Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons were on The Howard Stern Show yesterday, and they talked about how they came up with their name.
Before they went by Kiss, they were known as Wicked Lester. And they were also considering going by FUCK. Simmons explained why “The first record could be ‘It.’ The second one could be ‘You.’ But it wasn’t serious.” I would’ve taken them totally seriously if they did that for all 20 of their studio albums. Could you imagine ‘Off,’ ‘That Noise,’ ‘Up,’ and ‘Like Rabbits?’
So how did they come up with the name? Stanley said they were driving in the car, and it just came to him. Kiss is a universal word that everyone knows what it is when they hear it. Plus, it has so many different meanings, like kiss of death and kiss of passion.
And finally, does KISS stand for anything like Knights in Satan’s Service? Stanley said, “We’re smart. But we are not that smart.”
I think they are smart because they have been around for 50 years, and they are still going strong. Even if they are retiring from the road this year. Seriously, their feet have to hurt after wearing platform shoes for half a century, so they earned their retirement from touring.
