The latest episode (#43) of the 80's Glam Metalcast features vocalist and guitarist from Silent Rage, Jesse Damon. He revisits their stellar debut, Don’t Touch Me There, offers an inside view of the inner workings of Simmons Records and what it was like working with KISS icon Gene Simmons. He also talks about his new solo album, Damon’s Rage.

On looking back on Don’t Touch Me There

Damon: "Sometimes it’s seems like yesterday. That music is still in my heart and still in my veins. 'Rebel With A Cause' off there became an anthem for us. It’s a catchy and fun song. That’s why we picked it to represent us back then." 

On working with Gene Simmons

Damon: "We didn’t know what to expect. We were all KISS fans, of course. It was a little intimidating at the time going to his house for that first meeting. After sitting with him for awhile, we realized he was a really good guy. He had a way of telling stories and telling jokes, he would just make you feel good. Gene always shot from the hip about what he liked. Working with him was the biggest kick in our butts in our life. 

We had brought Paul Sabu in to produce. There was a disagreement between Paul Sabu and Gene at a certain point. Gene had some strong ideas for a direction and Paul didn’t agree. So Gene stepped in and got involved with 3 or 4 songs at the end, but the main bulk of those songs came from working with Paul Sabu." 

On the lack of additional singles and the end of Simmons Records

Damon: "There was talk of doing more singles, but RCA had a shake up and lost some people within the label while our album was out. When they had that happen they started looking at sales numbers, and they just thought they weren’t going to hang onto the deal with Simmons Records. We didn’t hit a home run and get a chance to do that second single. If we had come out a little earlier, I think we would have had a better chance. Gene did start looking for some new distribution, but at this point we were all getting the news of grunge coming in. Things just weren’t in our favor. Gene still had a plan was for us, and that was to do a new album. So ultimately we went back into the studio in 1990 with Bob Ezrin producing. While this is happening there started to be a struggle and a push from Paul Stanley for Gene to get more involved with KISS. It started to become more difficult for Gene to focus on both careers. Eventually things just died. With the changes in the industry, we just missed our window of time and ended up sitting on those recordings we did with Bob for quite a long time. I have no doubt that we made the right decision on signing with Gene, but it was just bad timing with the industry changing."

On writing for (KISS album) Revenge

Damon: "We started to work with Gene demoing songs for what became Revenge. He asked me to do some co-writing. We ended up writing about six songs. One ended up on Revenge which was 'Thou Shalt Not'. 

On if there is more to come from Silent Rage

Damon: "I am hoping. I am always pushing. I already have songs I have written for Silent Rage. We were talking about doing some festival shows before the pandemic hit, so I have been in contact with the guys."