This doesn’t apply to all KISS fans, but there is a particular subset of KISS fans that is more obsessed with the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame than anyone else, including the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame Foundation. Makes sense: KISS inspire a certain insane devotion, and until this year, the Hall treated the band as if they had committed some Pete Rose-esque transgression that left them ineligible for induction.

But this year, inducted they will be! However, not to the satisfaction of KISS or KISS fans, who were initially outraged that the Hall would only be inducting the original KISS lineup — Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Peter Criss, and Ace Frehley — and not Criss’ and Frehley’s longstanding replacements, Eric Singer and Tommy Thayer. Then, KISS fans were FURTHER outraged when it was announced that fellow 2014 inductees Nirvana would be inducted with TWO drummers: the band’s sixth drummer, Dave Grohl, AND the band’s fourth drummer, Chad Channing, who played on Bleach! (The following Nirvana drummers were not inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame: Aaron Burckhard, Dale Crover, Dave Foster, and Dan Peters.) To be clear, KISS fans were outraged about the inclusion of Channing here, not Grohl, which seems decidedly wrongheaded considering the supposed infraction against which they were speaking out in the first place. You have to read this thread in full to get an idea of the disappointment and anger sparked by this news, but here’s a sample:

If this is true it really is an outrage…
Eric Carr was in the band 11 years and is certainly more well known.

I suppose if you treat the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame as a thing to take even remotely seriously, this might be an outrage? I dunno. I’m pretty bummed that Mike Mussina didn’t get elected to the Baseball Hall Of Fame, but I’m hoping he’ll make it next year. I’ll go to the induction, too! I loved Moose. Back to KISS: What I find more outrageous are Simmons’ comments about the RNRHOF inclusion of numerous black and female artists. Check these loathsome quotes from a recent interview he did with Radio.com:

Gene Simmons on hip-hop and dance music in the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame:

I have no beef with the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. You go on with your bad self and get more disco artists. Get the Boston Pops Orchestra to be inducted! A long time ago it was diluted. It’s really back room politics, like Boss Tweed. A few people decide what’s in and what’s not. And the masses just scratch their heads. You’ve got Grandmaster Flash in the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame? Run-D.M.C. in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame? You’re killing me! That doesn’t mean those aren’t good artists. But they don’t play guitar. They sample and they talk. Not even sing!

Gene Simmons on Donna Summer and Madonna in the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame:

Donna was my next door neighbor for many years, I knew and liked her, she was on my [1978] solo record. But if you asked Donna, ‘What kind of artist are you?’ do you think she would say ‘rock?’ If you asked Madonna, ‘What kind of artist are you?’ do you think she would say, ‘Oh, rock!’ So what they hell are they doing in the Hall Of Fame? They can run their organization any way they’d like, but it ain’t rock! It just isn’t! If you don’t play guitar and you don’t write your own songs, you don’t belong there.

There ya have it, from the same guy who sued Teenage Fanclub over the cover of Bandwagonesque because he trademarked the logo of a moneybag with a dollar symbol on it. Now that’s rock and roll. Right?