Billboard spoke with KISS legend Gene Simmons recently about a number of different topics, including the band's new album, Sonic Boom. Here are a few excerpts from the chat:

Billboard: What is the biggest myth about KISS?

Simmons: "That there's some grand master plan. That we're brilliant beyond belief, that we're masters of merchandise and all that stuff. That's giving us a lot more credit than we deserve. It's a simple idea. When you love something, and people use the word "passion," you tend to look at every rug and pick it up and see what's under it. For argument's sake, if you're a stamp collector worth your salt, you'll know every minutia about it, you'll spend all the free time you have, above and beyond your job, because you love it. And you'll know every obscure stamp, which date it came from, what condition it's in, what's the marketplace. You'll know about it because you care about it. So everything begins with a tug of the heart. People see this cold business savvy and it starts the other way around. It starts with, 'Wow, I'm in KISS'; everything else is the what-if, could-it-be, what could it be? You start with a dream without limitations. It's only when we wake up that we say, 'It's not going to happen, it probably won't.' Never listen to people, and believe in your own dreams. My point of view is Earth, that's not such a cool name for the planet. Planet KISS, now you've got something. If every inch of ground is KISS ground, and the air you breath is KISS air and the food you eat is KISS food, then we've got something. Brand everything. And you should pay us for every step along the way."

Billboard: Musically was there an objective for KISS?

Simmons: "The template was THE BEATLES. KISS always fashioned themselves as the Beatles on steroids, with lots more makeup and higher shoes. The idea was everybody sang, everybody was a star, instead of THE STONES kind of model or THE TEMPTATIONS or those kinds of bands where there's one singer and everybody else is in the background. The thing that I loved about the Beatles is they all looked like they came from the same Beatle mother. It was like the perfect band in terms of look, merchandisable, eternal. Except they never trademarked their haircuts or anything much about their faces. Kiss was the first band of any kind to ever trademark their faces. It's in the Library of Congress. Which is why 35 years later there are literally thousands and thousands of things with our faces on them, anything from KISS M&Ms; to KISS Mr. Potato Heads and KISS Visa cards. We have KISS Kondoms and KISS Kaskets. We'll get you coming, we'll get you going."

Billboard: What's your take on the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame?

Simmons: "I think it was a good idea, but it's clearly political. It's Boss Tweed, it's the old New York rotten system, where you get 10 guys in the back room who decide who's going to be in the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. I want nothing to do with that. It's a sham and those guys mean nothing. You should take a look at the photo of the guys that vote on it. Fucking scary."

Billboard: What would you still like to accomplish with KISS?

Simmons: "There's nothing we can't do. We're developing a KISS animated show, like a superhero, X-Men kind of show. We have a Las Vegas Kiss show that's being planned. I just came back from Singapore. There's nowhere we can't go and nothing we can't do. This is the weird thing. There's something going on here that even we and I don't pretend to understand. All I know is we are not going to take it for granted. We take it deadly seriously. And we intend to live up to our own legend. We intend not to let the fans down, the fans that have been there for 35 years and are probably in their 50s, some in their 60s, and the new 15-year-old fan who's heard about the legend of KISS. So many things in life are not real. Santa is not real. Superman is not real. KISS is real. And we're going to make sure that when you leave that show, your first Kiss show or the 100th, you'll walk away, whether you love the band or not, and say, 'That is the best fucking thing I've ever seen on planet Earth.' That's a vow we make to ourselves and anybody who's willing to come out there and see us."

Read the entire interview here.