Peter Criss Talks New Music, Insists ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll’s Not Dead’

Peter Criss is getting ready to release his first new music in close to a decade -- and unlike his former Kiss bandmate Gene Simmons, he insists rock 'n' roll is very much alive.

Speaking to an audience of fans at a Q&A hosted by Eddie Trunk on Nov. 28, Criss offered an update on his long-gestating follow-up to 2007's 'One for All' LP. "I've been sitting on a record ... I'd done this thing like five years ago and I'm still messing with it," he said. "I'm not done, because I don't want to rush it. The sad thing is, you put music out today, and you download it immediately."

But even if Criss has a beef with the instant gratification of digital downloading, he still feels pretty good about rock in general. Offering a rebuttal to Simmons' much-debated assertion that "rock is dead," he told the crowd, "Rock 'n' roll's not dead -- I don't wanna hear that, that rock's dead. It's far from dead. It's just not maybe doing what it used to. So I'm gonna release, probably, singles again. Like a 45, with two songs instead of 13. It just isn't fair for the artist -- you put out your songs, download it and there's really nothing going on."

As for when fans might be able to hear some of this new stuff, Criss stayed coy, saying he'd been working with Rob Zombie guitarist John 5, but reiterating, "I wanna take my time with it. I'm putting more time into it. I want it to be heavier than I've usually done myself -- and then I'll get 'It's too heavy, you should go back and do light stuff.'" Laughing, he added, "Fans are never happy. You guys aren't! No matter what we ever do, you're like 'Oh, that sucks.'"

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