Vito Bratta recently addressed why he believed KISS bassist Gene Simmons might have sabotaged him and how the bassist and Paul Stanley made a racist request while speaking with Guitar World.
The rocker first recalled how Simmons and Paul Stanley tried to recruit him into KISS after seeing him play with his cover band. However, after the pair approached Bratta, things didn’t go the way they’d wished:
“When they asked me about playing a Les Paul, I immediately knew I wasn’t into it. I just couldn’t picture it, you know? But I was maybe willing to go along with it because I had started with a Les Paul.”
However, even after Bratta felt he could’ve handled the pair’s wish about a Les Paul, Simmons and Stanley had one more request that would set Bratta off:
“Then, after asking me my name, they said, ‘Your name is too ethnic; would you ever consider changing it?’ And I just said, ‘Would you ever consider f*cking yourself?’ I was not going to change my name. I mean, seriously, ‘Gene Simmons isn’t ethnic.’ Come on.”
That ‘problematic’ encounter wouldn’t be the last time Bratta and KISS rockers encountered each other, as years later, KISS and White Lion toured together.
Still, Bratta felt that Simmons hadn’t forgotten what went down that night, as he claimed that the bassist had sabotaged a ‘special’ White Lion show:
“Years later, we went on tour with KISS. And this time, I knew that Gene remembered the whole thing I know that because while on tour with KISS, we rolled in to play the Meadowlands, a hometown show. And when we got there, we were told, ‘You guys have the night off; we’re getting Ted Nugent to open.'”
Vito continued, explaining why having Nugent as an opening act had seemed like a questionable plan, at the time:
“We were like, ‘Ted Nugent. Really?’ This wasn’t 1978; it was the heart of the MTV era, and this wasn’t a ‘Wango Tango’ crowd, so it made no sense… I always suspected Gene had something to do with it because he could do that, and I think he would do that.”
Bratta’s accusations against Simmons’ involvement in a sabotage plan aren’t the only time when rockers tried to sabotage one another. Check out here to read all about how Kansas’ Rich Williams accused Steven Tyler of sabotaging Kansas, while they toured with Aerosmith in the 70s.
