Louder Than Hell: The Definitive Oral History of Metal (10 page)

GENE SIMMONS:
At some point, I began to keep Polaroid snapshots of my liaisons to remember them. In a certain way, I loved every one of them. But when it was over, it was over. No fuss, no muss. No agony. To date, I have had over 4,600 liaisons. And I have to say that they were all wonderful, that they all enhanced my life.

BOB EZRIN:
The debauchery was part of the culture that surrounded KISS. The day that we arrived at the studio to make
Destroyer
, Gene went into the office where the receptionist was. She was cute. Within twenty minutes we lost him. We didn’t know where he was. And of course, he was in the bathroom with the receptionist. That set the tone for the whole project. There were many times when Gene wouldn’t be there and I’d know exactly where to find him. I wouldn’t know exactly who he was with, but I knew right
where
he was.

While Simmons embraced the opportunity to indulge in his sexual fantasies, he carefully avoided other rock-and-roll excesses; from the start, he believed alcohol and drugs were career-destroyers. In the cases of Frehley and Criss, he was right.

GENE SIMMONS:
The most important advice I could give to a band starting out is no booze and no drugs. I refuse to get high, except in a dentist’s chair. I never smoked. I have yet to be drunk. People don’t believe that. The inference is everybody gets high and drunk. Well, I don’t believe you’ve got to be shot by a gun to know that it hurts. “Oh, you’ve got to try everything once.” What moronic, spineless person ever said that? They’re cowards who don’t have the strength to live life by their own example.

ACE FREHLEY:
There were plenty of times when Paul and Gene got very nervous because I got really drunk the afternoon we had an evening gig. But they didn’t know that I had the ability to get loaded, sleep for two or three hours, and wake up ready to play. I used to scare the hell out of them by doing that—but I was always able to put on a great show.

PAUL STANLEY:
There is no place—in any quantity—for drugs in what I do or what we do. That’s not tolerated, not acceptable. It shows a complete lack of respect for the fans, the music, and yourself, and the people that are supposed to be your family and partners.

ACE FREHLEY:
[Drummer] Peter [Criss] and I were both party animals who came from similar backgrounds—we were street kids who grew up in gangs. There was a camaraderie between us right from the start, something neither of us could ever have with Paul and Gene, because they came from very different backgrounds.

PETER CRISS (KISS):
There was a lot of coke, and that was my problem. I used to [get coked up] and lock myself in a room with a chick or two—or four or five. It depended on what mood I was in.

ACE FREHLEY:
We all started out as friends, but it got to the point where we didn’t want to talk to each other. After a gig, we would each get in separate limos and go our own way. We started communicating with each other through our lawyers. I think a lot of [our problems] had to do with our success—the fame, the money and the pressure of the whole business. That kind of stuff changes people.

GENE SIMMONS:
Ace and Peter wanted me to babysit them, and I wasn’t willing to grow tits so they could suckle on them. In the beginning we had to rent our own trucks, place our own ads, put up our own posters, hump the equipment up and down the stairs, and those guys wouldn’t do any of that stuff. That always bothered the shit out of me.

PAUL STANLEY:
What bothered me is that once the band made it, did you give 100 percent to your fans? And when that was no longer true, whether or not you hump gear, the ultimate slap in the face is when you start taking your fans for granted or giving them below what you’re capable of or what they deserve.

GENE SIMMONS:
[Once Ace was wasted drunk, and he went into the bathroom and] wouldn’t answer the door, and all we heard inside the room was the sound of water running and music blasting. [We] broke the door down and found Ace soaking in a hot tub with the water running and his nose about a half inch from the surface. He was completely unconscious. If we hadn’t showed up when we did, he would have drowned. We took [him] out of the water and put him in bed, and he didn’t regain consciousness until the next day.

ACE FREHLEY:
No matter how fucked up any of us were—and we were all fucked up in some ways, and not just because of alcohol and drugs—there was a chemistry between us that [could] never be recaptured unless the four of us [were together].

GENE SIMMONS:
Talking about stability in KISS is like talking about freedom in prison. It’s all relative. Ace had a fascination with Nazi memorabilia, and in his drunken stupors he and his best friends would make videotapes of themselves dressed up as Nazis. Paul and I weren’t thrilled about that. But Ace laughed about how funny he was when he saw the tape. Peter, too, was drinking heavily and using drugs.

In some ways, AC/DC were peers of KISS. AC/DC’s music was minimal and straightforward. It was fun and often campy, and filled with lyrical wordplay. Both bands knew what they did well and delivered it album after album. AC/DC’s founders, guitarists Angus and Malcolm Young, were born in Glasgow, Scotland, and eventually moved with their family to Sydney, Australia, where they found a more vibrant music scene. They named themselves AC/DC after their sister Margaret spotted the electricity-related acronym for alternating current/direct current on her sewing machine. Angus experimented with different looks, including wearing a gorilla suit onstage, before his sister suggested he wear a schoolboy outfit. Margaret later explained she got the idea from Angus himself, who used to rush home from school and jam with his bandmates without changing out of his school uniform.

“The schoolboy thing has always given me the ability to stay young,” Angus says. “I put on the guitar and that school suit, and I get on that stage, and there’s just this sheer driving force.”

In 1974, at the recommendation of the Youngs’ brother George (who had played in the successful Australian pop group Easybeats), AC/DC fired vocalist Dave Evans and replaced him with Ronald Belford “Bon” Scott. A wild and expressive performer, Scott’s gritty presence and raspy, raunchy vocals put AC/DC on the map as one of Australia’s greatest blues-based rock exports.

ANGUS YOUNG (AC/DC):
Rock and roll has always had that blues element, and we’ve always dabbled in blues. I loved Keith Richards and the Stones, but Chuck Berry was the biggest for me. That’s how we always wanted to be. Even from the first album, we’ve done tracks like “She’s Got the Jack.” Stuff like “Dirty Deeds” and “Ride On”—they’ve got that blues smell about them.

DAVE EVANS (ex-AC/DC):
[Before Bon Scott joined], Malcolm and Angus would have the bare ideas [for a song] and sit down with George at the piano. The three of them would fit on the same piano stool because they are so tiny. George would take the material and get the best out of those ideas.

ANGUS YOUNG:
Even when Malcolm and myself were growing up, George showed us a lot of the basic stuff—helping with the songs and explaining studio techniques. When you’re a young kid, you don’t know the difference between a verse and a chorus, let alone a drum break or a middle eight. He helped with a lot of melody ideas and showed us how you can get the best out of the two guitars without having to resort to layered sounds. And [as a producer of the first four AC/DC records], he gave us that room to be who we wanted to be—not a hit producer’s idea of what he thought we should be. From his background, when he was in the Easybeats, he got to work with different legends of rock music, which was invaluable to him.

BRIAN JOHNSON (AC/DC, ex-Geordie):
I’d met Bon when he was with a different band, and he was supporting Geordie, the band I was in, and we got to know each other. He was the funniest man and we had a lovely time. But it was all too brief. It was “See ya, mate.” He wasn’t half as good as he was when he joined AC/DC. They brought something out in him, as they did with me. When they start playing they bring something out in ya that’s just inexplicable. I can sing with a charity band, good rock and rollers, all great players, and I’ll sing in tune and do me thing, but it just doesn’t sound the same. When I sit down with the boys in a rehearsal room, we say, “Let’s kick this one around,” and boom, this thing comes out that I really can’t explain, and I don’t want to, because I’m really happy the way it is. That’s the way it was with Bon, too.

ANGUS YOUNG:
When we finally got to [AC/DC’s first gig], Bon downed about two bottles of bourbon with dope, coke, speed, and says, “Right, I’m ready.” He got out there and this huge hurricane yell came out. The whole place went, “What the fuck is this?”

MALCOLM YOUNG (AC/DC):
We used to finish a gig at about two in the morning, then drive down to the studio. George and Harry [Vanda, of the Easybeats,] would have a couple of dozen cans in and a few bottles of Jack Daniel’s and we’d all have a party and rip it up. So it was the same loose feeling like we were onstage, still. The studio was just like an extension of the gig back then.

ANGUS YOUNG:
At first, when you’re young, a lot of temptation comes at you. Some people get attracted and figure, “Oh, there must be some gold there.” There’s that feeling of eternal youth going. That doesn’t work for me. I think what’s eternal is getting a good song. If you can span generations with that song, it becomes timeless.

BRIAN JOHNSON:
The one day we got blasted with Angus was when Malcolm’s daughter was born and he got a telephone call. Malcolm came down and said, “It’s a girl,” and that was the first time I saw Angus take a drink. He got a bottle of Jack Daniel’s and he went, “Aw fuckin’ great mate.” And he drank. And he was put on somebody’s shoulders and taken to bed. It was the first [and] last drink I ever saw him take, poor sod.

Most rockers didn’t stop with one drink. The seeming invincibility of youth brought with it the desire to push the limits and keep the good times rolling 24/7.

ROB HALFORD:
Drugs and alcohol are very insidious. They creep into your life and you find yourself doing more and more. It’s been there since day one, since rock and roll began. It’s like a trial by fire to get through those times of your life. Some of us don’t become addicts. Some of us become drug addicts and alcoholics, then clean ourselves up like I’ve been able to do. Then there are people that succumb and end up in the ground.

GLENN TIPTON:
We partied heavily and we performed heavily. The two went hand in hand all through the seventies and eighties. But the one thing we’ve always felt was important was to give a good performance. People pay to see you, so you have to give them value for their money. So we’ve never let partying affect our performance. Most of the drinking and partying went on after we left the stage.

ANGUS YOUNG:
In the early years, a lot of people thought I was a smack addict. I would lose myself onstage and they’d go, “This guy’s gotta be on dope.” But the truth is, I’ve never been a party animal.

OZZY OSBOURNE:
There are three things over the years that I have seen destroy more fucking great bands than anything on this planet: women, booze, and drugs. The thing is, you get blinded by the glitter. All of a sudden people start to notice you and you get a buzz. I used to have a cocaine habit of $1,000 a week. I was drinking four bottles of cognac a day. I was just killing myself. John Bonham was a really good friend of mine. He choked on his vomit. I was at a gig with Bon Scott a week before he died. And that didn’t change me. When you’re young you think that you’re never going to die.

TONY IOMMI:
The first time I ever tried cocaine, we were playing Madison Square Garden and I felt tired. One of the guys that worked for us said, “Well, just have a bit of this. It’ll perk you up and you’ll feel a bit better.” So I did, and that was
it
. I went onstage and thought, “Wow, this is great.” It started from there.

CHERYL RIXON (ex–
Penthouse
Pet):
You would go to these parties and there was cocaine everywhere—salad bowls full of it. Every time we went backstage everyone was doing blow. It was like an appetizer.

MICK WALL:
In permissive seventies society, cocaine would be like caviar. It would be considered such a delicacy, such a treat, such a marvelous thing to offer your guests. Also, it was expensive, so you’re this guy who has come from nothing and suddenly you’re being treated like royalty. Sabbath were scum from the council estates [housing projects], the ghettos. And now they’re in Hollywood making albums, playing the Hollywood Bowl, playing Madison Square Garden. “Cocaine? Fuck! You betcha!” It’s like saying, “Would you like to travel first class?” “I fucking
would
like to travel first class, actually. Thank you.” Of course, the trouble with cocaine is it does make you so high and so edgy. What’s the perfect complement to bring you down again? “Have some heroin.” And Black Sabbath got well into that. They were all into heroin for a while. It fucked Bill [Ward] up for years. But they weren’t unique. Zeppelin—Page and Bonham—were major junkies. Plant did it. Everybody sampled it.