Bob Dylan Once Said KISS Listeners Were Headed to the “Pit,” but He Wrote a Song for the Band Anyway

In 1978, Bob Dylan stunned the world and his fans when he announced his conversion to Christianity. Following his conversion, Dylan released a string of three Christian-oriented albums and spoke fairly publicly about his conversion. In one instance, Dylan spoke about his Christian beliefs in the context of KISS and rock ‘n’ roll.

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As historians and fans of Dylan know, the masses weren’t completely won over by his new artistic direction. As fans do, they vocalize their perspectives, and as the story goes, they once vocalized their perspective on the matter during a 1979 Dylan concert in Arizona. Specifically, a fan reportedly yelled during a Dylan show, “rock ‘n’ roll!”

Responding to this comment, Dylan stated, “If you want rock ‘n’ roll, you go down and rock ‘n’ roll…You can go and see KISS and you can rock ‘n’ roll all the way down to the pit,” per Portland Mercury. Despite these comments, Gene Simmons seemingly held no ill will towards Dylan, as they collaborated on the song “Waiting For The Morning Light” years later.

Gene Simmons Bought a Bob Dylan “Lottery Ticket” and Won

In 2004, Gene Simmons released his provocatively titled solo album, A—hole. The album was Simmons’ second solo album, and featured collaborations with Dave Navarro, Richie Kotzen, Eric Singer, Shannon Tweed, the son of Frank Zappa, and, of course, Bob Dylan.

Around the time of the album, Simmons reached out to Dylan’s team to see if he wanted to collaborate. Needless to say, this dream came true, and recalling how this dream came to be, Simmons stated, “Everybody buys lottery tickets. What are their chances of winning? Not much. So what? There is a chance you can win, and I’m like that,” per Pulse of Radio via Blabbermouth.

“So I called his manager: ‘Can I speak with Bob?’ ‘What do you wanna talk to him about?’ ‘I … I wanna write a song with Bob.’ And all of a sudden, within two days, an unmarked van shows up at my house, and Bob gets out with an acoustic guitar in his hand, and tells his driver, ‘I’ll see you at the end of the day,’ comes up and we start strumming. I mean it was just like that,” concluded Gene Simmons.

Seemingly, Gene Simmons had the memory of a goldfish in this particular instance, and it paid off, as Simmons and Dylan’s collaboration helped his second solo album peak at No. 86 on the Billboard 200 following its release.

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