Part 3 of my interview with Eddie Trunk. Read part 2 here.

What do you think KISS should do next?

Do what they said they were going to do over 10 years ago: retire. I don’t think they need a full set, but maybe one show where you get all the surviving members of the band; get them out there to play; do a song with the original band. Somebody find Vinnie Vincent, somebody get Bruce Kulick. Sadly, Mark St. John and Eric Carr are no longer with us. Do a big celebration of the band’s history, one big show in New York or something, and end it. And then, I certainly think they could all go on and do things. Gene [Simmons] could do reality shows; Paul [Stanley] could do his art and still do solo shows, still make solo music. But to me, as a fan—and God knows I’m a huge KISS fan—it’s just been beaten up now.

It’s funny, you pull any press clipping from 2000 when they said they were doing their farewell tour, and they’re asked why. And the answer was always the same: “We don’t want to drag the band through the mud; we don’t want to stay at the party too long; we don’t want to have anybody blasting us with, ‘Why are you guys still doing this?’” And here we are, 11 years later, and I’m asking some of those questions because, to me, the band has become, in some regards, a tribute band—half the band are a tribute band. And I’ve been honest about what I’ve said about that many times; it’s how I feel as a fan. If they dressed those guys [Eric Singer and Tommy Thayer] as their own characters and let them be their own people, fine. It’s just hard for me to swallow. But for most people who are not nearly as passionate about it as I am, who just want to go see fireworks and hear “Rock and Roll All Nite,” they don’t really care, and that’s why they can still get away with it.

But above and beyond all of that, I’ve seen footage of the band; I’ve seen them in various versions of this lineup in the last few years. And this is the bigger issue: these guys, although they’re still in good shape, Gene and Paul, physically, they’re 60 now. You know, KISS isn’t the Eagles; they’re not Crosby, Stills & Nash—you can’t sit on barstools and strum acoustic guitars. No one in their right mind can tell me that the same energy is coming off of that stage at this age in these costumes and what they can do. The last time I saw them, man—it was a little boring, to be honest with you. There wasn’t a lot of that same energy and drive that I’m used to seeing on the stage.

And I can’t tell you how many e-mails I’ve gotten from people saying, “What’s wrong with Paul’s voice? What’s wrong with Paul’s voice?” I don’t know. I mean, I don’t go to [their] shows anymore; I don’t know. But when those sort of things happen—you’ve got new guys dressed up as other guys out there, people wondering, “Is the guy’s voice okay?,” ailments and hip replacements and you’re slowing down and you can’t move like you used to, that, to me, is when it’s time to figure something else out here.

Why do you think they’re still doing it? At least two of them are well-off financially.

Yeah, but it’s still profitable. They’re still playing casino gigs, they’re still playing festival gigs. Listen, one thing I’ve learned, and I don’t really blame anybody for this: most people who have a lot of money are the people that want to make money more than anyone. I’ve seen it with athletes, I’ve seen it with musicians, you know? It’s the old saying, “the rich get richer.” And I’m not knocking anybody for making a living and doing what they’ve go to do. I can’t [say] that I’d be any different if I was in those situations. But those two things, it’s the constant drive to make money, and really, it’s all they know—it’s all they do, you know? There’s the ego gratification, there’s the attention, and there’s the money. And as long as those things are still going on, some of these guys can’t let it go.

And I just think that, again, KISS fans get so upset with me; they’re super hardcore when I talk like this, but taking out all of the personal stuff, as a fan, that’s just how I see it. You know, I’m not a blind worshipper. I look at it as a fan and I’ve accepted it, embraced everything KISS has done in their entire history, and this is just the one thing, though—when it gets into this deceptive world, and who’s behind the make-up, and who’s doing this—this is the one thing that I’ve had a hard time with. And again, I think, physically, it’s very hard for them to uphold the level of the KISS standard, regardless of how well you take care of yourself….At that age, they’re not guys that can get away with that when they put on a physical show, like with other bands. That’s what makes them unique.

Did you catch their very first show with Eric Carr in New York?

Yes.

What was that like?

Well, there’s actually a book out now that I just read called The Eric Carr Story that’s really good that I’m interviewed in extensively, talking about Eric and that show. What I remember at that time was that KISS were dying in the U.S. I mean, they didn’t play in 1980 in America outside of that show because they had no audience. Their career had fallen so hard. I mean, they were down and out. People have a hard time understanding that, but in the early ’80s, they were dead in the water. So I just remember Eric being a great sign of life and a big kick in the pants to the band. And I remember a lot of excitement from the diehards at the time.

That’s a perfect example of what I’ve talked about with my history supporting that band. I was there at that show; I embraced Eric Carr, you know? He was the Fox, he was a new character, he was new blood. If they had another guy at that time dressed up as [Carr’s predecessor] Peter Criss, I don’t think I would have been there. So that’s my point about what I was saying earlier. My book is dedicated to Eric, as well as Dio, and he was a great friend of mine over the years. And I miss him.

Do you have any favorite bootleg recordings?

No, I was never really into the bootleg scene. Most of them just sounded awful, and they eat up all this money with a bad recording. Obviously, as technology went on, we don’t need them anymore. But I just got an Instant Live recording from a Thin Lizzy show from a couple of weeks ago that I’ve been listening to, which is a phenomenal show, off the [sound]board, and it was something that they were selling at the shows afterwards, so the bootleg days are over. But I was never a big fan of that world.

Who was biggest pain in the ass personality you ever interviewed?

(Long pause.) [Anthrax bassist] Frankie Bello. That’s a joke. [Frank Bello is one of Eddie's closest friends.]

Worst concert you ever saw?

Probably, off the top of my head, something I was just talking with Sammy Hagar about, actually, was the 2004 Van Halen reunion with him. Sammy talks about it in great detail in his book, and I saw it at the Meadowlands. From the top of the show, Eddie Van Halen could not—you couldn’t tell what he was playing. He may have been playing something different from the other guys. It was the most ridiculous thing that I ever saw.

Who do you think is more likely to reunite: the original Guns N’ Roses lineup, or Van Halen with Michael Anthony?

More likely? Hmm. I think Van Halen with Michael Anthony is a lot easier; a zillion times easier. There’s less heat on it to happen because, quite honestly, reunions are driven by one thing: making more money. The only time people get pressured into doing reunions to make more money is when the current lineup is underperforming. And by bringing back the other guy, it increases their draw. And let’s be honest, Van Halen is still selling out arenas regardless of who’s on bass. But the politics of it, I think Michael Anthony’s a hell of a lot easier and much more likely. An original Guns reunion is a whole different animal.

Are you planning another New York Steel benefit concert in the works to mark the 10th anniversary of 9/11?

I would love to. We’re inching closer and closer to the anniversary, and I’ve talked to some people about it, but I have not made a definitive plan at this point. I absolutely want to do it, but my schedule for the first quarter of this year has been really hectic with the book, with the TV show, and getting things done. I just haven’t been able to wrap my head around it. Once I get through the promotion of this book and the signings and the stuff going on, that’s when I’ll really start to see who I can get, and if I can pull it off.

It’s all going to depend on scoring the bands, and making sure that they’re willing to do it in the same spirit that they did 10 years ago. Not just the bands that played there 10 years ago, but anyone else. Because I would get attached to it. It’s got to been done with that same charitable vibe, checking egos at the door, and raising money for whatever the cause may be. If it’s going to be a small club show that 300 people are going to come to, it’s just not going to be worth doing. So it’s got to be as big, if not bigger, and it’s got to be in the right spirit for us just to do it. But it’s something that I want to do—the original one was extremely important to me, and to make it work I just really have to really dedicate more time to booking the right bands.

In the book, you mention that your wife is not a metal fan. What music is there that you both share as common ground?

We both like Buckcherry.

How about with your kids?

My kids are still relatively young. My son is still really young, so he’ll bop around to whatever comes on, but my daughter’s more or less in my wife’s world, because she’s always with her and they’re listening to their stuff. They’ll put on their Lady Gaga and they’ll put on their Duran Duran, you know? I’m not going to push her in any one direction; she’ll discover what she likes going forward, and she’s getting older now—she’s seven. She’s just now really starting to get more of a grasp of understanding what I do for a living and the worlds I’m in. So maybe some of that will start to attract her and she’ll want to listen to it; I don’t know. I’m not going to push her one way or the other; it’s whatever she discovers, whatever she likes.

You also give your parents a lot of credit and even mention how cool they were when you were growing up. What kind of support did they give you as you forged a path in metal as a career choice?

It wasn’t so much metal, it was just music. As far as being the littlest kid when I was really, really young, I would put posters of KISS and Aerosmith up on my wall, and they were cool with that. There was a point where you couldn’t see what color my bedroom wall was painted, because it was covered with rock memorabilia, posters, and stuff ripped out of Circus magazine. So that was my world then, and they were always cool with it.

You know, I wasn’t a good student. I was not good in high school; I was just happy to get through. I just did a little time at a community college, but I was not really serious about school. It wasn’t because I was dumb, it was just because it wasn’t engaging to me—I was immersed in music. Even right at the early stages, you know, everything was about music. And then I worked in a record store, and I then got a radio gig, and it was just all I cared about; it was all I could taste, you know? It was my whole thing. And they never discouraged me from it, and the one thing that they always said—and it was certainly said [a lot] because I think about it to this day (laughs)—is, “Have a backup plan. You better have a backup plan; you better have something else you can do. Because if this doesn’t work out…”

Thirty years on, believe it or not, people would be shocked that I still think about a backup plan. Because you could sit there from one perspective and be like, “Oh, the guy’s set, he’s got it all,” but I live every day knowing that it could all end tomorrow, you know? I never get too high, I never get too low. I’m grateful for what I’ve accomplished, I’m grateful for the people that care about what I do, but I’m also just painfully realistic in knowing that tomorrow the bottom could fall out, and I could be out there just like everyone else, looking for a regular job.

So I don’t ever think outside of those terms. But my parents always kept me grounded in that way, and they understood that when I would go out and drive to Brooklyn (laughs) and one and get home at four in the morning, I really was just going to see a rock show; there was nothing more than that. In a way, I reciprocated that, too. I never got into the drug scene; I never really got into trouble as a kid. I just really enjoyed being around music and the bands. As a kid, maybe I had too many drinks once at a party, but that was pretty much the extent of it. They were always cool with it.

They were always cool with the records coming into the house. I mean, both of my parents are pretty strict Catholics, and they would look at an album like KISS’s Destroyer coming in—I thought they would freak out, but they got it. They were cool with it, and they never told me what I should listen to. My parents were, and still are, big music fanatics themselves now. They hit me up for concert tickets all the time. They’re probably more into going to concerts these days than I am (laughs)! Sometimes. But they’ll always want to go see whatever’s coming through; Fleetwood Mac, whatever they can do, and if I can help them, I do. My father will go see Trans-Siberian Orchestra every single year. I mean, he’s completely into it.

So they’re big music fans themselves, you know? They grew up with Elvis and all that. So they related to it and never tried to shame me or anything like that. They embraced it, but they were just always worried about my hopes of making a career out of it; what it would be if I wasn’t successful. And that’s completely understandable.

If you didn’t pursue a career in music, what do you think you might be doing today?

(Pause.) That’s a great question, because I honestly do not know. It always had to be something connected to music. The one thing I’ve managed to do is be diverse, and the very first thing I ever did was write the school music column in my high school newspaper. And then get into some radio, then I worked in retail in a music store. Then I worked for a record label [as a vice president at Megaforce] and learned how to do that and A&R, and spent time in recording studios while still doing radio. Then it was 10 years before I got into TV.

So the one thing I’ve been very conscious of is always trying to learn more and always looking for ways to diversify. Because if one pool does dry up, maybe I can chase the other one a little bit harder, and all that experience helps. But I can’t imagine—I mean, I probably would have stayed more on the business side of things and still have it be music related, but maybe I would have stayed working for the record label world, or a public concert promoter, or something more in the business end than the actual performing end. But I always knew that I could do it.

The one thing that I always had a confidence in that I could do—especially once I got into radio—there was always a part of me thinking that I could do television. I don’t know why; I just had a confidence about it. Because I just knew that I felt like I could relate to the audience and they could relate to me, and that I’d be able to do it. You know, I’m not Ryan Seacrest; I’m not some sort of super great-looking guy (laughs) by any stretch. I know my stuff and I’m relatable to the audience, and people kind of see me in them. That’s what I hear a lot: when I tell my stories, people are like, “Yeah, I had that poster, too,” you know? And I’ve never put myself above the audience. So those are the keys to what I try to do. I would think that no matter what I end up doing, it would be something to do behind the camera or behind the mike.

Do you ever think a time will come where you’d give radio up for TV or something else?

I love radio. Radio’s still my favorite thing to do. It’s still the most creative; it’s still the most immediate. It’s live; it’s spontaneous. Radio’s in a really bad place right now, unfortunately. A lot of things are recorded; what’s called voice-tracking is going on, and a lot of radio that you think you’re hearing live is not live—one DJ is on 40 stations generically and picking up a lot of jobs. The overnight shift, which is where people got their start, is gone, because it’s now turned over to computers. It’s a bad time in radio right now.

If you’re not known for something, if you didn’t carve out a niche, if people don’t listen to the radio for you, whether you’re a talk show host or a guy like me who’s known and has a following for doing something—if you’re just a voice and a nice DJ who can sell records, you’re in a tough spot right now. Because you’re getting replaced by computers and nobody’s even noticing. It’s a very scary time in radio, but the type of radio I do—which, in this business, is unique in the sense that I have carte blanche to do whatever I want—it’s still my favorite thing to do.

I push that microphone, and I don’t know what I’ll be doing. I don’t know where I’ll be going, and nothing’s planned, nothing’s scripted, and I love working with that. And it’s live and at the mike I say something and I give out the phone number and two seconds later the lines light up—I love that; I love that sense of spontaneity. So it’s still my favorite thing to do. My only problem with radio is (laughs) because of the type of show that I do, it’s always going to be a late night, one-time a week type of thing, because most program directors are petrified doing anything like that. But my dream would really be to do that Monday through Friday on a real big radio station in the afternoons; create a real show. I think that’s what’s really missing in radio.

I’m a big believer in bringing more to the table than playing records, you know? When I first started doing that, people were like, “Oh, this guy’s talking too much; all these interviews—screw that.” I saw the writing on the wall: you’ve got to bring something more to the table, otherwise you are an iPod, and that is literally what’s happening to some radio stations. So I looked at it as being a) More entertaining, and b) Helping to save what I do to have radio. So it’s really important, I think, to be diverse and keep an eye on what’s coming down the road. I love doing radio, and I love doing TV; it’s just very different animals, and you really have to adjust and adapt your mindset going into each one. But I feel that I’ve not even scratched the surface in what I want to do in either medium.

You always mention supporting the troops on your website. Is there anybody else you have a message for as we wrap up?

Well, the people that care about what I do. I’m always conscious of that. I hear a lot of stuff from people that are fans of what I do, and I greatly appreciate that. But to me, I love and admire people actually risk their lives every day, for us, whatever that is, whether it’s cops; firefighters; EMT workers, obviously; the military. To me, that stuff is staggering.

We just shot That Metal Show in L.A., and I had a couple of guys there from the Marines who are huge fans, wanting to take pictures of me and have me do stuff with them. And that, to me, is beyond humbling, because those people, as I’ve said many times, they’re real rock stars. To risk their lives for our lifestyle is just unbelievable to me. I don’t have any sort of a military background of any kind or anything, but I just have incredible, incredible respect for those men and women that do what they do for us and the life they chose, and that means a lot.

Where does that support for our everyday heroes come from?

I think a lot of it came from 9/11, and living in New Jersey and working in New York my whole life. It seems what people did, and the impact that they had on me—just like it had an impact on everybody—was a real eye-opener for me, watching people run into those buildings, knowing…

And cops and firefighters in New York that are listeners of mine, and the guys working down there would take me down there. Just the sacrifices that were made. I’m a pretty big news junkie. I’m [watching] CNN or Fox every day for a couple of hours, and I’m seeing what goes on and what goes on in other parts of the world and what these people are doing for us. And it’s something that, I think unfortunately, is a little bit overlooked, and I also think that, unfortunately, 10 years after 9/11, a lot of people buried their heads in the sand a little bit, and I always want to be vocal about it, not from a political angle so much, but really more of a thank you angle. I think that the support and thanks for all those people should never be taken for granted.

But above and beyond that, it’s funny—this Stump the Trunk thing has become so popular on the TV show, and people come up to me all the time, like, “Hey, man, you blow me away and I’m amazed at your knowledge; your knowledge is incredible to me!” And I completely appreciate where they’re coming from, but to me I always laugh at that, because to me that’s cool that you’re into it, but when I think knowledge, I think, like, I don’t know, a guy who invents the cure for cancer (laughs), you know? Somebody who can do brain surgery. That’s what I think of as mind-blowing knowledge, not a guy that’s read a lot of liner notes (laughs). But it’s flattering nonetheless, and I can’t say it enough: I cannot be more appreciative of all the people that have supported my work, and our fans through the years.

I don’t mean to come off sounding cliché here, but after 30 years of doing this, I honestly don’t think of myself as anything more than a fan.Especially now with the TV show, you see all these people wanting to meet me, they want me to sign stuff, they want to take a picture with me....I never, ever walk through life thinking, “Oh, I’m Eddie Trunk! The sea should part.” So when I see those sort of reactions, it really means a lot to me because it means I’ve made a connection, and it’s just something that’s come through a lot of hard work. I can’t thank people enough for it. I’m grateful, but I live my life knowing that I’m no better than anyone else; I just got an opportunity to do something really cool for a living. And I worked hard at it, got some breaks, and I hope to keep at it for a long time.

Eddie Trunk’s Essential Hard Rock and Heavy Metalis in stores now. For more details, click here. For information on his radio programs, That Metal Show and upcoming book signings, visit Eddie’s homepage at www.eddietrunk.com.

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