KISS - the bastard child of the recording industry

Reporter: KISS has always been the bastard child of the recording industry — able to sell out arenas and produce hit records on the strength of a sound and a look (black-and-white face paint, tongues fully extended as often as possible), but far from the sort of acclaim that its contemporaries enjoyed.
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Paul Stanley: Our audience is young and vibrant; we retain our previous following; we are three generations into it. Unlike other bands that are very demographically specific, who they appeal to and who their fans are, we’re the antithesis of that.
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Paul Stanley: Music critics are, for the most part, bitter people who are intent at dragging people down for being successful at what they want to do, which is probably music.
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Reporter: What do you make of the contemporary music scene?
Gene Simmons: The only star in the past 20 years is Lady Gaga. Everyone else is a pop singer. Name 100 iconic, legendary stars from 1958 to 1983. There are so many. Now do the same from 1983 to today — you can’t name one.
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Reporter: Given your yen for extending your tongue, what do you make of the sexualized critique of Miley Cyrus?
Gene Simmons: She’s being treated unfairly — Madonna, Rihanna and the single-named girls with the A’s in their names — uh, Shakira — if they can do the same stuff, why isn’t anyone picking on them? Justice for all. If the rest of the girls can kiss each other, why can’t she do what she wants?

(Quoted from Salon, reporter: Daniel D'Addario)
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