Larry Mazer, who is the former manager of Kiss recently recalled his time with the band during the “Hot in the Shade” and “Revenge” eras. He recounted a silly thing about Gene Simmons.
Larry Mazer oepns up on Gene Simmons
Mazer took up managing Kiss in 1989, when the band was experiencing an identity crisis of sorts. After years of pursuing a more mainstream, pop/glam sound, Kiss started seeing diminished ticket sales, as some of the band’s original fans felt alienated by this new direction.
As Mazer tells Stefan Adika during a recent interview on “Artists On Record Starring ADIKA Live!”, he traced the problem down to Gene Simmons focusing on numerous personal side-ventures instead of having his full attention on Kiss.
As a result, getting Gene “back” was the first step on the way to restoring the band’s original (hard) rock sound and getting the original Kiss fanbase reinvested with the band. Describing his first meeting with Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley, Mazer said:
“At the very first meeting, I focused mostly on Gene, and I said, ‘Look, you got to get back in the band.’ During that period, he had gone into movies. He was managing Liza Minnelli. He had Simmons Records. So I said, ‘Look, for me to do this – that’s got to stop.’ No more Simmons Records. No more Liza Minnelli.”
Mazer revealed how he had also asked Gene to keep his prodigious tongue in check, thinking that the sight of a 40-year-old, makeup-less Simmons putting his tongue on full display looked “silly”:
“And then for last, I said, ‘And you got to stop with the tongue.’ I said, ‘It’s one thing with makeup on, but without the makeup on, you look silly.’ And Paul and I, funnily enough had this little fine, we never did it, but we had this thing where we’re going to fine him $1 every time he stuck his tongue out.
“But yeah, that was another condition – enough with the tongue. I mean, when you’re wearing the demon makeup, okay, but now, you’re in your 40s. I mean, stop already with the tongue. But now the makeup’s back on, and tongue’s out all the time.”
