It's interesting, with exception of Lucille Ball, all of Cavett's guests I watched (Lucy Arnez, Carol Burnett - and Cavett) are all alive.
It's interesting, with exception of Lucille Ball, all of Cavett's guests I watched (Lucy Arnez, Carol Burnett - and Cavett) are all alive.
Last edited by mozo-pg; 09-10-2021 at 03:40 PM.
What can this strange device be? When I touch it, it brings forth a sound.
And I really miss Tom SnyderOriginally Posted by Just Eric
IMO, Tom Snyder was one of the worst interviewers I've ever seen. All those years I heard about his interview with John Lennon only to be completely underwhelmed by his brainless questions when I finally saw it.
"Don't look here. The joke's in your hand."
- Public Restroom Wall
Tom Snyder interviewed KISS right? Calling Dr. GuitarGeek. Hilarious interview.
Yeah, it's a classic. Ace says in his autobiography that in the limo on the way to the taping, he had a few glasses of wine, then in the dressing room, he did a couple lines of blow, and if you've ever seen the piece in question, you know exactly why that's relevant. The thing that's great is watching the faces of the other three band members. Peter looks like he doesn't care, he's having a good time, just like Ace, but a little more low key. Paul looks like he's about to die from embarrassment. And Gene looks like he's about to throttle Ace for blowing the whole "aloof superheroes" thing by acting like a schmoe from the Bronx (which, actually, is exactly what Ace is). Hold on, I'm sure it has to be on Youtube. Yeah, here it is:
And here's Gene getting upstaged by Totie Fields on the Mike Douglas Show, in March 1974:
So Ace you play the bass ( pronouncing it like fish), and Ace answers, no I play the trout......
I'm cracking up about this pic. It just looks hilarious. FLARP....
That Tom Snyder interview is awesome. I love everything about KISS except their music. (Well, with a few exceptions...)
I've seen all cruel people bashing heads each day so sadistic I'm on my way.
I'm watching Shemptember on MeTV. Gut busting laughter. Slaps, pokes, bonks, kicks, food flying, pies in the face, you name it.
Just watched the Kiss Tom Snyder appearance. Effin' hilarious. You could see at the start that Gene and Paul wanted to portray a professional image and be businesslike. Ace and Peter were rollin' and didn't give a fuck. Ace was a hoot. At first, Gene seemed a little perturbed, but he and Paul loosened up a little after a bit. Funny that Gene said he was the "mother." Anyway, seemed like some really good guys, and I hope they enjoyed their success. I bought 3 or 4 of their albums in the mid-70s, and saw them live in 1979, (awesome show, btw,) but I was never a Kiss Army kind of huge fan.
I've managed to get my parrot to whistle the last 7 notes of the Stooges theme a lot and got her to do the woob woob woob woob-nyuk nyuk nyuk once in a while, but eeb-eeb-eeb-eeb-eeb hasn't taken yet.
I was hoping someone would notice on their own, but if you click on it: bonus hilarity.I'm cracking up about this pic. It just looks hilarious. FLARP....
I clicked on it. Hysterical.....
I now have even more respect for Ace after that.
I don't like country music, but I don't mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people who like country music, denigrate means 'put down.'- Bob Newhart
Cockatiels are great at whistling.
"Well my son, life is like a beanstalk, isn't it?"--Dalai Lama
Paul for one, apparently never got over it, in his autobiography, he carries about how disrespectful Ace was to the band and their fans and all this crap, during the Tom Snyder interview. And I suspect Gene probably feels the same way too. They were trying to portray this stoic, aloof image, which Ace sort of dismantled in under a half hour. I've seen other interviews where it's mainly Gene and Paul talking, which I think were more carefully edited to exclude anything Ace or Peter might have done that "went against the image" or whatever.
I don't think most fans think it was disrespectful, most of the ones I've met think it's hilarious.
I also recall Paul saying once that the thing with Ace was, whenever he opened his mouth, you never knew what was going to come out. So you might give him saying something normal, or saying something funny, or maybe even something offensive. Note the bit where Ace is talking about the German made RC helicopters, and he starts to lift his arm up, like he was about to do a Nazi salute, and Gene says, "DON'T DO IT!", and Ace is like "I was gonna do it". Ace said he felt like a kid who was just having fun, and Gene and Paul were acting like parents telling him to calm down or whatever.
Now, if you had asked Tom Snyder, I think he mostly had fond memories of it. Now, if you asked him about the time he interviewed Leon Redbone, and in fact, I seem to recall he talking about it on the Late Late Show, I think that was the one he felt didn't go well.
Ace might've been stoned on pot too with all that cackling and giggling....
Ace's vices were alcohol and cocaine.Ace might've been stoned on pot too with all that cackling and giggling....
It has been a while since I read Gene's book, but I am pretty sure he mentions this interview as well and felt the same as Paul.
I sort of skimmed through Gene's book at Borders, when it came out. I remember him shooting his mouth off about how Ace was an "idiot" for not copyrighting the "lightning bolts on a guitar strap" thing, and for building his full blown state of the art 24 track studio in his backyard (where it couldn't be rented out to anyone due to zoning laws). Oh yeah, and there was that antisemitism business, but I honestly still think Gene was more offended by Ace's total and complete lack of business savvy. I also remember him talking about the time Peter's first wife caught him red handed, when she found some woman's phone number, written on a cocktail napkin or whatever, in his pants. So she calls the number, tells the woman who answers she's from the Manhattan Free Clinic or whatever, and that Peter Criss had been in and had given her phone number someone he had been with, and the woman apparently gave up all the details on the spot. So when Peter comes home, Lydia had him dead to rights (you didn't know Peter's first was named Lydia, did you? You probably also didn't know Beth isn't actually about her).
Anyway, I don't remember reading the bit about the Tomorrow Show appearance, but yeah, I imagine he remains thoroughly nonplussed by it.
I am not even that much of a Kiss fan, but have read all 4 of their autobiographies. Of course they all have different perspectives on some of the same stories. The Tomorrow show interview is a pretty famous event in Kiss lore, and I am pretty sure all 4 of them commented on it, although it has been a while since I read some of the books.
Yeah, I've kinda wimped on the Kiss books front. I should have all four of the autobiographies and at elast a couple of others, but never got around to it. And yeah, I imagine that has to be something they all had to have talked about.
But like I said, I sort of skimmed through Ace's book, and I remember there's a great bit where he's talking about Music From The Elder, and how Bob Ezrin later blamed that whole debacle on his own cocaine addiction at the time. And Ace is like, "Yeha, but see, I was wiped out cocaine too, and I could TELL this was a bad idea", his point being, it wasn't the cocaine that made Ezrin think that "Let's show everyone how smart Kiss can be" was a good idea.
I think Ace and Peter had the right idea. Rock acts were best served in these situations by just making a mockery of the proceedings. Think of the Beatles' many press conferences or the Stones. I read of a TV interview in the UK with Jagger (early 70s) where Charlie Watts scurried around the set disrupting the crew and the host, much to Mick's amusement. The last thing their young fans want to see is their heroes acting like just another talk show guest.
I don't like country music, but I don't mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people who like country music, denigrate means 'put down.'- Bob Newhart
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