Tracii Guns doesn’t think KISS uses pre-recorded tracks.
The rocker recently chatted with The Rock Experience With Mike Brunn and reflected on what he thinks about rock bands using pre-recorded tracks:
“I would be really embarrassed to even think of doing that. It’s embarrassing to me. Could you imagine Chuck Berry playing to [pre-recorded guitar] tracks? Or Keith Richards, or anything like that?”
After saying that if he was in a rock band playing original music and they were criticized online for using pre-recorded tracks, he wouldn’t want to stay, Guns gave KISS as an example:
“There’s been so many claims that like KISS uses tracks. Man, I was there [watching them play on the ‘Kiss Kruise’], I was on stage, I was with their techs, man. Those guys lit that place up with no [pre-recorded enhancements]. I don’t know what the f*ck people are talking about.”
KISS’s Manager Defended The Band
During KISS’s End of the Road tour, Paul Stanley faced allegations that was lip-syncing during performances. This controversy put KISS in the spotlight, and later, their manager, Doc McGhee clarified that Stanley didn’t lip-sync at shows, explaining:
“He sings every track. So he sings to it. So he’s not lip-syncing. He fully sings. It’s enhanced. It’s just part of the process to make sure that everybody hears the songs the way they should be sung, to begin with. Nobody wants to hear people do stuff that’s not real; that’s not what they came to hear. He’ll sing to tracks. It’s all part of a process. Because everybody wants to hear, everybody sings. But he fully sings to every song.”
Joey Belladonna Speaks On The Allegations Against KISS
In February 2023, singer Joey Belladonna also commented on whether KISS used pre-recorded tracks during their shows. He was unsure as he said:
“I can’t speak for them; I don’t know what’s going on. I don’t know. I heard all about other stuff, too; even my bass player went and saw them once, and he was like, ‘Something going on here.’ Obviously, one of the hardest things, too, I think. [It] seems like there’s a bit of unfairness there.”
During a fan-recorded soundcheck in Berlin last year, Stanley also sarcastically dismissed accusations of lip-syncing on a YouTube video. He joked that they weren’t really playing or singing, calling it all fake.
You can watch the rest of Guns’ conversation below.