TCB
By Christopher Gray, Fri., May 9, 2003
KISS and Tell
Imagine getting a phone call from one of your childhood idols saying he's heard your album and wants to record one of your songs. That's what happened to local singer-songwriter and longtime KISS fan Matt McCormack. A few months ago, McCormack was surfing past Gene Simmons' Web site when he noticed a call for submissions for Simmons' upcoming solo album. Intrigued, McCormack sent in a copy of his album Here We Go Again and didn't hear anything until about three weeks ago when the notorious pussy hound and rock & roll destroyer called to say he had taken a liking to the song "Pride." After a couple more weeks of e-mailing back and forth, Simmons flew to Austin last week and spent three days recording the song at Slaughter House Studios with McCormack, co-author Ryan Carter of Dewato, and studio owner Mark Addison, Nina Singh, and Will Sexton. "He sang it great," relates McCormack. "He was such a gentleman about it." Simmons also accompanied the crew to the Bitter End, where he was "mobbed," and doled out plenty of music-business advice and tales of his dalliances with Cher and Diana Ross. "He was just flooring you with all these stories, giving you all these little classic rock moments," McCormack says. "Everything was about girls and money and sex and how he owns it all. It was real tongue-in-cheek." With Simmons, how could it have been anything else?
