KISS bassist mogul Gene Simmons talked about his new box set “The Vault” and the ultimate experience fan experience that comes with it – Gene personally delivering the set to your house for a measly price of $50,000. He told KSHE 95 ( as transcribed by Ultimate-Guitar.com):
“I’m really doing this for myself. Imagine you dreamed as a young kid you’d be a broadcaster and you finally get there. And the people that allowed you to get there are the fans – the people who listen to you every day.
“So because you’re so enormously rich and powerful what you want to do is you want to put on the biggest party of all time. But if you’re the only person there it’s not much of a party.
“So my experience is I’m on stage but there’s a separation between the stage and the fans. There are moats and there are security guards and I can’t get close to them. And when you go to a hotel, a lobby, or some place, there’s always a security guard who’s keeping the folks away.
“So what I’m gonna do is I’m gonna change all that and I’m gonna go myself, pay for my own flights, hotel, security, insurance, do all that – and I’m gonna be going around the world, even to New Zealand, and hand-deliver the box sets.
“This starts in Los Angeles January 6 from 11 AM till 7 PM at the legendary Capitol Studios. And the fans are gonna gather and we’re gonna have some alone time for quite a few hours. And I’ve got St. Louis on my calendar. You wanna know when I’m gonna be there, go to GeneSimmonsVault.com.
“Inside every box set there are also surprises and a 50,000-word book that’s got hundreds of photos from my collection, and a Gene action figure in it, and a gold coin. And there’s also a surprise door in there and if you push it it magically opens up and inside are items from my collection. Could be leather gloves I used on stage, or the dragon boot cover, or pieces of art, or lyrics, or cassettes. So no two vaults are the same.
“And if I come to your city and you want to do like a private Gene Simmons party – in other words me coming to your house, hanging out all day or going to a club and jamming on stage, whatever you want to do, invite 25 of your friends… That’s not for everybody, and that’s okay. A Rolls-Royce is not for everybody either.
“There are only gonna be a few thousand made and then all production will cease.
“The home experience means you decide what you want to do with me. You can’t lock me in the basement, but I’ll spend a day with you for $50k. That means you invite 25 of your friends, relatives, or enemies, whatever. You wanna go to a club, you wanna play bingo at the church – whatever it is you wanna do that day is yours and I spend it with you. Of course, I also deliver ‘The Vault’ to you. But that’s not for everybody. That will be for super fans who want their own private experience, and that’s fine too.
“So, again, this is being done for yours truly. I’m 68 now, Kiss is still touring, we’re having a good time. We’re playing some stadiums in Spain in July, and in Mexico and stuff, so we’re having a great time. But the end is closer than the beginning, let’s be realistic.
“I’m not 20 anymore but I’m also not 80. And so at some point we’re gonna stop. And before we stop – it’s not gonna happen for a few years, trust me – but before we stop I want to meet the fans who made my life possible. And I can’t really do that and go around the world ‘Hey, how you’re doing?’ So I wanted to do it celebrating something. I’ve be planing to do a box set for nine years.
“This is 50,000 words, hundreds of photos of all kinds of stuff people have never seen, and 10 CDs… There’s actually a secret cover thing that I can’t talk about, secret compartments with secret gifts.
“When you get Christmas presents isn’t each one different? Do you give the same present to everybody? Look, I’m a lucky guy, I get to be in America’s No. 1 gold-record award-winning group of all time in all categories. And it’s true, I have to work for it and the guys in the band have to work for it, but the people that made it possible are the fans and I want to meet them. Without all the hoopla, without security guards, without any of that stuff.”
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