Worlds collide: when Questlove met Kiss in a hotel elevator
If you start to look through the photographic archives of people heavily involved in the entertainment business, you will see many crossing roads you wouldn’t ever expect. For instance, there is a photo of 2Pac with the cast of the live-action Scooby Doo, Snoop Dogg and Martha Stewart did a lighter advert together, and Luke Littler played darts with Milly Bobby Brown.
However, one of the musicians you shouldn’t be surprised by when you see them with other musicians, regardless of how far away the two seem in terms of music or style, is Questlove. The drummer who is famous for creating the band The Roots, who pioneered the sound of neo-soul and helped change the music industry exponentially, has also been crowned the king of yes, given how open he is to working with different people and going to various gigs and musical events.
He once famously did an album with Elvis Costello, someone who you wouldn’t immediately align with the neo-soul band but who ended up collaborating with them incredibly well. Their joint album, Wise Up Ghost, is an exciting piece of music showing both parties’ versatility. It came about because they were fans of each other’s work.
Questlove was also supposed to work on an album with Amy Winehouse, but she unfortunately passed away before the two could collaborate. “She Facetime-d me one last time from London. I told her, coincidence, I’m on my way there. The Roots had something to do in Switzerland; the second stop was London in three days. When I landed that morning, that’s when I learned that she passed.”
The drummer didn’t just start meeting many of his contemporaries when he started making music, though. Growing up with musician parents, he spent much of his early life on the road, bumping into other touring musicians and racking up a range of exciting stories before he had even picked up drumsticks.
This was when he met Kiss in a way that made him think people from his television were transported to the hotel hallway. “Going on the road, man, I loved it,” he said, “To be seven years old, three months after [the 1978 film] Kiss Meets The Phantom Of The Park comes out – I’m in a hotel watching Midnight Special, it’s 1:30 in the morning, and I tell my sister I’m thirsty.”
The drummer went out into the hallway to grab a drink, and once the elevator opened, he couldn’t quite believe his eyes, “The elevator doors open, and it’s them! Gene Simmons was still in make-up. They came straight from the gig, and they were staying on the same floor.”
The drummer later found out that it wasn’t much of a surprise that the band was staying in the same hotel as throughout the 1970s. Rock stars didn’t stay in the nicest hotels; it turns out that was more of an ‘80s thing. When Questlove initially went on the road, it was during a period when all musicians would stay in the hotel in the city closest to the airport. So, in a bid to get a quick getaway, the band left an imprint on Questlove that would last forever.
