'10 1111;c1r
Homage to KISS
you do anything you ever wanted
If there's any doubt that Detroit
-- anything, no limits," he says.
Rock City is the work of a fan, that's
"While the rest of the world is
dashed by director Adam Rifkin,
counting the dust particles landing
who describes his awe at meeting
on some old church, America is
Gene Simmons of KISS, one of the
walking on other planets.
film's producers.
"My entranceway into Americana
"I had lunch with Gene
wasn't through school," Simmons
Simmons," he says, "which was a
continues. "It was through movies.
mind blower — to be at a deli with
"It's a quick way," he explains,
the God of Thunder, ordering lox,
"to
pick up the essence of the
eggs and onions, you know? But
American soul, and I swallowed it
he's the greatest guy. He a fanatica l
hook, line and sinker. I remember
movie buff, which a lot of people
everything I saw as a kid."
don't know."
The enterprising entertainer was
Detroit Rock City is a high-energy
working on another project — "a
love letter to KISS fanaticism circa
big special effects laden movie with
1978, the year the director was 11
KISS as superheroes" -- when he
years old. At the time, his mother
received the script for Detroit Rock
wouldn't let him attend a KISS con-
cert because she
believed the group
in a word —
was
dangerous.
But Rifkin has
maintained affection
for the loud and out-
rageous band for 20-
odd years, a fan
longevity that doesn't
surprise Gene
Simmons. On KISS's
recent sell-out tours,
"when you look out
over the audience,"
he explains, "it's
KISS: From left to right, Gene Simmons, Ace Frehley,
ladies and gentlemen Paul Stanley and Peter Criss. "I loved the script immedi-
and children of all
ately," says Simmons, who became a producer on the
ages.
film. "It was hilarious, it was hearelt, but most of all,
Today, KISS
it was about the fans. And that was important to us,
enjoys a cross-genera- because KISS has always been about the fans."
tional appeal and a
pop culture niche
City (the title refers to a song the
not just as a commercially viable
band wrote as a tribute to its loyal
band but as a brand-name entity
fan base here).
complete with its own Visa card.
He thought it was a very clever
These contradictions are evident in
little piece about four KISS fans,
Gene Simmons himself, who
and it's kind of like the Wizard of
appears for interviews in Los
Oz in a sense, he notes.
Angeles not in his trademark
That movie is not really about
onstage regalia — and doesn't once
the wizard, he says but about people
flash that famous tongue — but in
who discover themselves while pur-
a dark, stylish suit that makes him
suing an elusive goal.
look every bit the savvy business-
"So Detroit Rock City," Simmons
man he is.
concludes,
is about four characters
Born Chaim Witz in Haifa,
on
the
yellow
brick road off to see
Israel, in 1949 to Hungarian Jewish
KISS
in
Detroit."
parents, he arrived in the United
Take it from a God of Thunder
States at the age of 9. In his new
who doubles as the man behind the
country, Simmons saw not just the
opportunity to reinvent himself, but curtain.
to dream really big.
— Serena Donadoni
"For me, only in America can
4.,
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1999
Detroit Jewish News
87