Gene Simmons | The Magnificent Others with Billy Corgan

The Magnificent Others with Billy Corgan

Billy Corgan

Music, Arts, Performing Arts

4.6 • 731 Ratings

🗓️ 5 February 2025

⏱️ 84 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Billy Corgan sits down with the one and only Gene Simmons to probe beyond the kabuki makeup and monster riffs that made KISS a household name. From celebrating Gene’s triumphant final shows at Madison Square Garden to dissecting the band’s forays into disco and beyond, Gene opens up about his earliest days hustling in rat-infested lofts, his eye for shameless self-promotion, and the emotional weight of saying goodbye to a stage persona that defined millions of childhoods—including Billy’s. Meanwhile, Billy holds Gene’s feet to the fire on everything from KISS’s critical underestimation to the creative interplay that kept Gene and Paul Stanley’s partnership alive for half a century. Watch The Magnificent Others on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@BillyCorganTMO Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Now I have this memory, because I was a kiss fan. I had the kiss poster on my wall before I even heard a note of kiss.
0:05.4	I'm so sorry. Ultimately, invariably, and other big words like gymnasium, living well is the best revenge.
0:12.6	It's the, uh, we've gotten plenty of revenge. They're jumping up and down like biblical locusts going,
0:18.8	do, do, do, do, do, know it makes no sense whatsoever and you think oh boy
0:23.8	but at the time they're going to hate but at the time the heavy metal fans were not having it
0:27.4	they were not happy they hated it i know so as soon as you start to bend over for the soap yeah
0:32.8	it's not long before you become somebody's did i make any sense sense there? Sure, but I prefer to make dollars.
0:39.5	Oh, that's another one.
0:43.3	It's actually too small to introduce you as the man who needs no introduction.
0:49.1	You're bigger than that.
0:50.4	Oh.
0:51.0	You're bigger than that.
0:51.7	Thank you.
0:53.7	Let's start here. How about Dodger Stadium when I saw you
0:57.3	backstage? Oh, that's a card. That's, that's, that's, that's, that's a card three. You're jumping ahead of my
1:02.4	narrative. I'm so sorry. I don't mind. If you want to interview me, I'm more than happy to do that.
1:07.0	Sure, how much?
1:11.6	Ten grand?
1:13.1	One hour?
1:20.2	You'll fly to somebody's house with a box set for 50?
1:21.4	Well, that's changed.
1:22.6	Is it gone up?
	...

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