Bill Aucoin 1943-2010 Tributes
Bill Aucoin 12.9.2006Interview by Marko Syrjälä and Katariina, transcription by Katariina
On the last few years you have been doing a lot of Kiss conventions and you still seem to have really strong connections to the band and the fans. But once you split up with Kiss, don’t you ever get any negative feelings being part of Kiss and connected to them?
Bill: No, no. Kiss was too much a pride of my life plus the fact that I love the guys. I love all of them even though there are only two in the band at the moment. And I really feel very strongly about them. Gene and Paul and I have actually been doing a lot of talking in the last couple of years. There is going to be something in their new box set which will one bonus track that will be the one of the original shows that I did with them before they went on their first concert tour
You are talking about the Coventry shows in 1973?
Bill: Yeah. Unfortunately it is not going to be the whole show. There is a whole show that I videotaped back then. It is only going to be one song but it will be interesting to see them back in December 1973. But we still talk. I see Paul quite often and Paul on going on his first solo tour since he did the solo album back in the 70´s. The new album is great, it is going to come out in October. So everything is fine. It is actually exciting to see them out on the road again. I´m glad to see them back in make-up now.
When KISS started to think about possible re-union back at 1996, did they ask you to be part of it?
Bill: Yeah, I had a meeting with Paul and Gene. I had been talking them for years about the fact that they should get back in make-up. They didn’t really want to. They thought it was over and that it was something that they had done and they really didn’t want to do it. And I told myself that there are so many fans and I was very disappointed when they decided that they will they take off their make-up. But they wanted to be known for themselves and not for the make-up and I thought the original Kiss was that should remain. I tried to courage them but they didn’t want to do it. For many years I would see Gene and Paul, especially Gene, and told them you really should get back together but the answer was “ I don’t think so Bill”. Eventually I think they realised that it would be at least worth a try to get back together and it happened because of the Kiss conventions. You know, the Kiss conventions were started by fans like you and the guys didn’t want any part in it. But there came a point in time when they realised that there are lot of fans going to these conventions and they should do the conventions themselves. And when they started doing them they realised how important the fans thought the original Kiss was. Then they decided to invite Ace back to one of the conventions. Then they invited Peter back and they realised the fans loved them too. Don’t forget Peter left quite a while ago and then Ace left and they figured that maybe the fans didn’t care but the conventions really showed that the fans really did care. And that finally made them to see maybe it would be worthwhile to do it. When they did MTV Unplugged they realised that it was very strong and the fans really wanted it to happen. During that time when Gene, Paul and I got together about potentially doing it, I felt it wouldn’t be right for me to go back again. I always felt good about starting with new artists and helping new ideas grow and that was something I had been doing and that is basically why I didn’t. But as you know it became very popular and successful again and it was great to see them back in form again. I had hoped that maybe they will all stay together which of course didn’t happen. Peter and Ace are now thinking about doing their own things. They are thinking about putting a new band together and Peter is thinking about new projects as well. Eric and Tommy are great in the band and they have just come back from Japan and they had a great time. But both Gene and Paul told me what a pleasure and how much fun the Reunion was. So they will be back on the road again.
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