Why did Sylvain Sylvain of New York Dolls hate Kiss?
Sylvain Sylvain was one of the most colourful characters in rock music – and who could be surprised? He broke through as the rhythm guitarist in one of music’s most unrelenting rabble of hellraisers, the New York Dolls.
Often regarded as the musical and personal ballast to the band’s lead guitarist and creative piledriver, Johnny Thunders, this reading slightly diminishes what Sylvain brought to the group. He introduced his own style, characterised by musical ability, with a sense of balance and an approachable air that kept him relevant many years after the group first decided to call it a day in 1976.
Not only did he continue to survive – unlike many of the band’s original and classic members – but Sylvain continued making music. Concurrently, he cemented himself as one of the experts on the days when New York’s CBGB was the hottest club in the world.
Regaling fans with his stories of sex, drugs and everything else, Sylvain was everpresent in music discourse for much of the past 30 years. That’s exactly why his presence is very much missed following his death in 2021. Sylvain always brought a wicked form of humour to his insights.
Although he provided many hilarious takes in his time, one of the most mirthful came in 2018 when speaking to The Quietus. At one point in the chat, the interviewer noted that they had interviewed fellow New Yorkers, Kiss, a few years prior. He then relayed a quote from their slightly controversial bassist Gene Simmons. He claimed he and frontman Paul Stanley once went to see The Dolls in their heyday: “When they started playing, we turned to each other and said: ‘We’ll kill em.’ They could not play. Songs were alright, but they could not play guitars. Horrific.”
Seemingly unsurprised by Simmons’ comments, Sylvain proceeded to tear into the glam rockers in one of the most stinging accounts of his career. Not only did he comment that Kiss were “infantile”, but he also claimed that Simmons is another Donald Trump and a complete “schmuck”.
Sylvain responded: “OK, I’ll tell you another story. I went to see Kiss at the Palm Room of the Hotel Diplomat. Yeah, too much fire, too much stuff that’s sensational and not enough soul. Not enough real shit. It was OK. By the way, their songs were completely infantile.”
He continued: “And the make-up, unless you’re six years old, I can’t see you finding this sexy. So I’m on the floor there, and there’s a couple of ladies sitting in chairs next to me. But standing right there is the drummer, Peter Criss – and he starts talking to them. They’re his mom and his aunt or something. And one of them, I guess it’s his mom, starts going: ‘Why all the make-up? Why all the fire? I don’t like it, Peter.’ And he goes: ‘Mom, it’s just like the Dolls.’ That answers back to Mr Simmons. He can deny it all; he’s another Trump, that schmuck.”
