But, now, let the gloating begin. All the carcasses of critics writhing on the roadside, we have once again become too big to ignore. And that is because Kiss are like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Steven Spielberg, McDonald's hamburgers. We are what people love. Whereas what critics love are French movies with English subtitles and obscure indie-rock bands.
Revenge comes in the most wonderful way.
It was Kiss' world when the quartet was selling millions of records and celebrated as The Greatest Show on Earth, the band that inspired countless teenage boys to paper their walls with Kiss memorabilia, enlist in the Kiss Army fan club, and even form rock bands of their own with names like Nirvana, Anthrax, Pearl Jam, Nine Inch Nails and Van Halen. Simmons once dismissed talk of a '70s flashback. We'll bring them back when we're in star-studded wheelchairs. Now, six years later, in the summer in which every rock band of the '70s from Styx to the Sex Pistols seems to be letting bygones be bygones and getting back together to rifle through some Baby Boomer wallets and purses, the biggest reunion of them all just may be the one between the original members of Kiss and their makeup kits. I'm too filthy rich to do it for money.