This is the legendary interview with Tom Snyder from Oct 1979, in its full half hour of glory.There are shortened versions of this interview, but if you have the attention span, the full clip is the way to go, bc it clearly shows the dysfunction that led to the demise of the original line up.It was October of 1979 & their star was falling. Tom Snyder's "Tomorrow" show which aired after midnight, when viewers are scarce, bc that's all Kiss could book (in the U.S.). From the start It's clear that Tom's not a fan. His monologue before they come out is dry.
The crew has some laughs with at Kiss' expense. Gene refers to Kiss as a "kick ass rock and roll band". In response, the director inserts clips of "I Was Made for Loving You" & "Beth" as bumpers between commercial breaks. The cameraman pans down a couple times to zoom in on Gene's boot, which looks looks bad close up.
They all look ridiculous, fully dressed in Dynasty era costumes as they sit on a talk show couch, especially, Peter, with his green plumage. Which makes Peter's talk assertion that he wants to be a gangster hysterical.
Ace is hysterical throughout this interview, which is what I always remembered about it, but watching it now, in my 50's, I'm having fun watching everyone else, too.
Peter's need for attention is in full effect when Paul says that they played every gig like it was Madison Square garden, & Peter says something like "Hey, I said that. I want credit for that."
Paul is mostly reserved. He seems like he's uncomfortable, but does a good job with the questions.
Gene wants to control the conversation, buy he gets dunked on throughout the video. Snyder introduces him as the bass (pronounced like the fish) player, which Gene isn't happy about, & Ace says "I'm the trout player".
Everyone laughs except Gene who side eyes Ace, comtemplating Ace's murder.
Ace is high. Let's face it. So when he says "I don't do drugs", it really gets under Gene's skin.
Ace is having a lot of fun. The interview basically turns into Ace cracking Tom up & everyone else just along for the ride. And he laughs a lot!
Ace also seems to be over Kiss. When Paul says "the rest is Kisstory" Ace says "Everything is Kiss, Kisstory, Kissmas, Kiss everything".
So when you have a half hour, give it a watch. If you've seen it before, do you see it differently now? If you haven't seen it, this is the best "behind the stage" video bc it shows them how looked when Gene & Paul aren't controling the edit.
