Gene Simmons recalls incredible story about Kiss Army

One of the biggest fan clubs in the world, the Kiss Army played a crucial role in helping Kiss achieve fame in the early days. The band’s co-founder, bassist, and singer Gene Simmons recalled in an interview with Q104 New York the origin of the name and how that club was born.

Gene Simmons recalls incredible story about Kiss Army

“There was a guy in Terre Haute, Indiana, as a matter of fact. And in the early days, radio didn’t play Kiss because we didn’t do John Denver kind of namby-pamby stuff. Okay, John Denver fans don’t write for me. I like him too, he’s fine. We just didn’t do the ‘la de dah’ kinds of songs. We liked to turn the guitars up and have fun, and radio wouldn’t play us. So this one guy, Starkey, his name was not Ringo, called the radio station, which was a small building outside of town, ‘Play, Kiss!’ ‘I’m sorry, kid, we don’t play that song.’ And he threatened him. He said, ‘If you don’t play Kiss by 5 pm tomorrow, the Kiss Army will surround your building’ and everything.”

“Of course, they did not (play). So what happened? The cover of the newspaper, ‘The Kiss Army Invades WXYZ (WVTS), whatever.’ That’s where the name came from. And by the way, afterwards, they played Kiss. Because they knew that we knew what their home address was, and when they weren’t home, we might set their pets on fire. There’s that. That was a decent joke, you could have laughed at that,” he said (Transcribed by Ultimate Guitar).

After that episode, in 1975, the Kiss Army fan club was officially founded, and through a paid membership, fans could purchase shirts, posters, books, and other band merchandise.

Curiously, Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley will play at the “Kiss Army Storms Vegas”, which is a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the fanclub.