Kiss – The Interview Discs (The Kiss Bootleg Series)

We are now to a collection of Interview Discs that were included in the John Humphrey Collection I bought last year at an auction where I got my hands on 38 Bootleg CDs from his personal collection. Oh, if you don’t know who John Humphrey is, you need to know he is a massive Kiss collector. And he is the drummer of the band Seether. John decided to sell off his entire collection…sort of…he kept all the vinyl (like 4,000 of them). He did it through an auction at Backstage Auctions and I had to have a piece of it…which I did.

I am not a fan of interview discs at all. They came with the collection so I am stuck with them, unless I decide to sell them, but I don’t sell my Kiss collection. The problem with Interview disc is playability. Once you’ve heard the interview once, is there a need to ever revisit the interview? Well, no. There is not.

We have 6 discs that were included with the collection and we will briefly discuss each one. I’m not going to tell you what is said, because if I do that, there is absolutely no need for you to listen to them. This is simply a guide to a handful of interview disc that are out there. And let me tell you, there are a ton. Apparently it is a big market in the bootleg CD arena. Who knew!

THE KISS 25TH ANNIVERSARY STAR PROFILE (1999):

First up is ‘The Kiss 25th Anniversary Star Profile which came out in 1999. It comes with a 100-page booklet that gives you the history of Kiss, the complete Discography (up to that point) and a lot of cool pictures. It is thick, it is heavy and a nice surprise. The interview covers the following topics…

  • Chapter 1 – Early Wickedness
  • Chapter 2 – Noise Form The Dragsters
  • Chapter 3 – Finally Alive
  • Chapter 4 – Toy Story
  • Chapter 5 – On the Even of Destruction
  • Chapter 6 – A Bizarre Concept
  • Chapter 7 – Weakness Exposed
  • Chapter 8 – Kiss This!
  • Chapter 9 – Carnival of Kiss
Continue reading “Kiss – The Interview Discs (The Kiss Bootleg Series)”

Kiss – ‘Unplugged’ – Album Review (The Kiss Bootleg Series)

I have been doing a Kiss Bootleg Series for years. You get a review every time I add a new one to the collection. Well, after buying 38 Bootleg CDs from John Humphrey’s personal collection, I figured let’s jump right back in and do a whole lot of reviews on the Bootlegs. Oh, if you don’t know who John Humphrey is, you need to know he is a massive Kiss collector. And he is the drummer of the band Seether. John decided to sell off his entire collection…sort of…he kept all the vinyl (like 4,000 of them). He did it through an auction at Backstage Auctions and I had to have a piece of it…and I did wind up with somethings.

As it says in the liner notes, Kiss has done numerous acoustic performances over the years on radio and TV (excluding MTV unplugged). This compilation takes those performances and puts them in one disc. It covers the time periods of 1990-1994 which makes most of it having Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Eric Singer and Bruce Kulick. But we do get Eric Carr and Ace Frehley tracks as well. The sound quality if actually pretty good and we get 12 fun and exciting tracks and wildly good time as it shows the humor of the guys as well as these are very loose and crazy performances.

The first track is from The Howard Stern show on February 25, 1993 and you can hear Howard and Robin joking it up with Paul and Gene. They play “Detroit Rock City” and Gene is a cut-up throughout the whole thing. I love it when he points out where all the explosions would be when they play it live. Paul sounds relaxed and vocally is on point. I love seeing the lighter side of the band.

Continue reading “Kiss – ‘Unplugged’ – Album Review (The Kiss Bootleg Series)”