Kiss’s ever-outspoken bass-playing, blood-drinking ringleader Gene Simmons might define the band’s notorious 1974 tour with Black Sabbath as the making of “a lifelong memory,” but that doesn’t mean there wasn’t a fierce rivalry at play.
The English heavy metal band were five albums deep into their career at that point, still basking in the success of their 1973 LP, Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, as they continued their meteoric rise.
Conversely, Kiss were new kids on the block in the summer of ‘74, having dropped their self-titled debut album months earlier. They'd scored an opening slot with Sabbath for what Simmons recalls as "three or four shows." But while it may have been a David-versus-Goliath matchup on paper, that didn’t stop the makeup-clad glam rockers from putting up a fight.
“I've always loved and admired Black Sabbath, and can proudly say the early days of touring together will be a lifelong memory," Simmons tells Classic Rock.
“The Sabbath of 1974 had all the adrenaline of a new band in a strange land doing what they believe in. There was no question Sabbath was going to do things their way. Love them or hate them, this would be a band that would mark its own territory like an animal.”
Rather than wait, Simmons decided to lay into the group first. His victim? Black Sabbath bassist Geezer Butler. It happened at the Boston Theater, where the bands performed for some 12,000 fans.
“I was backstage fully made-up and ready to go out onstage with the band,” Simmons recalls. “Standing next to me was the great Geezer Butler. All five feet six inches of him! In my platform heels, I stood at about six feet nine inches tall.
“It's in my DNA — once the war paint was on, I became the Demon. And Geezer didn't quite know what to make of me.”
Simmons knew this was his chance to leave a mark on the headline act.
“As he stood next to me, he looked me up and down,” Simmons adds. “I looked down at him. I glared at him and stuck out my tongue, lowered my head so we were face-to-face with each other, and I said, ‘Aaahhhh!’
“Many years later, Ozzy either told me or I read it someplace — Geezer had come back and told him he felt threatened by the bass player in the opening act. He didn't think that was a good sign.
“And he was right,” he adds. “Our intention was to go out onstage and destroy all living things. We did.”
Ozzy would later tell Kerrang! that following the band each night was “frightening,” which would have been music to the Demon’s ears.
Indeed, Simmons may have felt Kiss won the first battle in Boston, but the war was far from over and the two bands would soon lock horns once more
“At the next show in Rochester, New York, our road manager was told that we would have to go on immediately,” Simmons says. “The problem was that the Sabbath amplifier line was too close to the edge of the stage, so we did not even have enough room to go by each other to get to the other side.
“What followed was a staring contest. We would not go on until the Sabbath amplifier line was pulled back.”
It seems Kiss claimed another victory. Says Simmons, “It was pulled back.”
Despite his obvious gloating, Simmons says his recollections come with "a great deal of admiration, respect and love for one of the few bands who forged the way for countless others to follow.
“I will never forget the first time I ever heard the name Black Sabbath. It was an advertisement for their first album. It appeared in Rolling Stone. It said: 'Black Sabbath — louder than Led Zeppelin!' Louder and prouder, indeed.”
In related news, former Kiss guitarist Ace Frehley has admitted to stealing a Robby Krieger guitar solo for a classic Kiss song and recalled the electrifying onstage incident that should have left him for dead.
Frehley has also opened up on how the band's “weird chemistry” was a recipe for success, which Simmons has likened to George Lucas' Star Wars franchise, believing “We created a culture with Kiss.”
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