Whenever we suggested, ‘Hey, how ’bout this?’, even if it was crap, somebody would say, ‘Yes, yes-that’s a good idea.’ So we just couldn’t do anything wrong, and the problem was that all around us we had a lot of yes-men, you know. And then there were the massive record sales. “At that time, the band had lived through the toy-industry phase, where we were second only to Star Wars in success. Simmons admits that, during the ’80s, especially, the band’s fame got the better of them. Simmons and co-founder Paul Stanley have been having just such a time for almost two decades now, although it hasn’t all been fun ’n’ games. So, all in all, it’s gonna be a good rock ’n’ roll time.”

The most beautiful girls in the city will show up and we’ll pick three lucky ones who will come out on stage and show you what they’ve got.

And then there’s a song called ‘Take It Off’, where we will have local talent. “Then we have a full laser show, I’ll be breathing fire, and we’ll be playing songs all the way back to the first album-24 albums ago. Three-quarters of the way through the show, these rockets come in and blow Miss Liberty to smithereens, and then underneath that is…well, I’ll leave it to your imagination. “The centrepiece of the show is a metallic Statue of Liberty, and from the twin breasts that rest on the stage, all the way to the torch, that’s 41 feet. There will be lots of other neat stuff, mind you, as Simmons is quick to point out on the phone from his hotel room in “Wisconsin, someplace”. There won’t be any biting boots at the Pacific Coliseum on Friday (December 11) though, when Kiss brings its rock ’n’ roll circus to Vancouver. So, one pair is in the Hollywood Wax Museum and there’s another pair in the Smithsonian.” “There were a lot of them made, actually, because whenever you go out on tour, you always have to have a backup in case one gets lost or stolen. “Oh sure, they’re around,” says the man with the prehensile tongue. More importantly, you want to find out if he still has those humongous dragon boots with the big, silver teeth comin’ at ya, like on the cover of Destroyer. You want to glean his views on the price of riches and fame and delve into what it’s like to spend the first 10 years of one’s career in secretive make-up. The job of interviewing Kiss co-founder Gene Simmons is not an easy one, seeing as there are so many things a ’70s rock fan wants to ask the millionaire God of Thunder.

Gene simmons with make up