Thursday, March 17, 2005
Tom Snyder's Greatest Hour
Let's all take a trip now. Back to October 31, 1979. Late-night TV host Tom Snyder's "Tomorrow" show, in honor of Halloween, featured Snyder interviewing KISS.
A very brief history lesson is in order, first. At this point in their career, the band was just starting to come down from the heights of their popularity in 1977-78. Drummer Peter Criss was really strung out (he left the band soon after this appearance), and had not even played on the most recent album, "Dynasty." Guitarist Ace Frehley had issues with alcohol and was also becoming disillusioned with being a part of KISS (he would leave the band soon after Criss). Despite the internal struggles threatening to tear the band apart, leaders Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley tried desperately to hold things together. Which brought KISS to Tom Snyder's "Tomorrow" show on that fateful Halloween night to plug the latest album and tour, and generally discuss their career.
Gene and Paul had always traditionally handled most of the band's press and interviews, and were probably intending to do so this evening, while Peter and Ace sat silently by their sides, maybe saying a few words here and there (Snyder even mentions early on that he had been told that Ace would most likely be extremely quiet and the most difficult to get anything out of).
One unforeseen problem, though, changed EVERYTHING and made this possibly the funniest hour of TV EVER: Ace showed up COMPLETELY HAMMERED. He was blitzed out of his mind. Here are Gene and Paul trying to conduct a civilized interview with a respected journalist on network television, and their guitar player is totally wasted. The fun begins.
It all starts innocently enough, as Snyder introduces the band, although he calls Gene the bass player, pronouncing it like the fish instead of the instrument, and everybody chuckles. Upon first glance, Peter looks completely sedated and out of it, although he does start to come alive a little later. The first hint that something is up comes almost immediately: playing off of Snyder's bass snafu, after being introduced as the lead guitar player, Ace jumps in, proclaiming, "I'm not the lead guitarist, I'm the trout player!" And he starts cackling. Loudly. The interview begins, but within 2 minutes Gene and Paul are clearly agitated because every time they start to answer Snyder's questions, Ace (and to a lesser degree, Peter) interjects, mostly just to continue his cackling. Despite the trademark make-up, you can clearly tell that Gene and Paul are NOT amused. Which makes everything even funnier. As Paul is answering a question about what it is like to be onstage with all the kids screaming and crying, Ace jumps in with "Crying because they spent all that money!" And more loud cackling (I keep calling it cackling, because, well, you just have to hear it. "Laughing" just doesn't do it justice). This joke in particular gets Ace rolling, and Gene can be seen VERY clearly giving Ace the evil eye. Upon discussion of how the band got together, Gene begins recounting how he used to live in Queens, not far from Paul's house, and he would see Paul around. Ace: "Gene's into telescopes!" Gene, for the first of several times, looks over his shoulder and cries "Mom!" which is an indirect way of calling for the band's management to do something to control Ace. Thank goodness for us, no such help was forthcoming. Things continue, and Ace is trying to answer Tom's question about their costumes:
Tom: "But you're kind of like a spaceman."
Ace: "No, actually, I'm a plumber!" (cacklecacklecackle)
Tom: "Well listen, I have a little piece of pipe backstage I'd like to have you work on."
Ace (eyes widening with glee): "Tell me about it!"
At this point Ace is laughing so hard he almost falls out of his chair. Tom recognizes that Gene is not happy with Ace's antics, and as Ace gets progressively out of hand, he pleads with Gene several times over the rest of the interview to get Ace under control. It's not clear what the hell Snyder expected Gene to do to curb Ace, just as it's not clear what Gene expected when he made his pleas to management earlier.
This has been a VERY truncated synopsis of the show; It really has to be seen in its entirety to be truly appreciated. Ace's incessant cackling, in particular, has to be heard, as mere words can not do it justice. Suffice it to say that one need not be a fan of the band to appreciate and enjoy the comedy value contained in this program, and it holds a valued place on my shelf to this day.
A very brief history lesson is in order, first. At this point in their career, the band was just starting to come down from the heights of their popularity in 1977-78. Drummer Peter Criss was really strung out (he left the band soon after this appearance), and had not even played on the most recent album, "Dynasty." Guitarist Ace Frehley had issues with alcohol and was also becoming disillusioned with being a part of KISS (he would leave the band soon after Criss). Despite the internal struggles threatening to tear the band apart, leaders Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley tried desperately to hold things together. Which brought KISS to Tom Snyder's "Tomorrow" show on that fateful Halloween night to plug the latest album and tour, and generally discuss their career.
Gene and Paul had always traditionally handled most of the band's press and interviews, and were probably intending to do so this evening, while Peter and Ace sat silently by their sides, maybe saying a few words here and there (Snyder even mentions early on that he had been told that Ace would most likely be extremely quiet and the most difficult to get anything out of).
One unforeseen problem, though, changed EVERYTHING and made this possibly the funniest hour of TV EVER: Ace showed up COMPLETELY HAMMERED. He was blitzed out of his mind. Here are Gene and Paul trying to conduct a civilized interview with a respected journalist on network television, and their guitar player is totally wasted. The fun begins.
It all starts innocently enough, as Snyder introduces the band, although he calls Gene the bass player, pronouncing it like the fish instead of the instrument, and everybody chuckles. Upon first glance, Peter looks completely sedated and out of it, although he does start to come alive a little later. The first hint that something is up comes almost immediately: playing off of Snyder's bass snafu, after being introduced as the lead guitar player, Ace jumps in, proclaiming, "I'm not the lead guitarist, I'm the trout player!" And he starts cackling. Loudly. The interview begins, but within 2 minutes Gene and Paul are clearly agitated because every time they start to answer Snyder's questions, Ace (and to a lesser degree, Peter) interjects, mostly just to continue his cackling. Despite the trademark make-up, you can clearly tell that Gene and Paul are NOT amused. Which makes everything even funnier. As Paul is answering a question about what it is like to be onstage with all the kids screaming and crying, Ace jumps in with "Crying because they spent all that money!" And more loud cackling (I keep calling it cackling, because, well, you just have to hear it. "Laughing" just doesn't do it justice). This joke in particular gets Ace rolling, and Gene can be seen VERY clearly giving Ace the evil eye. Upon discussion of how the band got together, Gene begins recounting how he used to live in Queens, not far from Paul's house, and he would see Paul around. Ace: "Gene's into telescopes!
Tom: "But you're kind of like a spaceman."
Ace: "No, actually, I'm a plumber!" (cacklecacklecackle)
Tom: "Well listen, I have a little piece of pipe backstage I'd like to have you work on."
Ace (eyes widening with glee): "Tell me about it!"
At this point Ace is laughing so hard he almost falls out of his chair. Tom recognizes that Gene is not happy with Ace's antics, and as Ace gets progressively out of hand, he pleads with Gene several times over the rest of the interview to get Ace under control. It's not clear what the hell Snyder expected Gene to do to curb Ace, just as it's not clear what Gene expected when he made his pleas to management earlier.
This has been a VERY truncated synopsis of the show; It really has to be seen in its entirety to be truly appreciated. Ace's incessant cackling, in particular, has to be heard, as mere words can not do it justice. Suffice it to say that one need not be a fan of the band to appreciate and enjoy the comedy value contained in this program, and it holds a valued place on my shelf to this day.
