This Fall, renowned Rock and Metal Producer/Musician Bob Kulick released Pure Fire – The Ultimate Kiss Tribute, a reissue of the star-studded compilation album known as Spin the Bottle from 2004. After the album’s release, I had the opportunity for a phoner with Bob himself, during which we had a thorough discussion of the original making of this record, in addition to Bob’s solo album Skeletons in the Closet, his appearances at the Kiss Expo, Rock n Roll Fantasy Camp, and Kiss Kruise Pre-Party, as well a prospective new Metal Christmas album on the horizon. Check out the interview below:

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The latest news on the radar of Bob Kulick is the reissue of your KISS tribute album, Pure Fire, originally known as Spin The Bottle. Why the reissue and rebranding of this record now? 

Well, it seemed like a good time with all of the KISS-centric information going on about “The End of The Road” and all of this stuff. But actually, the real reason was that, the person that I produced this record with, Bruce Bouillet and I, were able to acquire the DA-88 machines that we had recorded all of these recordings, from 1997 to 2004 on, and these were digital recorders, this was right before the advent of Pro Tools and all of the computer-based stuff that we use now. We listened to this record, and it was like, “Wow”, this is not a record that was fixed. Not a record that was tuned, copied and pasted, and all of that. Looking at the making of DVD, it was like a time capsule from fourteen years ago. Our friend at Cleopatra Records, Brian Perera, wanted to reissue this record and wanted to change the artwork, because the other artwork was inappropriate, and so Bruce and I are the producers, we dug this out of the vault, and here it is now, fourteen years later, including the making of the DVD. 

Tell me about Pure Fire, that’s an awesome title, but what’s behind that title?

You know, just a title that expresses that these guys were on fire when they played and sang, really, and that these songs and the whole circumstances…just seemed like it was all on fire, so the title stuck, so to speak, and there it is. Pure Fire. 

As the original album was released 14 years ago, it does include recordings from some artists unfortunately no longer with us – like Lemmy, for example – what was it like for you to be going back and revisiting tracks from these artists at this point? 

Well, what really stuck out was, how damn good all of it is. That, because of what I’m saying to you, this is not a record that was done with Pro Tools, you look at the making of, you see no computer screen. There is no studio in the world now that has no computer screen. You won’t see one in the video. What you’ll see is a stack of DA-88’s, and that tells you the story that I’m telling you – organic performances. The drums were not Beat Detective, the whole thing wasn’t put up on a grid so it’d be perfect, the vocals weren’t put through layers of pitch correct and auto-tune and this, that, and the other thing. This is the exact opposite of that. These are organic performances, and they’re incredibly organically great. 

Exactly the way it should be, honestly. You’re talking about Beat Detective, tuning, all of that, and that’s unfortunately very predominant now on the music scene —

Predominant is the right word, but the other thing about it is the bar has been lowered by the fact that people who really are not qualified to play, or sing, are able to act like they can play and sing. And this is nothing like that. 

Exactly. This is the real thing.

Got some big, real cats, yeah. And a couple of real cool girls, we had two girls on this record that I’m very proud of as well. 

There were so many guests involved, but how was this record originally done with everyone involved, did everyone come together at different times, some record remotely, was it done in each individual group, how was it all coordinated for physically getting everyone together for this? 

Well, it took some time, obviously. There were a few farm-outs, as we say, stuff that had to be sent out, but the vast, vast majority of people all came to the studio, as you see in the video. The video was shot at my old studio in Los Angeles, so you see most of the artists came directly there. As far as the reason for this, that, and the other thing, if you’re looking at the time this was done, the opening acts for KISS were Winger, Slaughter, and people like that, they’re on this record. So a lot of people that were involved in the band in some format are on this, and sprinkled throughout, I think in a nice mix-and-match of those who were just fans, and those who have stories to tell, which are on the making-of DVD. Aynsley Dunbar, who auditioned for the band. Mark Slaughter and Kip Winger, talking about their experiences being with the band on tour. Lemmy expressing his disinterest in wearing makeup on stage, you know, “If I had to wear makeup every night, I wouldn’t want to do it”, and all of the funny and interesting stuff about the different people involved is what makes it so interesting. 

Definitely. And, I mean, it just further proves what you’re saying about it being the real thing and pre-Pro Tools, because it isn’t people literally dialing it in by recording it in their home studio and sending it in kind of thing, but everyone did it the traditional way of coming into your studio, getting together, and getting it done, which is awesome. 

Exactly.

Now Bob, you are a Producer and Engineer, you’re a recording artist, you’ve been a session player plenty of times as well – as a musician, what originally drew you more to the studio and behind-the-scenes production side of things, more so than the live side of things? 

Well, opportunities for life stuff for what I was interested in became less and less, and I became more and more interested in being in the studio, and bands approached me, would try to have me produce records, demos, or whatever, for these bands. I was using a bunch of different studios, but was looking for a place to work out of, and I met someone who introduced me to Billy Sherwood, who is now the lead singer of Yes, and he had a studio, and we started working together, and he left, and Bruce Bouillet, the guy that I did this record with, came in. So we started to get on these compilation records and stuff, aside from working with Motörhead, which is what Bruce and I mainly did between ’97 and 2004, we did most of the Motörhead recordings. These records just became fun to do, especially this one, with all of the cool people on there. And then having Jack Sawyers, who did the video for this, we just worked on a project, I have a video coming out shortly for a song that’s being re-released, something that I did with David Glen Eisley years ago, a song called “India”. And you’ll be able to see that shortly. But this all part of the group of people that I wound up working with that are still around that I’m still working with. 

That’s awesome, and that video sounds like something to look forward to as well. Now, from a musician’s perspective, how you actually learned how to produce and record these records, was that something that just came about as a result of being hands-on involved with it all?

It came as a result of watching other people produce, it came as a result of being in the studio, and meeting all of the people that I ended up hiring to play on these records. Mostly were people that I had met on the road touring with Meatloaf, for instance, or Paul Stanley in ’89, you know, I met a lot of people on the road, and people saw me as a musician. And when I called them as a producer, they realized that I was not just a Producer/Engineer. That I was not just a producer who let people do their things and just have somebody assist and pointing out who to hire, all of that. They realized, “Well, this is a player. Somebody that we can talk to in musical terms, somebody who we’ve seen play, and this made it so much easier, because they saw that I was wearing a different hat, but I was the same person, same musical person, that they could relate to. And that was key. 

Absolutely, they realized that you had those shared experiences, so they know when you talk to them as a producer, you’re also saying it to them as a guitarist, as a composer/musician. That’s a really cool perspective. 

It absolutely helps.

Now I also want to ask you a bit about your solo album you released not too long ago, Skeletons In The Closet, if you’d like to talk a little about what went into the making of that one for you?

I had not really planned on doing a record at this point in my life, but I was very lucky, my girlfriend, Julie Bergonz, the photographer who took the photos on the back and the inside of Skeletons In The Closet, basically encouraged me by saying, “You work with everybody, produced all these people, played on all this stuff…where’s your record?” You know, so I had a few songs that I was fooling with, original material that no one had ever heard, called a bunch of my friends to see if they would want to participate on Bob’s solo record with 23 guests. Started getting a bunch of new songs, added a few songs from Bob’s “skeletons in the closet”, so to speak, and it was a record. So I’m really proud of that and there’s some really cool stuff on there. And, you know, having all my friends on there, Dee Snider, Rudy Sarzo, Frankie Banali, Vic Wright, you know, all these other people that I have on here are just friends of mine that were happy to participate. They loved the material and they just thought, “Wow, this is really cool”. So that was a great event that I was able to actually do this with my co-producer I’ve been working with as well, Bobby Ferrari, and it turned into a really good situation that I really felt good about. And it got great reviews.

It sounds like it was a pretty fun experience overall, the kind of thing that just pulled together. 

Exactly. It was a fun experience, it definitely was. 

Now, you referred to “new songs”, as well as “Bob’s skeletons in the closet”, is that where the title came from, were these things that you literally had in your back pocket, so to speak, that you brought out for this record?

Just the songs I was sort of working on, I’m always looking to write songs, this way you have some stuff to be able to draw upon if the circumstance arised, and in this case, it did. The circumstance was, “Okay, so here’s an original song called ‘London’, that I wrote with my old Balance band with Doug Katsaros”, you know, Dee Snider loved the song, and Robin McAuley, we approached him with the song “Not Before You”, and he said, “I would love to sing this”, and so again, it really worked out great. Very lucky that all these people participated. 

Over the years in your experience as a producer, it especially seems you have a knack for gathering lots of guests, notable names in the rock and metal worlds for large-scale albums like this. One other one that I wanted to ask you about was, probably one of the best holiday albums out there, especially for metalheads, We Wish You a Metal Xmas. Can you talk about the production of that a bit?

That was one of the most fun projects that we ever did. Having the cast of characters that we had, to be able to put together a band of…Lemmy, Billy Gibbons, and Dave Grohl, was *laughs* beyond anybody’s expectations. To have Ronnie James Dio with Tony Iommi and Rudy Sarzo and Simon Wright, that was hilariously a great combination of Ronnie’s band when he played with Black Sabbath, and then Ronnie’s new band. Obviously, the Alice Cooper track was one of our favorites, you know, Alice’s sense of humor with “Santa Claws Is Coming To Town”, really made it something unique and unusual, and that was the idea, was to take these songs, and have fun with them. Which everybody did, and I’m looking forward to making another one soon. 

Ah! So there’s another one on the horizon, then?

Correct, yeah. I’m working with Wendy Dio. The We Wish you a Metal Xmas one was a total pleasure, and she was able to hook up a few of the artists that I was not in touch with, and together we made a really great team, and came up with something that everybody still loves today, as you’re mentioning. 

Absolutely. I mean, it’s just a fun record overall. It’s funny because you said about how fun it was to put together, I feel like that really comes out when you’re listening to it as well, I know the first time I heard it was just like, “This is great! It’s so much fun”. 

Well, that’s always helpful. And that’s the thing about it, if you can have fun doing it, it shows. 

Definitely. On another note that’s not quite related to the studio, not too long ago, you made an appearance at the Kiss Expo on Long Island, I believe it was the first of its kind, and as I am a Long Islander myself, I was at the event, so I wanted to know if you could talk a bit about being a part of that event?

It was a fun event, I got to see a bunch of my friends that I hadn’t seen in a while, Carmine Appice, for instance, Rudy Sarzo, who’s my good friend but I don’t see him that often, so that was really nice. And to be on my old stomping grounds of New York, Long Island, Queens, Brooklyn, is where I grew up, so that was a lot of fun. 

Awesome. Another event you had some recent involvement in was the Rock n Roll Fantasy Camp alongside Paul Stanley, Tommy Thayer, and plenty others, have you ever been involved with the Rock n Roll Fantasy Camps before, and how was it? 

It was great. Michael Devin, the bass player from Whitesnake’s, campers, came to the studio, we have a really amazing studio here in Las Vegas called Studio at the Palms, and the campers had a really organic experience. In a studio like that, you can really set up as a band and play, which they did. We just overdubbed some vocals, added a few guitars…it was a great experience for the campers to be in a real studio with myself and the Producer/Engineer I mentioned before, Bobby Ferrari, had a great time, and it was something fun to do, tell some stories, and, you know…have people set up and play like the old days, you had your own individual mix in your headphones, you want more of you, you can just do that, you know? A real studio where people can record like the old days. 

Yeah, I think that’s a really great experience for those campers, as you say, as well, because it gives them a taste of what you were describing about the Pure Fire record, and how it was originally recorded, that “pre-Pro Tools days organic, going in and doing it the way it’s supposed to be done” kind of thing. 

Yeah, exactly. It was a great experience for all.

I always like to wrap things up with an outlook into the near future for an artist, so…you already let loose some information about the Metal Christmas album coming up, but what else is on the horizon for Bob Kulick?

Well, I’ll be touring at The Gathering a week from today in Miami, at the pre-KISS Kruise party, I’ll be appearing there, it’s going to be a really great party with Vinnie Vincent, Four By Fate, Lydia Criss, and John Harte, people associated with KISS, obviously. The place is sold out, there’s going to be 1200 people there, it’s going to be a really great party, and a great event. I have this video coming out, of “India”, which is really something special, and several recording projects that are about to get underway, so it’s a pretty full plate, and I’m looking forward to people hearing some of the new stuff that I’m working on. 

Excellent! Sounds like a lot of stuff to look forward to, and I’m looking forward to seeing what you have coming up as well. Thank you so much for taking the time to talk with me, Bob. 

Chelsea, thank you so much, really appreciate the time.