Legendary Rock Interviews' John Parks has issued an interview with Steve Coronel, best known as the original guitar player in WICKED LESTER, Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley’s pre-KISS recording act. An excerpt follows:

Q: You have such a unique vantage point to the KISS story from having grown up with Gene. Have you thought of writing a book?

A: "You’re probably the 6th person to ask me that John. I’m not sure how many people are going to wanna read a book of my memories of Gene although if you’ve listened to any of my other interviews it is pretty insightful for the die-hard KISS fans. KISS has an audience that are into every little fucking detail about these guys, how they lived, how they ate, how they shit (laughs). I could tell you everything about Gene from age 13 to age 21, everything, because I was with him all day, every day and the things I remember are unbelievable but to me it’s just the way it was. It’s not a big deal, it’s the same teenage stuff that all of us go through, regular shit. When Gene and I were together we were kids and we did what we did you know? If I did a book it wouldn’t be for the money. I’ve made a lot of money designing expos over the years. I’ve designed for every kind of budget, everything from 20,000 dollars to 44 million dollars, I’m not rich like a rockstar is but I’ve done okay. I’m comfortable talking about my time with those guys and I can tell all those stories all day long but I’m not looking to get paid for it. I’m realistic about that."

Q: You went backstage on the recent KISS/MÖTLEY CRÜE tour? How was that?

A: "It was brief but nice, it was nice seeing Stan and Gene again. I hadn’t seen Gene since about 1995 when we had met at a Japanese hotel on 55th street off of Madison Avenue. I was working at the Sony building as a designer at the time. We had dinner together and talked a couple hours, Steve Leber (former AEROSMITH manager) and we were all munching on cookies together and I think he just thought I was part of the entourage because he was asking Gene all this stuff like, 'How much do we charge for tickets', and Gene was saying 75 or 80 bucks and then they started talking about going after callgirls and I was like, 'I gotta get going guys, I have to go home to my wife she’s going to kill me' (laughing), and Gene was like, 'Oh, Steve has to go home to his wife', and was pissed off at me and I was like, 'Whaddya want from me? I can’t get away with what you get away with, my wife is all over me, I can’t do that I’m just a regular married guy'. It was funny. I did hear from Gene back in 2001 when my mother died, I was out at my father’s place in California and Gene calls up and I said, 'How did you get me???', and Gene said, 'Your wife called me up and told me your mother died'. Now my wife is Jewish, I’m half Jewish but she and Gene are full Jewish so she had Gene’s number and she just calls him up and says, 'You better call Steve his mother died!!' (laughing) and Gene, the big star that he is, to his credit, he called me. That’s the thing a lot of people miss about Gene. He has a great heart. Don’t mistake his arrogance and all of that on TV because he has a very kind and considerate side to him. Underneath all of that is a very, very good person. As a friend, he would do anything for me, if I really had a problem, he’d do anything for you. He’s a very sincere and kind guy but back to this recent backstage thing, it was not a long meeting but it was very nice. The show was FUCKIN great, I have seen lots and lots of KISS shows since 1974. They’ve changed everything that they used to do physically to digital media like the background and the fire lights and the logo but they have some great artists. As a designer, I was impressed. I really, really liked the show."

Read the full interview at this location.