Marko Syrjala at Metal-Rules.com recently caught up with KEEL frontman Ron Keel. An excerpt from the interview is available below.

Q: Because I’m a huge KISS fan by myself I have ask about your studio sessions with Gene Simmons when he was your producer for Right To Rock and Final Frontier albums?

Keel: "When we got signed we got a record deal, the president of the record company Danny Goldberg gave me a list of potential producers, just a handwritten sheet with maybe five, ten names on it, I don't remember? I remember seeing the piece of paper and saying Gene Simmons, that was it for me. Just immediately because seven years before that I'd been at a KISS concert, my first concert was KISS and I'm in the front row getting blood spilled over me and caught his guitar pick. KISS was a big influence, certainly a favorite band of mine. I thought how cool would that be to have Gene Simmons produced the first major Keel album. And they set up a meeting at a Beverly Hills hotel with Gene and I went to his room, we talked a bit at the hotel. We were still finishing Lay Down The Law, the first Keel album. The only new song we had and one piece of music recorded and I had lyrics for it. This was a song called 'The Right To Rock' and it didn't even have any vocal on the tape. So I had to put it in his boom box and hit play and sing the song and say Gene it's my turn to spit all over him and I yelled 'The Right to Rock' right there like as close as you and I are in his hotel room and about halfway through the song he hit stop. He stopped the player and he looked at me and he says 'I'm going to produce this record.' We're going to start Tuesday. And that's how it started man, he was obviously a big help to us in so many ways."

"Having his name associated with us, a lot of KISS fans bought that album, a lot of KISS fans, a lot of rock fans in general. We had instant credibility because of Gene's name. He could make a phone call and make things happen, he would call Ozzy: 'Ozzy, you need to take Keel on tour with you,' you know stuff like that. Taught us a lot about how to make a great album, about the songs and how to create and capture magic at the studio to create that atmosphere and to try anything. Both the fact that we were very disciplined and very rehearsed, but we were also flexible and we weren't scared to try new ideas in the studio. That combination of discipline and flexibility was the key and that's something that Gene brought to us. Made sure that we were tight and well rehearsed in every key pattern, every bass line, everything was mapped out in terms of the music and the basic song structure. But he wasn't afraid to during the recording stop. 'Hold on, I want to put a bridge here, we can put a bridge after the song' or whatever. So there's an additional break on bridge that wasn't rehearsed and never planned. Stuff like that. So those lessons that he taught us 25 years ago are still with us. He's a mentor and a teacher. He was with us in spirit during the recording of this new album. He's constantly in my mind looking over my shoulder and guiding me (laughs)."

Go to this location for the complete in-depth interview.