Gene Simmons didn’t believe that Bob Dylan would agree to write a song with him – but to his surprise, all it took to make it happen was a couple of phone calls.
In a new interview with Michael Moynihan of The Moynihan Report, Kiss star Simmons discusses various aspects of his career, including his relationships with former bandmates Ace Frehley and Peter Criss and his approach to songwriting.
Asked to name the best song he ever wrote for Kiss – the one he is proudest of – Simmons gives an unexpected answer. He picks We Are One, a track from the band’s 1998 album Psycho Circus.
Released in the wake of a hugely successful reunion tour, Psycho Circus was the first Kiss album since 1979’s Dynasty to feature all four of the band’s founding members – Simmons (bass/vocals), Paul Stanley guitar/vocals), Frehley (lead guitar/vocals) and Criss (drums/vocals).
It was later revealed that Frehley and Criss had only minor roles in the recording of this album, with session musicians assisting Simmons and Stanley across the majority of tracks.
We Are One was composed by Simmons alone.
“It was gonna be the single,” he says, “but it had too many harmonies and the lyrics were non-Kiss: ‘Everywhere I go and everyone I see/My face looking back at me/We are one.’ Kind of a cornball lyric that I believe in.”
In the same interview, Simmons refers to a story told by Paul McCartney about the writing of The Beatles’ classic Yesterday. McCartney said that when he composed the melody to Yesterday it seemed so familiar to him that he initially believed it was from somebody else’s song. Simmons had a similar experience when he wrote the song 1000 Dreams for his 2004 solo album Asshole.
“I’m not McCartney,” Simmons says, “but the same thing happened to me. ‘I dream a thousand dreams/I’d walk a million miles for you…’ The lyric and the melody came to me and I was convinced that this song [already] existed.”
That 2004 solo album also included the song Simmons wrote with Dylan.
He tells Michael Moynihan: “I always wanted to write with Bob Dylan. A crazy idea. Why would he pay attention to a peanut like me when he’s written iconic songs that were covered by Hendrix and The Byrds… everybody?”
Nevertheless, he made the call to Dylan’s then manger, Jeff Kramer.
“I call Kramer and I say, ‘I’d like to write songs with Bob.’ And he was about to say words to the effect of ‘Are you on crack?’ But guess what? The phone rang and it was Bob. ‘Where do you live? I’ll be up in a day or so.’”
Some days later Dylan duly arrived at Simmons’ home in Los Angeles.
Simmons recalls: “An unmarked car shows up, Bob gets out with an acoustic guitar and, ‘Hi, how are you?’”
He adds: “By the way, I recorded the songwriting session. I put out a box set, The Vault, 167 tracks, and one of the tracks is Bob and I exchanging ideas about how to write songs.
"The song we wrote together was Waiting For The Morning Light. I’m so proud of it. And I couldn’t get Bob to write the lyrics after we finished it.”
Simmons also confirms that he and Paul Stanley are continuing to create new Kiss music.
He reveals: “We wrote something with a world famous producer, I don’t want to mention his name, and it went okay, but Paul on his own came up with a thing we recorded, Kiss, and that will be coming out at some point.”
