“Now, when it came to the other featured guests, for example, Gene (Simmons), Jeremy and I wrote the lyrics.  We worked on the song together and tightened it up.  He (Gene) sang it all and finished the lyrics and the vocals in the same day in the studios, which a lot fun to do.  We were at a really great studio, too, that day.  We booked Henson (on North La Brea in L.A.).  Some of that’s on film on the Family Jewels program (the Memphis Blues episode) when they had a couple of minutes of that session in that thing when they were setting up something about Nicholas going to Memphis with the family.

“Nick’s song was great.  He wrote the lyrics and they come from a very sci-fi imagery, Lord of the Rings kind of thing.  That’s what Nick is in to.  He did a terrific job with that song and we did it in a real big studio which is fun for Nick.  I think that it was his first time.”

Continuing with his incredible “who’s who” list of musicians on the album, he names:

“Doug Fieger (front man for The Knack).  He’s a real gentleman.  I already kinda had the lyrics (to Dirty Girl) and everything.  We asked him if he wanted to be involved (in writing the song) and he said, “No, just finish the song and I’ll sing it.”  He did a great job with that. In noting The Knack’s signature song, My Sharona, he states with a laugh, “I’m hoping they’ll be known for one other song – it’ll be Dirty Girl.  That’ll be fun.”

Continuing to describe the All-Star roster, he comments on Tobias Sammet’s contribution to the song, I’m The Animal.

 “Tobias, he started working on lyrics when I sent him the track.  He had some idea about it being a dog almost, with a girl that had crossed him.  I switched him in the direction of, ‘Let’s say you’re an animal – I’m the animal.’”

“So, that’s how that came about.  He was on tour with his band, Edguy, in L.A.  Next thing I know, I grabbed him while he had two days after the tour was done before going home to Frankfurt, where he lives in Germany. So, we finished the lyrics and we sang it the following day, which was great!  As you can tell, everybody like – this is over the course of a couple of years with the featured guests – they came, did their job and I was grateful to have them on my record.”

Listening to the album, one can easily detect the incredible chemistry between the various musicians.  I asked if working with them was as easy and natural as it seems.

“Yeah, you know, you’re not clear if they’re getting what you want. 

“Look, Gene is very prolific and a he’s a great song writer and I was a little concerned about what direction he would want to go with the lyrics.  He was singing something about Ain’t Gonna Die but I think he had a concept that it might be something a little more deeper, reflective kind of thing.  I immediately connected when I heard him sing that line.  I thought, ‘Well, what won’t die?’  His legend will never die; his legacy of being that iconic character on stage and his personality and everything. 

“So, once I sold him on this is where I want to go, he got it.  But, believe me, I was nervous about it because if he wanted it to be something different, it might’ve been a little stressful for me.  But in general, everybody was easy to work with.  I shouldn’t forget collaborating with John (Corabi, guitarist for Motley Crue and Ratt) - him being the easiest because I have all of that history with him with the band ‘Union’.

“I wanted the best of John.  I wanted it to be like Union.  Blue Room, the second Union album , is very strong and focused and I wanted to even blow away anything on that record.  I really felt that we accomplished something good and he dug into his angsty vibe.  I think he did a terrific job with that song. 

“But there wasn’t a lot of stress.  During the Lukather session, we just kind of let him jam and then Jeremy and I made it work within the song.  We didn’t really know – like, we didn’t go in with any total structure for him.  We let him play and, man, he can play, as you know!  He’s a monster on the guitar.”

Hoping to flush out whether or not the public would get a chance to see them perform together, I said, “It would be a special treat to watch you guys jam together on stage. Is that going to happen?

“I don’t know.  That would be interesting.  I have been doing the song with the clinics with him.  I hear him and then I answer him the way I do on the track.  Who knows?  I have jammed with him since then at the Fantasy Camp back in the spring time.  That was a lot of fun.  We were doing Push and cover songs.”

Not wanting to focus too much on the Simmons family, I was definitely interested in hearing what Bruce had to say about working with Gene’s son, Nick.  The Family Jewels co-star was born during Kulick’s KISS years.  I asked Bruce what was going through his mind working with his former boss’s son.  Bruce was enthusiastic with his response.

“Yeah!  When we reconnected about this song, I dug through some of my photos that I have and, sure enough, there’s this really funny one of him in a baby carriage on the patio of the guest house.  I sent it off to him and (laughing) he was freaking out over that.

“I’m so proud of him.  I think he’s really hilarious on The Family Jewels show. Once I got to find out what he’s about, and get into like, ‘What are you into musically?’, he played me some of the things that he liked.  And Jeremy and I are like, “Okay, these are a couple of the songs that are up for grabs and we would like for you to decide which one”, and his choice was pretty cool.