Richie Wise - Ace & Peter were hired hands....

[Genebaby]

Richie says a few things about his time with Kiss, obviously very early on.

RW: The thing I like to say about KISS, and I've said it to everybody, KISS were the most focused band that I ever met. Ever. To this day. There was never a doubt from moment one in Gene and Paul, in their minds, that they were going to do this, they were going to do it this way and they were going to be KISS. I like to say they had blinders on, like a horse. "This is the direction you can only see in front of you, man." And what they saw in front of them was always the biggest band in the world and the spectacle. From day one, that's what they were all about. And when people ask me, "Are you surprised at how big they got?" And I say, "No." Because their focus was massively in place.

KF: In this initial period, I am curious if you noticed a divide in terms of focus with Gene and Paul versus Ace and Peter?

RW: Ace and Peter had no focus. They were hired hands as far as I was concerned. I knew they auditioned for the band and the band was Gene and Paul. Period. Gene and Paul were the guys. Ace was a guitarist who I understood exactly what he was doing. And he listened to Page and Clapton and all those guitarists that I listened to, so I understood him well.

Peter was, at best, a poppy adequate drummer. But he was solid. And he really didn't get in the way and laid down the proper fundamental beat that [was needed]. I thought Gene was a really good bass player. I know he wasn't a traditional bass player playing with his fingers, he was more of a "guitar player bass player." But he played with a lot of melodic sense, like McCartney in a way.

KF: I'm glad you mentioned that Richie. I think Gene's musicianship gets overlooked given he is in KISS. And on those early KISS albums, he came up with some inventive melodic bass lines that complemented KISS' songs perfectly.

RW: Absolutely correct. And that came right out of him. He was very good. I thought he was a very musical bass player [and] an excellent singer. Paul was excellent behind the mic. They had, right out of the box, good technique. They worked well together. I worked well with them. The first album was six days, and then some mixing, I think a total of 13 days. It went very well. I worked with Ace to make sure the guitar solos were right. I worked with the guys on the arrangements to make sure that the arrangements went down in a tight fashion so that there wouldn't be too much excess on the record.

The entire interview is here: http://www.kissfaq.com/forum11/viewtopi ... 7#p1835527

[PinkWiz]

A lot of young bands have that hunger and drive like Paul and Gene had starting out... it's just that so few come across a Bill Aucoin to take them to that next level.

[Genebaby]

And how many of those Bills would have a Sean Delaney?

[PinkWiz]

True.... and how many of those Bills would have a Bogart and a legit record deal within a month?

[Genebaby]

They were certainly very lucky, everything lined up and they were massive in the 70's! It was perfect!