PAGE 2 • TV
THE BULLETIN • JUNE 24 - 30, 2021
A&E’s ‘Biography: KISStory’
looks back on 50 years of rocking
and rolling all night and partying
every day
BY GEORGE DICKIE
Paul Stanley and KISS are the
subjects of “Biography: KISStory,”
premiering Sunday and Monday
on A&E Network.
After more than 50 years of making music,
the end of the road is nigh for heavy metal
rock band KISS and A&E Network is marking
the occasion with a two-part documentary up-
coming on “Biography.”
The four-hour installment titled “KISStory,”
premiering Sunday and Monday, June 27 and
28, chronicles the career of the band that sold
more than 100 million records, packed concert
venues worldwide for more than 40 years and
was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of
Fame in 2014 through archival footage, home
movies and intimate interviews with founding
members Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons, as
well as comments by musicians Dave Grohl
and Tom Morello, manager Doe McGhee,
music producer Bob Ezrin and others. Current
and past band members Tommy Thayer, Eric
Singer, Ace Frehley and Peter Criss also appear.
Of course, chemistry is at the heart of any
great enterprise and KISS is certainly no ex-
ception. Stanley and Simmons have known
each other since the late 1960s when both
were struggling New York City musicians and
Stanley points to one quality they shared that
made their collaboration so successful.
“Pragmatism,” he says. “Gene from the
beginning drove me crazy. That’s my choice.
I mean, he drove me crazy because I chose
to stay and I wanted him to be someone he
wasn’t. But to be pragmatic, I certainly under-
stood that I was far stronger with him than
without him. And if he didn’t know that, I
did. You know, I knew that for my own suc-
cess and for my own progress, we should be
together. So that was purely a decision based
upon my wanting to succeed and knowing
that Gene would be a major ingredient in that
happening.”
And he says, there was a certain friendly
competitiveness between them.
“We challenged each other creatively,” he
says. “If he wrote a song that I thought was
good, I had to write a song that was that good
or better. And yeah, we mirrored each other in
really good ways. You know, all positive.”
As KISS this summer resumes its End of the
Road Tour, signaling their final live shows, this
documentary gave Stanley the chance to look
back on the band’s career. He’s proud of the
band’s body of work and he thinks this film
will give fans a different view of KISS.
“I think for people to see us sitting around
talking to each other about our relationship
and about the time is something you don’t
see often,” he says. “I do believe that many
times people have seen us together, there’s a
certain shtick to it and there’s a certain quality
of entertainment, whereas this is much more
intimate and much more personal. So to be
looking back on the band and our friendship,
which goes back now 52 years, that’s pret-
ty heady stuff. ... It’s everything I hoped it
would be at this point.”
Guide to the TV grids
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DVS: Descriptive video service
EI: Educational/instructional
D: Dialogue
L: Language
S: Sexual situations
V: Violence
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’:I n stereo
Å: Closed captioning
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