A Rock N' Roll Surprise

“Did you ever imagine Garth Brooks shredding a Kiss anthem at the Kennedy Center Honors?” That’s the question Ben Rogers, Jeff “Skin” Wade, Kevin “KT” Turner, and Krystina Ray dive into in this hilarious and nostalgic episode of The Ben and Skin Show.The crew cracks open Christina’s Cookie Jar to serve up a wild story: Kiss is being honored at the Kennedy Center on December 7th, and Garth Brooks is set to perform “Shout It Out Loud.” But why Garth? The gang explores his surprising Kiss connection, including his goth alter ego Chris Gaines, and debates whether he’s the “Kiss of Country Music.”

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Let's time the pop the.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
Heads from Pristina's scoopy jar.

Speaker 3 (00:16):
Jobs.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
So back in August, I always gotta wait for that.
Back in August, the Kennedy Center announced that they were
going to be honoring Kiss this year, and that ceremony,
if you want to call it that, it's coming up quick,
December seventh. Now we all know that after this announcement,
we lost the great Ace Freely tragically. It's been a
month now, Yeah, we lost as Freely. But Gene Simmons said,

(00:51):
don't worry. We're going to pay a special tribute to
as Freely. He will be there with us in spirit.

Speaker 3 (00:56):
Now, you immediately think of a hologram since at the
very last kishow they did kiss hologram.

Speaker 2 (01:01):
I mean he didn't mention that he did. No, he
did not mention that.

Speaker 3 (01:04):
That's the first thing that jumps into my mind.

Speaker 2 (01:06):
But that would be kind of cool. That'd be a
first at a Kennedy Center awards.

Speaker 1 (01:10):
Right.

Speaker 2 (01:12):
Well, he did say that they're going to have an
empty chair with Ace's name on it, But he also
said they're going to bring out Garth Brooks to not
only do a speech on how Kiss has changed his life,
but perform a song.

Speaker 1 (01:28):
Oh, their country song.

Speaker 2 (01:30):
No, not a country song. No, but good callback Ben,
He's going to play shout it out loud.

Speaker 3 (01:37):
Hell yeah, that's a great song.

Speaker 2 (01:38):
So I just I wanted to ask you guys, if
you were aware that Garth Brooks had a kiss connection
big enough for him to play at the Kennedy Center.

Speaker 3 (01:48):
Here's an alternate personality is Chris Gaines.

Speaker 4 (01:52):
Chris Gaines, which was goth.

Speaker 3 (01:53):
He just all up and make it just like Kiss
did and became Chris Gaines.

Speaker 4 (01:57):
Anything like Robert Smith when in that ye or whatever.

Speaker 1 (02:00):
It is kind of making sense that he's the Kiss
of country music too.

Speaker 3 (02:04):
Yea.

Speaker 1 (02:04):
His shows were really good.

Speaker 3 (02:06):
I think that I think that if anyone is of
this age that Ben and I are at, no matter
what they got into later in life, they probably liked
kiss when they were kids. You know, this might be
too small of reference for our listening audience, but there
was a friend of ours that passed away, Chadwick Murray,
and he was the lead singer of a soul band.

(02:26):
His growing up, Kiss was his jam. He had kiss
stuff all over his house. Like it doesn't really matter
who you are if your middle age. Ben's going to
be the double Nickel tomorrow. If you're that age, you
could have gotten into classical music in your twenties. You
probably liked Kiss when you were nine years old. Like
they were so effing popular and it was a convergence

(02:49):
of rock music and theater, and the kind of theater
that was like so cool to kids. I mean, you know,
you had the star child from out of Space and
a guy in dragon boots that spit fire. I mean,
you had the cat Man. I mean it was just
all so chaotic and weird.

Speaker 1 (03:09):
And if you're mind Christina's age, you probably liked Garth
Brooks growing yes, all right, Oh you're right right, like
our good friend, uh George, who was a drummer for
Son of Stan and a lot of stuff, played for Ringo, Yeah,
played with Ben Harper, all these people. But go ask
him what he thinks about Garth Brooks.

Speaker 3 (03:27):
He loves Garth.

Speaker 1 (03:28):
He's like, this's my favorite performer of all time. Yeah,
he's awesome.

Speaker 4 (03:31):
Would you say that people your age Katie and Christina
are more familiar with the movie Role Models than actual Kiss, Yes,
because Kiss had a great part of that movie.

Speaker 1 (03:45):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (03:46):
Yeah, they were like a metaphor in a lot of ways.
There's a reason because it's about identity performance. That's what
the movie's about.

Speaker 1 (03:52):
But I would say, like, as a ten year old
in the late nineties, we knew who Kiss was. Yeah,
you know, like they were. Also they've been a part
of our live forever.

Speaker 3 (04:01):
They've been a part of your lives. But also for
reasons like what happens is huge things in pop culture
get rearticulated every decade or so if it's big enough,
Like in other words, all of you guys know the Beatles,
and the Beatles haven't had a hit since nineteen seventy one, right,
But it's such a big part of American and really
world history that it keeps getting recycled and then regurgitated

(04:23):
in new popular culture. Kiss was the same way. There
was a whole spade of movies in the nineties and
two thousands that involved Kiss.

Speaker 1 (04:31):
Somewhere Happy Gilmore, the grandma puts on the Kiss mass yes,
to make them happy, just to cheery man.

Speaker 3 (04:37):
And that's what happens. Those kids get older and they
start making movies and TV shows and records, and they
talk about their influences.

Speaker 2 (04:44):
I will say I thought of this not too long ago.
I think kiss is the only band where I know
almost all of the members by first and last name.

Speaker 1 (04:52):
But none of their song right.

Speaker 2 (04:54):
I know, Beth and I want to rock and roll
all night and that's it. Do you know? Shout it out?
The one that Garth is gonna play. I'm sure I
heard it's bad. It's great thanks to you guys. I've
heard love gun. But I think it's insane to me
that I know who kisses and the members, but I
couldn't really name a whole lot of songs.

Speaker 3 (05:12):
If Garth Brooks was doing it right, he would actually
perform the song that I believe Ace Freely sang, which
is called Parasite.

Speaker 1 (05:19):
He's just put the makeup onto.

Speaker 4 (05:21):
Oh, no doubt he would, right He would he do
Ace Freeley's or as a tribute or would he come
up with his own version? And then he might juggalo
Great stuff, Christina, all right, there's the Cookie jard coming
up next, and Around the Sports five things that shape

(05:44):
DFW sports history, and then a little wildlife news that's
all coming your way next on The Benskin Show.