Thursday, August 23, 2012

KISS on Their Meager Beginnings, New 'Monster' Book and Future - Exclusive

By Chris Epling/Noisecreep


Kevin Winter, Getty Images

Just one band could pull this off – the biggest book in the land, KISS! The KISS Monster Book, that is.

This new large-size (three feet long by two-and-a-half-feet wide) limited edition collection features 40-years of KISS with an intimate collection of 127 photographs by world-renowned rock photographers, including rare and never-before-seen images sourced from the band's own archives.

The massive book is a collector's goldmine, with just 1,000 copies available and individually signed, dated and numbered by the four members of the current lineup. Printed in high-definition links by one of the world's finest limited-edition and large format printers, each copy has been hand stitched-and-bound in Italy, by the same binder used by The Vatican.

As vocalist/guitarist Paul Stanley joked recently, "This book is way beyond my expectations. The photos are incredible at this size. It's not a coffee table book, it's a coffee table!"

So big that all four band members appeared at the Viper Room in Los Angeles this week (Aug. 21) while on break from their wildly popular trek across America to unveil the massive tome. KISS took some questions from the stage, discussed the making of the book, and their commitment to the Wounded Warriors organization among other things.

After the press conference, Noisecreep had the rare opportunity of sitting down exclusively in a room with all four members – Stanley, bassist/vocalist Gene Simmons, guitarist Tommy Thayer and drummer Eric Singer - to talk at length about the book, the band and the legend that remains one of the most successful, inventive and hard-working bands in history. Together in a small dark room, as they are onstage, this is a band of brothers.

What sorts of memories were triggered in putting this package together? What did it take you back to?

Paul: We originally did the band because we loved doing it – that's it. Through all the trials and tribulations of playing in empty clubs or whatever, you always have to think, or at least we did – this will be a great memory someday. You don't see the negative side – you look at it in wonderment. It's just a part of the journey. That said, we were on a crusade from the beginning and we weren't going to quit until everybody fell beneath our boots.

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