Remember that one time Gene Simmons threatened to bomb a hotel?
By Saige Miller on February 12, 2020
By: Saige Miller
Gene Simmons has a bit of a temper… The hotel staff had to call a SWAT team after Simmons threatened to blow up the building in Buffalo, New York.
Kiss guitarist Tommy Thayer spoke of the event in a recent interview with BackstageAxxess. The threat took place during the band’s original farewell tour back in 2000. Thayer wasn’t on stage with the band but was their tour manager. Having the title of the tour manager meant a little more responsibility when dealing with Simmon’s attitude.
Thayer told BackstageAxxes he remembers trotting back to the hotel after a show, the band was feeling famished so they decided to order room service. That’s when all hell broke loose… for Simmon’s that is.
“Gene Simmons is a real stickler – if he’s in a hotel and he calls down to the front desk or room service or whatever, if it takes more than two or three rings for them to pick up, he really goes ballistic,” Thayer said in the interview.
The former tour manager was sitting in his room, probably enjoying his grub when he received a phone call from the receptionist…
“We got a real problem. We just called the SWAT team, the police, to come in, because one of your group members has just threatened to blow the hotel up,” said the receptionist. “I was thinking, ‘I think I know who that might be, actually.’ He says that jokingly – ‘You gotta pick up the phone, or I’ll blow this place up’ – that’s a Gene Simmons kind of thing.”
Joking or not… Simmons’s comment posed a real problem.
“But it kind of got us into trouble, because the police showed up and they thought it was a real bomb threat. I had to assure everybody that it was okay, that this guy … just wanted his cookies and milk after the show,” said Thayer.
And if indulging in milk and cookies after a concert isn’t the most rock n’ roll thing you’ve ever heard of… I don’t know what is.
You can listen to the full interview below.
