KISS Legend Shares Pragmatic Formula for Success, Warns Against ‘Cute Foxes’
By Angela Natividad
Deputy editor Peter White of TBI Magazine moderated a session that unfolded at the mercy of its enabler, president/GM Bob DiBitetto of A&E Network and Bio Channel, and KISS frontman Gene Simmons.
The latter came to plug his reality show, Gene Simmons Family Jewels, which just surpassed its 100th episode. But you know him best as the engine behind KISS, which is less a band than a half-billion dollar industry: in the last 8 years, it’s sold $400 million in concert tickets alone.
Simmons took great care to point out KISS has also lent its name and likeness to 3000 licensed products, from condoms to caskets. “We’ll get you coming and we’ll get you going,” he quipped. (Motorcycles and hi-def TVs are also in the works.)
There’s a logic to all this, which revealed itself not-so-subtly as the session progressed. Kicking off a montage for Family Jewels, a Gene broadcast over our heads intoned, “Why do people seek my advice? Successful band, successful business, successful family.”
That attitude, encapsulated in those words, about covers it.
“We’re always looking for something a little bit different, a little bit unexpected,” said DiBitetto of A&E/Bio. (His own contributions to the networks include such treasures as Hoarders and Intervention.) When Family Jewels was naught but an embryo, The Osbournes was riding the culture hard – and DiBitetto noticed it.
“When we had the privilege of doing the special with these guys, it struck me how different this show was […] I think there’s something very unexpected about a rockstar who indeed is actually a phenomenal family guy.”
This isn’t a lie. And if you were wondering about Simmons’ rock n’ roll liefstyle, he’ll gladly set the record straight:
“I’ve never been high or drunk in my life. I don’t smoke, I don’t do any of that stuff, I’m not really interested. Business is my crack.”
Read the Rest via Liveblog: KISS’ Gene Simmons on Family Jewels & more | MIPBlog.
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