with Gene, two we know for sure are "House Of Pain" and "Runnin' With The Devil." Gene exaggerating for sure, especially since neither "Jamie's Cryin'" nor "Aint't Talkin' 'Bout Love" were even demoed for WB. Neither was "Ice Cream Man" too. At least as far as we all know.

He said the idea for the slow-down car horns before RWTD was his idea, and as most of us boot owners know, served as the transition from HOP to RWTD on the Simmons' demo. He mentioned that.

He said VH was turned down by Kiss' label because their manager, Bill Aucoin said VH looked too much like Black Oak Arkansas. I've heard many times another reason was that Dave couldn't sing well enough, but he didn't mention that. Even Gene thought that was ludicrous and commented, "Who even knows who Black Oak Arkansas is..this is the next big band." Apparently he said he had a contract with VH, but after he went on tour with Kiss, VH signed with WB and he tore up the contract.

He said, Al and Ed recorded 3 tracks with him in late '77 (I thought he definitely said '77), sounds like maybe it was for his solo record. I can't remember the names of the songs, but they all have "Love" in the title. I'm no Kiss fan, so what do I know. He said the quality of the recordings is great, but that the record label won't allow them to be released. Not sure what label he was reffering to, Kiss' or WB.

That's basically it, but cool stuff.

This is a good topic for Main, moving there now.

[Halenizer]

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Vinnie Velvet:
Unfortunatley, I can't play the interview from where I am.

Could you tell us what he said?<hr></blockquote>


This is some of it......

He said that Eddie and Alex played on three demos with him (Tunnel of Love, Christine Sixteen and Got Love For Sale). They played as a trio. He said the quality was excellent. He said he tried to get them on the Kiss box set but WB refused. He hopes they will be on at a later release. He also talked about discovering them and recording a demo with them. The demo(gene said) contained all the songs on the first VH album and more. He talked about the horn effect at the beginning of "Running with the Devil" was his idea but, he used it during and at the end of "house of pain". He talked about slowing the tape speed down at the end (a trick gene learned from Kiss's first album)

He said VH almost signed away their life with a Yogart Manufacturing Co. and he talked them out of it.

He talked about trying to get them signed with Bill Aucoin but Bill refused. Bill Said they looked too much like Black Oak Arkansas. Gene said that Bill and the Casablanca was on crack. He said that WB finally picked VH up and he tore up his contract with VH as a favor. Gene wanted and knew VH was going to be big and didn't want to stand in their way.

Gene said he bumped into EVH about a month ago and said he looked good and was very corgile with him. When they asked gene about eddie's health, he said "Eddie was fine and we all need to say a pray for him but, he is fine and there is nothing to worry about".

This interview was recorded in early December before the release of Gene's book "Kiss and Make Up"