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M h

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Welcome to Induction Vault, a production

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of I Heart Radio and the Rock and Roll Hall

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of Fame m

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hmm, Impact,

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influence, and awesomeness. According

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to Tom Morello, these are the reasons Kiss

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earned their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of

0:39

Fame in two thousand fourteen. In

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his lively and impassioned speech, Tom

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proves that he is perhaps rock and Roll's

0:46

greatest orator, delivering one of

0:48

the most memorable Hall of Fame induction speeches

0:51

of all time. With heavy

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emotion and impeccable precision, he

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delivers a bombastic tribute perfect

0:57

for the band he calls fears some

0:59

four or some. As a lifelong

1:01

fan, Tom speaks for the misunderstood

1:04

Kiss fans out there, eloquently,

1:06

making the case for his favorite band getting

1:08

their long overdue induction. As

1:11

the four original members of Kiss graciously

1:13

accept their awards, Paul Stanley

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concludes with a moving speech about the

1:17

spirit of rock and roll, emphasizing

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how it's the fans who make it all possible.

1:31

Good evening. I'm Tom

1:33

Morella. They

1:39

are four of the most recognizable

1:41

faces on the planet and one

1:43

of the most iconic and badass

1:46

bands of all time. Tonight

1:49

is the night that Chiss enters

1:51

the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Growing

1:58

up, Kiss was my favorite band, and

2:01

it was not always easy being a Kiss

2:03

fan. Just as Kiss were relentlessly

2:06

persecuted by critics, their fans

2:08

were relentlessly persecuted by the

2:10

self appointed arbiters of taste. In middle

2:12

schools and high schools across America,

2:15

arguments and even fist fights were

2:18

not uncommon. I recalls a

2:20

fifteen year old telling one bully, you

2:22

can kiss my Kiss loving ass. Because

2:24

Kiss was never a critics band. Kiss

2:27

was a people's band. And

2:33

so I waited in a long line

2:35

on a bitter cold Chicago morning

2:37

to buy a ticket for my first concert,

2:40

a Kiss concert. I was especially

2:42

thrilled because imprinted on the ticket were

2:44

words that hinted that it was going to be a special

2:46

event. The ticket said a

2:49

partial view of Kiss. I

2:51

was certain this meant the band We're going

2:53

to reveal some new secret corner

2:55

of their artistic souls. In

2:58

reality, it meant that my seat is

3:00

behind a poem.

3:02

Still, that concert was the most exciting,

3:05

cathartic, loudest, and most thrilling

3:07

two hours of live music I've seen to this

3:09

day,

3:14

and while there is often debates about who

3:16

should and shouldn't be in the Rock and Roll

3:18

Hall of Fame, I think the criteria are actually

3:21

quite simple. Impact, influence,

3:24

and awesomeness, and kiss have all three

3:26

in spades. Impact.

3:29

Kiss have sold over a hundred million albums

3:32

worldwide. They have twenty eight gold

3:35

twenty eight gold albums in the United

3:37

States alone. That's more than any other

3:39

American rock band in history. Their

3:41

theatrics, their

3:44

theatrics were indisputably groundbreaking,

3:47

but it was Kisses music that had an impact

3:49

on me. All four guys wrote great

3:51

songs. All four guys were great

3:54

lead singers. They practically,

3:56

that's correct. They practically

3:58

invented the live of them with Kiss Alive.

4:01

Then came Destroyer Rock and Roll, over

4:03

Love, Gun Alive to Dynasty,

4:05

all exploding with killery riffs,

4:07

anthemic choruses, and screaming

4:10

solos that for forty years have been filling

4:12

arenas and stadiums around the world. Influence,

4:15

simply put, Kisses the band that made

4:18

me and millions of others love

4:20

rock and roll. What Elvis and the

4:23

That's and apparently a few people in

4:25

the room tonight, what

4:30

what Elvis and the Beatles were to previous

4:32

generations, Kiss were to us.

4:35

They propelled millions of young people to pick

4:37

up instruments. Their influence is everywhere,

4:40

from Metallica to Lady Gaga.

4:42

Kiss have inspired thousands of artists

4:44

of diverse genres, some of whom

4:47

maybe on a Hall of Fame trajectory themselves.

4:49

They've been a formative influence on members

4:52

of Tool Pearl, jam Alison,

4:54

Chains, Slip Knot, Garth Brooks,

4:56

Pantera, Foo Fighters, Motley

4:58

Crue, Lenny Kravitt, White Zombie,

5:01

Sound Garden, Nine Inch Nails, and

5:03

Rage Against the Machine. To name just a fear

5:10

okay, okay,

5:12

impact check, influence

5:14

check, and the final criteria, awesomeness.

5:18

There's a simple test for that. What

5:20

if you had never seen or heard Kissed

5:22

before. What if you've never heard a note of their music,

5:25

never viewed a YouTube clip, never seen

5:27

a reality show featuring any of the members,

5:29

And what if you wandered into a divy

5:32

club in your hometown and saw

5:34

Kiss in all their glory, thrashing

5:37

the place to the ground, one guy belching

5:39

fire and spraying blood past his

5:41

gargantuan tongue, a drum rise

5:44

or bursting through the roof, a guitar

5:46

player so incredible his axe billowed

5:48

smoke and shot rockets. A front man

5:51

flying back and forth across the joint like

5:53

a superhero Tarzan. All

5:55

of them in frightening horror movie

5:57

comic books, superstar sexifying

5:59

kaboo key makeup, all of them

6:01

in black and silver warrior bondage

6:04

gear, in seven inch platform heels, the

6:06

place blowing up with explosions, screeching

6:08

with sirens, braining comfetti, all

6:11

to the pounding soundtrack of bare

6:13

knuckle, Badass, heavy duty,

6:16

liberating rock and roll. What would

6:18

you say if you saw that? You'd

6:20

say that band's fucking awesome

6:22

and deserve to be in the rock and roll Hall of Fame.

6:25

That's what you'd think. Eric

6:39

Carr, Vinny Vincent, Mark

6:42

st John, Bruce Culick, Eric

6:44

Singer and Tommy Thair have

6:47

all been important and extending and

6:49

expanding Kisses impressive legacy, and

6:51

they deserve a round of applaud But

7:05

tonight we honor the fearsome

7:08

forsome, the four original

7:10

founding members of Kiss. The

7:13

demon Gene Simmons, He's

7:16

the god of Thunder, He's dr

7:18

Love, He's beatles like based

7:20

on the bottom, and a bat lizard Bella

7:23

Lagosia on the top. The

7:25

star Child Paul Stanley, the

7:27

heart throb ringmaster of Kisses

7:30

Psycho Circus. His vision, talent

7:32

and dedication over four decades have

7:35

made Kiss the bandit is today. The

7:38

Spaceman Ace Freelan

7:43

m M my

7:47

first guitar hero. He designed

7:49

the band's iconic logo and blazed

7:51

unforgettable, timeless licks across

7:53

their greatest records, and the Cat

7:56

Peter Cris Jungle

8:02

Rhythms, jazz Phills, and

8:04

the writer and singer of the band's biggest hit,

8:06

the world's first power ballad, bet

8:09

But Tonight Tonight,

8:12

we also honor the fifth

8:15

member of the band, without whom this

8:17

night could never have happened. Tonight,

8:19

we are honored the Kiss Army,

8:24

generations of fiercely loyal

8:27

fans who are celebrating this long

8:30

overdue induction all over the planet.

8:32

Tonight. Tonight proves beyond

8:34

any shadow of a doubt that the high school

8:36

bullies and the critics were mistaken.

8:39

We Kiss fans were right, So

8:41

let's celebrate. I

8:46

misspoke earlier when I

8:48

said that tonight Kiss enters the Rock

8:50

and Roll Hall of Fame. That's almost

8:53

right, because tonight it's not

8:55

the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Tonight

8:57

it's the rock and Roll all night and already

9:00

everyday Hall of Fame. And so

9:02

wouldut further Ado Jean Simmons,

9:04

Paul Stanley, Ace Freeley, Peter

9:07

Chris. You wanted the best, and you got

9:09

the best, the hottest band in the world

9:20

after the great we'll hear from Ace,

9:22

Jeen, Peter, and Paul on the Rock

9:24

and Roll Hall of Fame Induction ball. Let

9:37

me hear you Tom,

9:47

Tom MORRELLO. I'm

9:50

Tom MORRELLO. We

9:53

are humbled, all of us who stand

9:55

up on this stage and do what we love

9:57

doing. This is a profound moment for

9:59

all all of us. We are humbled

10:02

that the fans ever gave us the chance

10:05

to do what we love doing. And

10:07

so I'm here just to say a few kind

10:10

words about the four knuckleheads forty

10:12

years ago who got together and decided

10:15

to put together the band we never saw on

10:17

stage critics be damned.

10:24

To Ace Frehley, whose

10:34

iconic guitar playing has

10:37

been imitated but never equalled

10:39

by generations of guitar players around

10:41

the world. To Peter Chris who's

10:44

drumming, who's

10:52

drumming and singing? Well, there's

10:55

not a guy out who beats the sticks who sounds

10:57

just like Peter. Nobody's got that swinging.

10:59

That's stal something

11:01

happened. Forty years

11:04

ago. I met the partner and

11:06

the brother. I never knew I had Paul

11:09

Stanley. You couldn't ask for somebody.

11:16

You couldn't ask for somebody more awesome

11:18

to be on the same team. I am humbled. I

11:22

was going to say a few kind words

11:24

about Eric Carr Rest in peace,

11:30

Mark, Saint John, rest in peace, Vinny

11:34

Vincent, the great

11:36

Bruce Culick, And of course

11:38

here we are forty years later with the

11:41

great Eric Singer and Tommy. There

11:43

we continue on. However

11:49

nothing and I do too.

11:52

We wouldn't be here today without the original Fantastic

11:55

Four. God bless you all. May

11:58

I introduce the power of an attractive

12:02

Peter Chris mm

12:09

hmm. It's very heavy.

12:19

I want to say, it's great to be home in Brooklyn.

12:22

This is my home. So

12:26

I have to add that I like to

12:28

thank the Hall of Fame for this honor. I

12:31

never thought this could happen in my life. Thank

12:34

you. I like to thank everybody that had

12:36

something to do with my career, in the band's career,

12:38

in the fifty years i've been doing it, the forty years

12:41

we've been doing it, Um Jesus,

12:43

from the grips to the truck drivers,

12:45

to the great producers, to the great managers,

12:48

to the great people

12:50

that just were all there for us through all the

12:52

years of the hard times and good times. God bless

12:54

you and thank you so much. There's so many names.

12:57

I'd be here all right, Uh. I

12:59

want a deaf ly thank our first

13:01

manager, Bill A Coin. Uh.

13:05

But we would not be here if not for Bill

13:08

and Sean Delaney, the great Joyce

13:10

Bogart and the great Neal Bogart, who

13:13

would Cassablanca records? Who I Those

13:15

are the great days, and I thank them all. Uh.

13:19

I like to congratulate the band, of course

13:21

Mr Stanley, Mr Simmons, and one

13:23

and only Spaceman is fairly. I'd

13:26

like to also congratulate the other inductees,

13:29

how legendary they are. I'm a

13:31

big fan of all of them. I recently

13:33

seen uh Darryl Holt show

13:35

and I fell in love with the show man, so uh

13:39

all I to also say, I am now seven

13:42

years male breast cancer free and

13:45

uh,

13:48

thank you, and I'm very proud

13:50

of that. I have organizations here,

13:52

my Beauty Ball girls in my Cancer Supports

13:54

Center, and my doctor Alex Switzer who

13:57

saved my life from Presbyterian. Thank

13:59

you so much. Uh, I would not be

14:01

here. I like to thank my family,

14:04

my sister Donna, Donna who I know is out

14:06

there, all my friends who have come,

14:08

and god, there's so many of them. I kid,

14:10

I'd be here all night again, Celia.

14:13

I'd like to thank my lovely wife g G who

14:16

makes my life really

14:18

really good and a lot easy. And let me tell

14:20

you, walking through life with her is a blessing.

14:22

I love you, baby, I love you to death.

14:26

Uh. I'm pretty

14:28

much down. My idol was Jane Cooper. It's

14:31

why I wanted to play drums. I got my first

14:33

lesson from my best friend Jerry Nolan of

14:36

the New York Dolls. Uh,

14:38

and boy was at that just started it

14:40

all off. Uh. I

14:42

want to say that in

14:44

around of makeup, I'll always be the cat man, so

14:47

it really doesn't matter. I

14:49

want to also say, uh,

14:52

you gotta to give to live. It's really

14:54

important. And remember early detection

14:56

will save your life and God

14:58

bless each and every one of you. I will

15:01

remember this to the rest of my life. Thank you so much.

15:05

M Yeah,

15:17

yes, oh,

15:24

I have a speech ship, but these are

15:26

on prescription so I can't read. Uh.

15:33

It's so great to be here with all these other

15:35

celebrities and great musicians, you

15:38

know. And uh,

15:42

okay, I

15:44

want to thank Paul, Gene and Peter.

15:47

Thank you so much, Tom for that beautiful introduction.

15:51

I want to thank the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for

15:53

inducting us. Thank you very much. And

15:56

uh, here I am. You know,

15:58

when I was thirteen years old and I picked

16:00

up my first guitar, I

16:03

always sensed that I was going to be in for something

16:05

big, and little

16:07

did I know a few years later, there

16:09

it was. I experienced

16:11

the summer of love. Okay,

16:17

all right, that was before

16:19

I met these clowns. And

16:22

uh, several

16:24

years later we got together

16:27

and you know the story. It's all history.

16:31

Um. A few quick names.

16:33

Bill o' coyne, Joyce, Firewits

16:36

who used to manage us in conjunction

16:38

with Bill and end up marrying Neil Bogart.

16:42

We wouldn't be here without Neil Bogart and Casablanca

16:44

Records, everyone at Casablanca Records,

16:48

everyone at a t I, Jeff

16:51

and Wally, people at the press

16:53

office. Can

16:56

I read it? Maybe I can, Carol

16:59

and Al ross Um,

17:03

Karl Kay, just to name a few

17:05

that if I named everybody that helped us

17:07

through our career, I'd be here for another half an

17:09

hour. So it's

17:13

great to be here. I wanted to

17:15

touch on the fact that, you

17:18

know, I've been sobering out seven and a half years,

17:20

thank God. And

17:26

we still need to educate the people in this

17:28

country about sobriety because some

17:30

people think that it has to do with willpower,

17:34

but you know, unfortunately most addicts are

17:36

born that way, and uh, people

17:39

need to be educated about that. You

17:41

know. My sponsor used to

17:44

he had a good he had a good saying, you know, to try

17:46

to explain what it's like to be an attic. You know,

17:48

when people say use willpower, he'd say,

17:50

try using willpower when you have diarrhea.

17:53

You know, So

17:57

only by the grace of God, I'm here. I want

17:59

to thank my first wife, Jeanette,

18:02

my daughter, my current fiance

18:04

Rachel Gordon. Uh,

18:07

life's been good to me, you know, hopefully

18:09

I got out of the tenants, one of years to go. Thank

18:11

you very much. I

18:21

can make this short. I can make this short

18:24

and sweet because everybody said everything and been much

18:26

funnier than I'll ever be. So I

18:29

gotta thank tom who's

18:31

championed us shamelessly

18:34

and unapologetically. It took

18:37

a lot of balls and God

18:39

bless you m

18:41

HM for

18:46

us. This is a special night, but it's

18:48

really a special night for our fans. This has

18:50

ndication. We

18:57

couldn't have done this without you, Peter,

19:01

Ace Jean. We

19:03

are the original Foursome. We couldn't have

19:05

done this and we not started it together. Everything

19:09

we've done is built on the past. We've

19:11

got a great, great legacy. We've

19:14

got Bruce here, We've got Tommy, We've

19:16

got Eric h.

19:25

When I first started listening to music,

19:27

I was lucky. I saw a lot of people I loved

19:30

when I was a kid. I saw Solomon Burke, I saw

19:32

Otis Redding. I got to see the Yardbirds,

19:35

I got to see led Zeppelin, Jimmy

19:37

Hendrix, sly

19:40

In the family Stone. The list goes on and on.

19:43

What I loved about all these musicians

19:45

is that they had the spirit of rock and roll. I

19:48

believe that the spirit of rock and roll means you

19:50

follow your own path, regardless of

19:52

critics and regardless of your

19:54

peers. I think we've done that for forty

19:57

years. Here we are

19:59

tonight basically inducted

20:01

for the same things that we were kept

20:03

out for. The

20:08

people, I believe are speaking to the Rock

20:10

and Roll Hall of Fame, and what they're saying is

20:12

they want more. They deserve more. They

20:15

want to be a part of the induction.

20:17

They want to be a part of the nomination. They

20:20

don't want to be spoon fed by

20:23

a handful of people choices.

20:29

The people paid for tickets,

20:32

the people by albums, the

20:34

people who nominate do not. Let's

20:47

not forget that these are the people

20:49

who make it all possible. We just

20:51

benefit from it. So

20:59

I look out here and I see all these people.

21:01

I see faces that over the years

21:04

inspired me, people that

21:06

made me what I am. So I am here tonight

21:09

because of the people who inspired

21:11

me. And I'm also here because of the people

21:14

I inspired. So God bless you all.

21:16

It's a wonderful night. Thanks

21:30

for joining us on this week's episode of Rock

21:32

and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Vault. For

21:34

more on your favorite inductees. To shop

21:36

inductee merch or to plan your trip to

21:38

the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, visit rock Hall

21:41

dot com plus Rock

21:44

and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Special on demand

21:46

on HBO Max. Our

21:48

executive producers are Noel Brown, Shelby

21:51

Morrison, and Esa Gurkey. Supervising

21:53

producer is Taylor Shakogne. Research

21:56

and archival assistants from Isabelle Keeper

21:58

and Shannon herb Us Again for joining

22:00

us on this week's episode of Rock and Roll Hall of

22:03

Fame Induction Vault. Induction VALL

22:05

is a production of I Heart Radio in the Rock

22:07

and Roll Hall of Fame. Ye.

22:15

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