The claws are coming out between two contemporaries. After comments made by Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler towards their leather-clad peers KISS, no punches are being held back from either party, now that KISS co-frontman Paul Stanley threw his 2 cents into the mix.
The drama all began during a recent interview with Tyler on a Tampa radio station. During said interview, Tyler described KISS as “comic book”, stating that “they’ve got a couple of hits, but they’re more, they’re comic book — you see them in their speckled faces.” He added, “It is different: a KISS lick, a Joe Perry lick — two different worlds, and sometimes depending on the time of day, get offended. I hear that and I go, ‘Yeah, that’s alright. Do they really mean it? And what’s this all about?’ And that’s why I think AEROSMITH has been around forever, we really do take ourselves seriously.”
Tyler continued to reveal that the beef between the two may be dated all the way to 1976 after a member of the KISS crew got into a knife fight with one of Aerosmith’s dudes, though did admit (via Blabbermouth) that “since then I’ve gotten to know Gene [Simmons] and Paul, and they’re beautiful people.”
Enter Paul Stanley.
Overnight, the rhythm guitarist and vocalist of KISS sat down for a chat on radio show Rockline with host Bob Coburn. Coburn primed Stanley to respond to the highly publicised remarks made by Tyler, to which Stanley responded “Maybe Steven’s feeling a bit full of himself because he has an album coming out,” continuing to paint a much different picture of the relationship between bands, recalling when both outfits co-headlined a tour in 2003.
“Steven insisted that they close the show. I really [didn’t] care because one way or the other you have to come up onstage. He had a chip on his shoulder back then. [He] was looking down his nose a bit at KISS. Seeing him come onstage to an underwhelmed audience and [seeing] people walking out [made me smile].”
Stanley went on to propose a much more logical solution to the problem. With both bands currently working on new material, the only way to end the beef is to compare the final result: “let the music do the talking”. He finished up the interview by adding, “Steven may have been overenthused and needs a reality check.”
This is great for Aussie fans of both bands, who are set to tour here in 2013, Aerosmith headlining one, and KISS co-headlining with Motley Crue. Surely they’ll be attempting to outdo eachother by putting on the best show possible, and all we have to do is watch.
The ball is now in Aerosmith’s court; let’s see what they have to say about Stanley’s comments shall we!
