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CONNIE
CHUNG TONIGHT
Speaks
Out on Tragic Rhode Island Club Fire.
Aired February 27,
2003 - 20:00 ET
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANNOUNCER: Next, to explosive rock legends KISS, fiery
stage shows are as much a part of rock as guitars and
drums. But Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley also say pyro
can be deadly in the wrong hands. CONNIE CHUNG TONIGHT
returns in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHUNG: The Rhode
Island nightclub fire became a federal case today. The
National Construction Safety Team, a new federal agency,
is looking into the blaze that killed 96 people. A grand
jury is also investigating. And members of Great White
are back in Rhode Island to testify under subpoena about
what they know about the fire started by onstage
pyrotechnics that killed their guitarist Ty Longly.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JACK RUSSELL, LEAD SINGER, GREAT WHITE: ... the most
horrible experience of my life. That's all I can say.
There's nothing else I can say.
MARK KENDELL, GUITARIST, GREAT WHITE: I've had little
time to grieve at home. I don't feel like I've grieved,
you know, properly yet because it seems to be going so
fast. But when I get home, I'm going -- I'll be praying
with my pastor.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHUNG: The state has
imposed a moratorium on pyrotechnics in clubs.
Fireworks have been a staple of rock and roll shows since
they were first used by theatrical arena acts like KISS,
whose singer and bassist Gene Simmons made breathing fire
a trademark. KISS still uses pyrotechnics today.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHUNG: And Simmons has
agreed to join us today along with KISS lead singer Paul
Stanley from Melbourne, Australia. Thank you both for
being with us.
Gene, I know Great White had toured with KISS. You know
these guys. What went through your mind when you saw that
video?
GENE
SIMMONS, BASSIST, KISS: You know, tragedy is something
that just grabs ahold of all of us in the same way. This
is one of the most unfortunate things that I've ever
seen. In tragedy, unfortunately, people will tend to look
for just a target to blame. There are probably a myriad
of reasons why this tragedy happened.
And I would imagine the legal system is going to take its
time and they should, to find out what went wrong. Any
tragedy deserves due diligence, and I hope everybody
takes care.
People want to talk to us a lot about pyrotechnics and
stuff because we've been doing it for 30 years, safely,
in the largest arenas in the world.
CHUNG: Have you ever
had any kind of accident? Have you caught on fire? Any
band member? Or anyone in the audience?
PAUL
STANLEY, LEAD SINGER, KISS: We've really
had no problems, so to speak. It's important for people
to remember that pyrotechnics by their nature are
combustible and volatile. They should only be in the
hands of licensed pyro technicians.
That being said, if you follow the letter of the law,
even more importantly, you must use common sense. And
common sense should dictate, even with being within the
realm of the law, does what you're doing make sense? Is
it prudent? When you have lives at stake, just because
something works a hundred times in a club, doesn't mean
it's going to happen 101 successfully.
Pyrotechnics have been used in Disneyland, Las Vegas, the
Stones have used them, we've used them. It really is not
something to be taken lightly. These are dangerous,
dangerous chemicals. And we urge everybody to leave those
to people who know what they're doing. This is not for
the weekend hobbyist.
SIMMONS: This is
professional stuff for professionals. Everybody on our
crew, especially our pyro people, are licensed. That's
No. 1.
No. 2 is, we always make sure that we talk with the fire
marshals and fire department of every local town that we
play in. That's very important. They're not adversarial
in tone. They're always about making sure that first and
foremost, the people are safe, and of course the band is
safe.
CHUNG: Paul, when you
have performed with the group, have you ever performed in
a small club and used pyrotechnics?
STANLEY: In the early
days, the infancy of pyrotechnics, certainly there were
times when we did things that thankfully we got away
with. But since then, there's been laws and legislation
and there were requirements that really helped to ensure
the safety of both the band and all the people who come
into a club.
CHUNG: Weren't there a
few times that your hair caught on fire?
SIMMONS: I have a point
in the show where I foolishly go up on stage and try to
get the excitement level to go up a new notches by going
out there and spitting fire. Now this has been done for
centuries and I learned it from a magician. Again, a
professional.
But foolishly, because I also wanted to look grand, I
used to spray a lot of hair spray so to get that big hair
look in the early days. So on occasion, my hair would
catch fire. But it was my fault. It had nothing to do
with the safety precautions we had.
We had a professional staff who would immediately run out
on that stage with CO2 and cover me and it was out in a
few second. Again, even though we put on spectacle and
bombast, at the center of it is safety first and
foremost, every time.
STANLEY:
See,
we can afford, Connie, to have a large enough staff where
we have people on stage with fire extinguishers. We're
well supplied in any emergency.
You know, the problem and the sadness that comes with a
tragedy is, we tend to learn more from things that go
wrong than the things that go right. And it's unfortunate
so that many lives have to be lost to really give people
a wakeup call that fireworks must be done under
supervision of people who are licensed and qualified. And
any time you take them indoors, it's suspect. And if you
don't know the materials that a building is made out of,
you're really playing Russian roulette.
CHUNG: Both of you had
mentioned that there will be and was a lot of
finger-pointing: Was it the band's responsibility? Was it
the club owner's responsibility?
Whose responsibility was it for your band to make sure
that everything was safe? Perhaps we can learn from you.
STANLEY: We certainly do
everything possible to make sure that the people most
qualified are in charge. We are not the people who are
most qualified. But we certainly have enough money to
make sure that we can ensure, or as much as possible, the
safety of people at the show and ourselves. You have a
case here where the guitarist in a band couldn't even
make it out. It's a horrific, horrific tragedy.
CHUNG:
Gene
Simmons and Paul Stanley, I thank you so much for being
with us. We appreciate your thoughts on this.
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