KISS icon Gene Simmons will be happy to hear this news, as Foo Fighters guitarist Chris Shiflett has revealed that the first album he ever spent money on was a KISS record. A Foo Fighters member was stunned earlier this year by a big name snub at the Chris Cornell tribute show.
Shiflett told Rock Cellar Magazine, “Double Platinum by KISS. That was the first one where I took my seven dollars down to the record store and used it to buy an album. I wasn’t that young at that point. For a long time I didn’t have to buy any records, because I had access to my brothers’ records. I was ten or eleven years old before I actually started buying my own records.”
Shiflett said he preferred “Strutter ‘78” to the original when asked.
Rock Cellar then chimed in, “There’s a cool vibe to “Strutter,” it has a little bit of a disco cocaine vibe.”
Shiflett responded, “(Laughs) Oh yeah … Totally. I think they added a shaker to [‘Strutter’]. I don’t think it’s a four on the floor groove and also the live version of ‘Strutter’ on KISS Alive! is great as well. Let’s not forget that.”
He also said, “Ace [Frehley] is my favorite guitar player of all time and is my primary influence. When I was a kid I was obsessed with KISS. I actually met Ace last year and had him on my podcast and got to ask him a million questions and it was great. I’m a massive, massive fan.”
Dave Grohl recently revealed who he wants to replace him someday in Foo Fighters. Shiflett had been busy with his solo career recently, while bandmate Taylor Hawkins has been playing shows with his band Chevy Metal while also making a new side project album.
Taylor Hawkins stopped by Los Angeles radio station 95.5 KLOS recently and was the recent guest host on of their shows. Here, Hawkins’ Chevy Metal bandmate Brent Woods, who served as co-host described what it was like getting guitar lessons. Alternative Nation reporter Mike Mazzarone transcribed Hawkins’ comments along with his Chevy Metal bandmates who served as co-hosts:
Hawkins: Brent, explain your history with the rock and roll industry.
Woods: What do you want me to explain?
Hawkins: You took guitar lessons from Randy Rhodes when you were a kid, which is amazing – anyone who is out there, all the fifty year olds who are out there listening to this radio station going: “Whoa he took lessons from Randy Rhoads, he must be good.”
[Woods mutters something inaudible]
Hawkins: Yeah, then you got signed, went on tour when you were seventeen,
Bandmate: You were only seventeen!
Hawkins: What was the name of that band, what was the name of that band?
Woods: It was a band called Wildside on Capitol Records.
Hawkins: No, no before that, Bang Bang.
Woods: Yeah but I didn’t tour with that band.
Hawkins: I thought you did? You said you played a show up in –
Woods: Yeah, we played shows but I didn’t tour with them.
Hawkins: Well you went up to Berkeley or Portland.
Woods: Portland.
Hawkins: That’s a tour! I would consider that [a tour], you went into a car and went somewhere to play music. That’s touring.
A Pearl Jam and Foo Fighters supergroup featuring Hawkins performed a major show last month, with video of the full performance surfacing.
