The lost 'hippie' album: How Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley's pre-Kiss band Wicked Lester recorded a shelved debut
By
Ken Sharp
Summary
An article about Wicked Lester, the pre-Kiss band featuring Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley, who recorded an unreleased album in 1971 that was shelved by their label. Decades later, the album was finally released in 2024 as "The Lost Wicked Lester Sessions." The piece explores the band's history, the album's psychedelic/hippie sound that contrasts sharply with Kiss's later image, and how Simmons and Stanley now look back on this forgotten chapter with amusement rather than embarrassment.
Source
Twitter / XThe lost 'hippie' album: How Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley's pre-Kiss band Wicked Lester recorded a shelved debutloudersound.comKey quotes
· 3 pulledIt's not that I'm embarrassed by it. You let something pass for long enough, and you can kind of chuckle at it
Back then they were just another pair of struggling New York musicians trying to pay the bills – albeit musicians with more ambition than most
Not content with churning out covers in local clubs for chump change, Simmons and Stanley were dead-set on rock stardom from the off
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