Current Grand Funk Railroad guitarist Bruce Kulick was not only a member of KISS for 12 years, his touring and/or recording credits also include Meat Loaf, Michael Bolton, Union, Lordi, Billy Squier, ESP, Ronnie Spector, Graham Bonnet, Don Johnson, Michael Schenker, Lita Ford and The Good Rats. Also of note, recordings which Kulick has been a part of have been sampled by the likes of Jay-Z and Kanye West.
Kulick is presently on the road with Grand Funk Railroad, “The American Band,” which just kicked off the Some Kind Of Wonderful Tour on Feb. 8. The band — which still includes original founding members Don Brewer and Mel Schacher, in addition to Kulick, singer Max Carl of 38 Special and keyboardist Tim Cashion of Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band — has earned 13 gold and 10 platinum records with record sales exceeding 25 million copies sold. Mega-hits like “We’re An American Band,” “I’m Your Captain/Closer To Home,” “Locomotion,” and “Some Kind Of Wonderful” not only still dominate rock radio, but also pop up regularly on movie soundtracks and in advertising campaigns. And as the legend goes, Grand Funk’s 1971 performance at Flushing, New York’s Shea Stadium sold out faster than that of The Beatles.
I had the pleasure of speaking with Bruce Kulick by phone on February 12, 2020 about the current Grand Funk Railroad tour, his KISS history, being sampled by top hip-hop artists, and plenty more. The full interview is embedded below and will also be on a future edition of the Paltrocast With Darren Paltrowitz podcast.
While speaking with Kulick I asked about his Jewish roots and whether it was true that KISS had an all-Jewish lineup in the late 1980s and/or early 1990s.
“That’s not really correct because there was no Jewish drummer in the band,” Kulick said with a laugh. “Eric [Singer] kind of has a German name, his actual name, but he’s not Jewish. Three of the band members were Jewish. But it’s kind of funny that Paul [Stanley] and Gene [Simmons] and I, we do get that heritage thing and there are certain things about it. Gene being a little different, being half-Israeli and half-Hungarian, where Paul’s parents and heritage were closer to my parents’. It really always just comes down to work ethic and music and the love of what you do. Those guys are extremely successful, and there’s a lot of really talented Jewish doctors, so I see them as doctors of music.”
Continuing with another laugh, Kulick added “I was happy to be around them [Stanley and Simmons] and see how hard they work and how they apply their brains to something so successful as a band like KISS.”
More on Bruce Kulick is here, while Grand Funk Railroad can be found online.
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