Does Gene Simmons have a vault of buried songs?
Last month, a listing went up on Gene Simmons’ website offering one rich and gullible fan the opportunity to be the Kiss singer and bassist’s roadie and personal assistant for a day on his upcoming solo tour.
Anyone who wanted to take Simmons up on the offer would have to fork over a hefty $12,500 for the luxury. Also included in the princely-priced package was a private meal with the singer, a backstage pass, a front row seat to that night’s soundcheck, a signed bass guitar, and an invitation onto the stage at some point during the show.
Plenty has been made in the press since the advert was posted, but Simmons moved quickly to defend the scheme and its pricetag in a recent conversation with The New York Post, saying: “When I was a kid and went to see shows, I was always curious, ‘What’s it like when they’re in a hotel? What’s it like when the stage is set up? What’s it like being onstage when they’re performing and seeing the audience from the stage?’ I decided, You know what, nobody’s ever done it. Why not open the idea to be my personal roadie for the day?”
Unfortunately for anyone crazy or rich enough to try and find out just what the 75-year-old Simmons gets up to at a hotel before a show, or how long it takes to set up his stage (or, as Simmons put it when selling the idea, “you can set up amplifiers and drums to your heart’s content”), the majority of his tour has now been postponed into next year.
It’s not the first time the legendary Kiss bassist has tried to reach into the deep pockets of his fans. Back in 2017, he released the Gene Simmons Vault, featuring 151 songs across 10 CDs, all housed inside a special-edition box set in the shape of a safe, along with a book, a medallion, and, best of all, a Gene Simmons action figure.
While similar box sets have become the domain of the ageing rock star, as labels and publishers try to extend the copyright of leftover material, outtakes and alternate versions swept up from the studio floor—and exploit the last remaining generation of fans willing to part with physical money for physical media—the Gene Simmons Vault had a unique selling point, each with its own unique price point.
Each copy of Gene Simmons Vault was to be hand-delivered by Gene Simmons himself. The standard Vault experience included a meeting at a predetermined location, alongside a group of fellow fans who had also purchased the box set and booked the event. Each fan would have paid a relatively modest $2,000. For a whopping $50,000, fans could purchase the Gene Simmons Home Experience, where the singer would personally deliver the set to their house.
For half the price of his home delivery service, or double what you’d pay to be Simmons’ PA for the day, fans could pick up the most appealing package of them all: the Producer Experience. For $25,000, purchasing fans were given exclusive studio time with Simmons, along with access to more unreleased recordings not included in the box set.
It’s a wonder there could or would be anything left over or not included on the Vault box, with the sprawling disc collecting seemingly every lost song and demo that Simmons made in his life, dating back to his earliest studio work in 1966 and running all the way through his time with Kiss, as well as featuring his unreleased duets with Alex and Eddie Van Halen from the 1970s and his failed attempt at a collaboration with Bob Dylan from 1992, but it seems there are even more songs sat on the shelf, waiting until the time (and the price) is right to see the light of day.
While some songs are only rumoured and others are known only as snapshots of lyrics, riffs, or even just titles, one thing is certain: if a recording ever surfaces of any of the remaining rumoured tracks – like ‘From Where You Belong’, ‘She’ll Do It Again’, ‘Red Nails’, ‘Got No Pity’, ‘Mr. Miracle’, ‘Kansas City Kitty’, ‘Seduction Of The Innocent’, ‘Back Where You Belong’ or ‘Dressed To Kill’ – Gene Simmons will waste no time getting them to our doors, for a fee.
