Gene Simmons Feels Responsible for ‘Music From ‘The Elder’’

When it comes to Music From ‘The Elder’ by Kiss, it seemed like a good idea at the time. But in the years since it was released in 1981, it’s become a polarizing topic for fans.

Gene Simmons was quick to address the topic when it came up during a recent conversation that will be featured on the UCR Podcast. “I have to take full responsibility,” he says. “I was in L.A. at the Beverly Hills Hotel and at the time, I was acting in movies and stuff like that. I thought had an idea for a movie called The Elder. On hotel stationary, I started writing out a story [about] when the earth was young, they were already ancient and so on. And in every age and every time, a hero was born. That kind of mythic fantasy quality.”

“Bob Ezrin came by because he was going to produce that record. There was a change in the band. Peter Criss was no longer in the band and Eric Carr came in,” he continues. “Ace [Frehley], you know, he was sometimes there and sometimes not. We just started talking generally about songs and what kind of record should we do and all of that. Ezrin happened to see my notes for The Elder and he said, ‘Oh, I like this. How about we do a concept record where the songs mirror that?’ He contacted Christopher Makepeace, an actor who was coming off a movie called My Bodyguard, about a kid in school getting beaten up and he befriends this big guy who protects him. We also had an English actor, Ian McKellen.”

The record “took shape in drips and drabs,” as Simmons recalls, while Frehley, in his telling, resisted participating in the recording process the way it was planned out. “He refused to go to Canada, right outside of Toronto [where portions of the album were being recorded]. He wanted to stay home and record because he had a studio. We were making copies of 24-track masters and sending them to Ace. It was a very disjointed kind of record.”

How He Feels About ‘Music From ‘The Elder” Now

In conversation with Simmons, it doesn’t feel like his opinion on Music From ‘The Elder’ has changed much after more than four decades. As he can see now, elements of their approach would be repeated as the group continued to make music. “What I can say about [Music From ‘The Elder’] is it was not an honest record, because we were trying to do something different,” he says. “And by the way, Carnival of Souls had the same thing [happening]. Before you start writing those songs, let’s try for this. It’s not what we do naturally. And some people like it and some people don’t. But it was not an honest record in terms of it being a deviation on purpose before the fact.”

There are a few songs that he feels positively about and he mentions one specifically. “I like ‘I,’ which is an anti-drug song,” he points out. “I don’t need to get wasted, it only holds me down, because I’ve got a will. I’ve got a will of my own and the balls to stand alone, because I believe in me. [So I like that one] and one or two other songs, but generally, it was a different kind of record.”

Listen to Kiss’ ‘I’

The planned film version of Music From ‘The Elder’ never came to fruition, though Simmons maintained a desire to see it through. Author Seb Hunter began pre-production on an independent film based on The Elder concept in 2011, but the endeavor remains unreleased. More recently, the band issued a comic book version of the story in 2016 and in December of 2024, Todd Kerns (Slash featuring Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators) and Zach Throne (Jerry Cantrell) assembled a group they dubbed The Elder Band to perform the album in full at the annual Kiss Cancer Goodbye benefit.

Whatever the future might hold for The Elder, Simmons himself will be back on the road beginning in May. The Gene Simmons Band is set to kick off a month’s worth of dates May 2 in Peachtree City, Georgia. They’ll also perform at the annual Sturgis Festival later this summer.