MyDesert.comQ: So the last time you were here, it was five years ago. Is that your thing, coming here every five years?
A: That's right, I'm on the five-year rotation. It's my style.
Q: What do you remember about your first Bob Hope?
A: I remember how nervous I was the first tee. It was the first time I did a major tournament like that. These days, I'm a little more settled in. I've done a few of these. I actually have my own celebrity pro-am up in Oregon. I've been around this, so I'm a little more comfortable with this.
Q: This is looking like Oregon weather this week.
A: It's a little wet, but we can handle that. (Wednesday) is beautiful as long as the wind doesn’t kick up too much. It's just great to be here.
Q: I was looking up a clip from five years ago and I was joking with you about Kiss's farewell tour back then, and you just got done with another big tour and an album.
A: Kiss is bigger than ever now. I'm not just saying that. The band had resurgence, a rebirth with a whole new slew of younger Kiss fans. The band is bigger than ever. This last tour, the Kiss Alive 35 Tour, which finished a month ago, we played up in Canada at Quebec City, to 98,000 people, in Ottawa, 50,000. We played all the major arenas in the U.S., and Europe and South America stadiums. We're starting again in a couple months in Europe again on the Sonic Boom over Europe tour. Sonic Boom was released in October. I was talking to Rocco Meidate and he said it was one of his favorite new records.
Q: Oh wow, I need to go out and get it.
A: Yeah, if Rocco likes it, you know it's good.
Q: That's the gold standard, like the Oprah Book Club?
A: Yeah, exactly. As far as golfers out here, he has some good musical knowledge. There are a lot of other guys too. Shaun Micheel is a buddy of mine and a guitar player. Of course, John Daly. We jam a lot. It's all good.
Q: These farewell tours, once you say farewell tours, it seems to create more interest, like with the Rolling Stones.
A: I don't know if what we're doing now is a farewell tour. That farewell tour was a farewell to the original lineup. That was the end of that. We don't consider these to be farewell tours, but resurgence.
Q: What do you attribute the resurgence to? I know Gene Simmons has a successful reality show and has been more visible.
A: There are a lot of pieces to the puzzle. It's a new band, well relatively new with myself and Eric Singer, there's a new energy to the band. Gene's show is done really well. We've done a lot of network TV. American Idol finale, Adam Lambert sang with us. It's just a lot of different things. TV commercial, Dr. Pepper, we shot a new one and it's going to debut at the Super Bowl this year. All kind of profile awareness and it's adding up. We also have songs on Guitar Hero and Rock Band. That's a big deal.
