Gene Simmons names the one Kiss album he feels is 'dishonest'

Kiss was a band that was almost always self-aware enough to know their limitations. They were meant to entertain instead of necessarily creating great works of art. They had talent, of course. Paul Stanley could sing well, Ace Frehley could play the guitar well and Gene Simmons was Gene Simmons, but the songs they produced were supposed to be party music.

At their best, on albums such as Destroyer, the group was able to entertain while releasing a number of excellent rock tunes. Where would the world be without "Detroit Rock City" and "Shout It Out Loud," for instance? Worse off, for sure.

Of course, the world can simply forget the dreck that was Music From "The Elder" and Simmons knows it. The album was meant to be a concept album based on some random movie script. The band had never attempted anything like it and as Simmons would admit, Kiss is not exactly the Who so attempting a concept album was a huge mistake.

Gene Simmons gets real about what he thinks is Kiss' most "dishonest" album

In a recent interview with Classic Rock, Simmons blamed himself for Music From "The Elder" as the album was his idea (a bad one). He also called the record "dishonest" even though a number of fans seemed to love the record. Perhaps because the album is completely different than what the group had done in the past.

Simmons told the magazine when asked what the worst record he ever made was, "Music From ‘The Elder’. I take the blame for it because it was my idea. I remember telling (producer) Bob Ezrin that I was writing a movie script, we were making a concept album based on that, and he said: 'Let’s do our own Tommy!' I said: 'Yeah. If The Who can do it, why can’t we?' Well, the straight answer is because we’re not the Who!'"

Simmons did say the most dishonest album he was ever a part of creating was Carnival of Souls. The reason was that the group was following some kind of trend and not being true to themselves. Of course, one of the major problems with Music... was that the album followed two others, one a disco-themed record (Dynasty) and the other more poppy (Unmasked), In other words, a third straight failure for Kiss.

The best bit about the band, however, was always their live shows. Had they stopped making albums before Dynasty, fans would have loved them just as much. They would still be as great live, and, therefore, fantastic.

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