Did you know that the dressing rooms for KISS frequently smelled like burnt toast? Former Night Ranger guitarist Jeff Watson opened up about the aroma in a recent social media post.
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Watson opened up about touring with the band back in the 1980s. The guitarist said that the band was performers with a strong flair for the theatrics. However, that wasn’t the only thing that stuck in his mind.
Watson wrote, “So, our first big Night Ranger tour (after two wonderful weeks opening for Heart..) was KISS. It was eye-opening.. tanks on stage, with big guns dripping with fog waiting for showtime, flame throwers, canisters with nozzles hanging from the massive lighting trusses, dripping with fog, religious protesters in front of the shows with hand-printed signs reading K.I.S.S. = ‘Knights In Satan’s Service’ and stuff like that.”
Watson said the band ended up taking Night Ranger under their mentorship and offering them advice. He continued, “We’d go onstage to boos and hostility with our nice ‘80s rock songs, and slowly learned what real touring was. In the meantime, all the guys in KISS took us under their wing, and we shared lots of fun times… (some that we’ll even speak about publicly sometime..)”
But the smell of burnt toast in the locker rooms is what really stood out at the time. Watson figured that KISS just really sucked at cooking for a while. He wrote, “We always smelled toast in the dressing rooms, (as we were always next to each other), and didn’t think much of it, except it seemed they really sucked at making toast..as it always smelled burned.”
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Why KISS Used Burnt Toast
The guitarist saw plates of burnt toast by the stackful being brought to Gene’s trailer. It was only later that he worked out the truth. It turned out that the toast was to help deal with a toxic substance that Simmons regularly ingested.
He wrote, “It turns out that the flammable liquid Gene was gulping into his mouth before igniting with a torch was very toxic, and if he mistakenly swallowed any, which did happen, the fastest remedy before getting medical attention is eating as much burnt toast as possible.”
The toast acted as a neutralizer. Watson continued, “It does something to help neutralize the poison until proper treatment. And that’s why I always smell burnt white toast in my head whenever I see photos of the KISS lads.”
[Photo by Jim Dyson/Getty Images]
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