Posted on 05/03/2023 1:26:10 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Elvis Presley’s stepbrother revealed what the King thought of Kiss when the pair listened to Alive! together.
The moment took place around 1975, soon after Billy Stanley had seen a Kiss show for the first time and bought the album, then played it in the basement of Graceland.
“I got it cranked up, playing air guitar,” Stanley told Artists on Record in a new interview. “Elvis comes down [and asks] ‘What are you listening to?’ ‘It’s a band called Kiss.’ … And I showed him the album cover and he said, ‘Uh … OK.’ He sat down on the couch, looking at it, and he said, ‘OK, I get it!’
“He said, ‘So play that song again that you was just playing.’ It was ‘Let Me Go Rock and Roll.’ I played it. I actually played it two times for him, and I was surprised when he said, ‘Play it again.’ I played it again. I said, ‘What do you think?’ He said, ‘Well, I understand the whole thing. You know, Kiss – keep it simple, stupid. And they got the makeup so they can walk around when they get off the stage. Nobody sees them and knows who they are or anything like that.’ He said, ‘Good idea.’”
Presley had more to say when Stanley asked what he thought of the track. “He said, ‘Billy, listen to it. All it is is a ‘50s groove. But that guitar player.’ I said, ‘That’s Ace [Frehley].’ He said, ‘That guy’s got some X-rated guitar licks. I really like him.' … Before he walked out of the room he said, ‘I get it – it’s three chords and a cloud of dust [and] that’s how you do it. And you leave them wanting more. I’m sure that’s how they do it in their live performances.”
Stanley revealed that Presley’s daughter, Lisa Marie, quickly became a Kiss fan. “I’m surprised … she didn’t say something to Elvis,” he added. “Because Elvis would have had a meeting with them … ‘Let me introduce you guys to my daughter.’”
The King was an instinctive genius, and this is coming from someone who doesn't care for Keep It Simple Stupid.
Elvis would have been MAGA as an octogenerian, hell Trump might have partnered with Big E once Parker ate sh!t and died in 1997.
Years ago, we were looking for a place to get married and we looked at the Storz mansion in Omaha. The Storz son still lived there and was very eccentric. He showed us hand carved oak pillars that had grapes and grape leaves. His parents took the family on an around the world trip & the maintenance man had painted all the pillars as well as hand painted frescoes on the walls. They commissioned an Italian artist to come to the US to paint them. When we took our tour, the son was stripping the oak pillars to get back to wood.
I only learned about the twin brother from touring Graceland—there is a family cemetery on the property and the brother is buried there. I heard that Elvis’ lifespan was two days longer than his mother’s. He was 42 when he died (1935-1977).
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