How KISS and Aerosmith Shaped Punk's DNA [Highlight From Episode 314]

Author Sahan Jayasuriya on how classic rock bands, including KISS and Aerosmith, helped influence punk rock.

Listen to Episode 314: Die Kruezen: Milwaukee's Hidden Punk Pioneers

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Here's a highlight from a recent episode of Booked on Rock.
This episode's guest is Sahan Jai Siria, the author of
Don't Say Please, The Oral History of De Kreutzen. They
were into a broad range of music, which you did
talk about. They were fans of classic rock bands like Kiss,
cec are Zeppelin, ACDC, Aerosmith. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Yeah, I mean, I think one of the things that
I learned, you know, like I came up listening to
punk and hardcore. You know, I'm I'm almost forty, I'll
be turning forty in October. So the classic rock thing
was not really anything that I really paid much attention
to as a young kid. I loved Queen. I was
a huge Queen fan, but you know, some of the
other bands maybe just they didn't really connect with me.

(00:44):
And it wasn't really until later in life that like,
especially like the glam stuff that really resonated with me.
And I think they came from really liking a lot
of seventies punk, but a lot of the classic rock
stuff didn't resonate with me. And I think it's because
I had other, you know, punk things to listen to.
But the thing that I learned and researching this book
and just reading about this period in general, is a
lot of people who listen to punkin hardcore bands. Of course,

(01:06):
they weren't listening to punk and hardcore because they were
helping invent it. So they were listening to the heaviest
music available, and the heaviest available was like hard rock
and classic rock, you know. And so many people you
know who are like kind of gen X age group,
they you know, Kiss was a big deal for them.
It was like a early early influence because it was
just like it was made for teenage kids. You know,

(01:27):
they look like cartoon characters. You know, it's just guitar
solos and flamethrowers and in ball machines. It makes so
much sense for a certain a person of a certain
age at a certain time to be a Kiss fan, right,
So all those things were just like you know, the edgiest,
you know, like gnarliest thing available. And I think so

(01:49):
many people who went on to play in punkin hardcore
bands definitely did their time listening to you know, classic
rock them and that stuff. I mean, thround, sweet and slight,
but all that stuff is great, you know.

Speaker 1 (02:03):
I think it's interesting and reading a lot about grunge
bands and how much they were influenced by early Aerosmith
and Black Sabbath. I hear that often early Smith and
Black Sabbath.

Speaker 2 (02:14):
Yeah, well, I mean the early Aerosmith records are pretty
pretty cool. I mean, especially you know, the vocalist for
Decrots and Da Kevinski. He cites Stephen Tyler as a
huge influence. When he first told me that in person,
years before I was writing the book, I was just like,
I wasn't expecting it, because again I didn't realize that
some of these like people who listen who made punk
and hardcore were listening to classic rock. But I was

(02:34):
thinking about it. I was like, well, you think about
the end of dream On where he's really pushing his
voice into like screaming territory. I'm like, oh, that makes sense,
you know. But yeah, I mean the grunge bands. I mean,
Kirkobane is a huge fan of like a record like
Rocks by Aerosmith. He loved that record.

Speaker 1 (02:49):
You know, yeah, it's dirty, it's it's it's grungy.

Speaker 2 (02:53):
Yeah totally, you know, I mean the sound of that
record rules. That's a that's a that's a great record.
I'm not like the world's biggest Aerosmith fan, but they
have some rec as A definitely dig for sure,