Kiss This

"Ultimately, I don't fool myself," Simmons says. "This is ear candy. It's not about the secret of life. We don't pretend to know what it all means, 'cause we don't have a f---ing clue. Even the Greeks only got as far as 'I think, therefore I am.'" However, Plato-not to mention Descartes-did not have to spend all day making videos, a chore neither Simmons nor Stanley minds all that much. "This is a blessed life-a wonderful way to live," Stanley says grandly as he oversees the filming of a scene for "Unholy"-a group of preteens skipping around a pentagram. Even making videos into the night, one of the most tedious tasks in show business, is fun to him. "It's no different than when I was 15 years old and I'd be standing in front of the mirror playing along to Jimi Hendrix records," says Stanley. "Except now it's my record." Such is the essence of Kiss' existence. For almost four decades, rock & roll has promoted a myth: that those who make it, and to some extent those who listen to it, can stay young and horny forever. It is, of course, a cruel joke-except to Kiss. Kiss is as close to a fountain of youth as it gets in rock & roll. Go ahead and laugh, but what have you done lately? "I don't know what the f--- else I'd do if I woke up in the morning-be a wrestler?" says Simmons. "You want to be in Kiss."