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LD writes:
“I worked in American publishing in the late 1980s as an editorial assistant. One afternoon I was called to reception and there was Gene Simmons of KISS, lizard-skin boots and all, sitting there with a huge black zippered-up art portfolio. My boss had edited some rock titles, so I guess somehow Gene had got hold of his name and decided to just show up. I escorted him and his portfolio back to my editor’s office, where he proceeded to pitch a book about all the women he’d ever slept with. Back then, his estimate was around 2,000.
“Right before he left, he turned to me, handed me the portfolio and said, ‘Open it.’ So I did. There were hundreds and hundreds of Polaroids of topless women – apparently trophies that he took after each encounter. ‘This is what I want to write about,’ he said. He was very emphatic on that point – he didn’t want to do a standard memoir, he didn’t want to do an art book. He wanted a literary testament to his fucking history.
“After trying to persuade him that such a book would not do well, my editor passed on the pitch. My understanding is that he has kept the portfolio and added to it over time, and that his now-wife has attempted to throw it in a dumpster numerous times.” |
