Photo courtesy of Bill Starkey

The Indianapolis KISS Expo ROCKED! Everyone had a great time and the spirit at the event was undeniable. Many thanks to Keith LeRoux and his team who did a fantastic job organizing the day, which most fans say is the top KISS Expo in the world.

Eric and I got there early and spent the next 10 to 11 hours meeting, greeting and taking photos with the 1000 KISS fans in attendance. We did short Q & A to answer all the fans pressing questions about what's new in the world of KISS and in particular, the KISS MONSTER album and huge oversize book.

Thanks again to all the incredible fans; the best in the World!

Photo: Keith LeRoux

Photo: Keith LeRoux

Photo: Keith LeRoux

Tommy Thayer joined Alice Cooper at his Golf Classic to help raise money for the Rock Teen Center, a place that will allow teens to build confidence and discover their passion through music, dance, self-expression, and creativity. The Rock will provide programs lacking in today’s schools.

Visit www.alicecoopersolidrock.com for more information on The Rock Teen Center.

By Mike Francis, The Oregonian

Gene Simmons and Oregon's Gen. James Thayer united by WWII horror, raise funds for military museum

It's no straight line from the wretched scene in an Austrian forest 67 years ago to a musical gala next month at Oregon Golf Club, but James Thayer has walked it.

And the threads that spin from a long life well-lived will be drawn together May 18 when friends, family and supporters celebrate the service of the 90-year-old retired general while raising money to renovate the Oregon Military Museum at Camp Withycombe in Clackamas.

"The All-Star Salute to the Oregon Military" will center on Thayer's service as a soldier and his life beyond. When the museum reopens in 2014 or so, it will include artifacts from the Indian Wars to Operation Enduring Freedom, and it will bear Thayer's name. (Details below)

Gen. James Thayer (ret.) of Lake Oswego will be the honoree at a May 18 event that will kick off a fundraising campaign for the Oregon Military Museum in Clackamas., Photo: Thomas Boyd / The Oregonian

Let's follow that thread: Kiss founder and flamboyant frontman Gene Simmons is on the phone from Los Angeles.

"I owe a debt of gratitude to Gen. Thayer," he says. Meeting him is "a humbling experience. You're in the presence of greatness."

It's that wretched scene in the forest that makes Simmons talk like this. The two men -- the courtly and soft-spoken Oregonian and the brash and controversial Jewish showman -- are bound together by more than Tommy Thayer's guitar strings.

Gene Simmons was born in Israel in 1949 as Chaim Witz. His mother, who reared him by herself after his father left when he was 5, survived a death camp.

Gene Simmons and Tommy Thayer make up half of the rock band Kiss.

Where was the camp? Possibly it was the one that the platoon of U.S. soldiers, led by 2nd Lt. James B. Thayer, stumbled across on that day in early May 1945.

The camp was called Gunskirchen and it was one of the hastily built satellite camps in northern Austria, full of Jews from Eastern Europe, especially Hungary. Thayer and his men had no idea it was there.

Their job was to hunt for an ammunition dump. They had roamed the countryside with no success, and Thayer's sergeant suggested they check down an empty forest road. They found something unimaginable.

The trail was filled with the dead and dying. Emaciated people. Three or four thousand of them. People who had straggled out of the recently abandoned camp, only to collapse within sight of it. A stench filled the air. To this day, James Thayer finds it hard to talk about.

"I didn't know what to do," he says quietly. "I got on the radio and said, 'We need all the help we can get, right away.'

"It was a real death camp."

The Americans had no extra supplies, but gave what they had to the suffering. It was too much. They watched, horrified, as a former prisoner died trying to choke down a ration.

Online, you can find reprints of a booklet published by the U.S. Army after that horrid day in the forest. Search for "liberation gunskirchen lager" and you will read firsthand accounts of soldiers who were determined the world remember the atrocity. A sample:

First Lt. James Thayer in Gunzburg, Bavaria, Germany in the summer of 1945, after V-E Day.

Flora Klein survived a place like this. Simmons thinks it might have been Gunskirchen, based on the records he found at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. He pored through the names in the Nazi camp records and found that his mother and father had been put on trains and moved -- somewhere. He doesn't know exactly where or why. Gunskirchen was one of about 50 satellites of the Nazis' Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp in Austria and southern Germany.

James Thayer says he once gave Simmons an account of his platoon's work on that day at Gunskirchen. Simmons says he's read it. And it's a big reason why he says he owes a debt of gratitude to the man.

The Thayer kids -- Jim Jr., John, Tommy, Michael and Anne -- grew up knowing little of all this. Tommy Thayer, who was born in 1960 and grew up in Beaverton, said it's only been in the past 15 or so years that his father has opened up about his experiences in World War II.

"I really kind of wanted to forget everything," Jim Sr. says. In the days before stumbling upon Gunskirchen, his 16-man platoon ran into a larger squad of SS troops. It was a fight for survival. The Americans killed 31 of the Austrians and Germans that day. "It affected me, killing people."

But he said his life changed in 1992, when he was on a tour of concentration camps organized by the U.S. Holocaust Council. At the airport in Vienna, a Jewish man named Wolfe Finkelman identified him. He said he was 14 when the Americans arrived at Gunskirchen. He told Thayer he would have been dead if they had come 24 hours later.

"That changed my life," Thayer says today.

Even without a clear picture of their father's past, lives in the household headed by Jim Sr. and Patricia, married now for 58 years, were full. The kids were busy and "Pat was so great," says Jim Sr.

The kids didn't really grow up as military brats because their father had become an officer in the Army Reserves, based in Vancouver. After leaving the Reserves as a full colonel, he was promoted to brigadier general and commander of the Oregon State Defense Force. He was named the civilian aide to the Secretary of the Army. He ran his office supply business, the J. Thayer Co. He served as chairman or board member at the Port of Portland, Knappton Corp., Tuality Healthcare, the World Affairs Council, GTE, Reed College, the Lewis & Clark Bicentennial Commission, the Church Divinity School of the Pacific, the Oregon Graduate Institute, the Boys and Girls Aid Society and a dozen other organizations. He and his family lived a postwar life deeply rooted in the community.

Now the Thayer boys -- Anne has died -- are all pitching in to make the May 18 event a success. Tommy, who sits on the board of trustees for Pacific University, is in charge of the program and has assembled the talent and celebrity guests. Mike picked the Oregon Golf Club venue and is in charge of food and beverages. John, who owns J. Thayer Company, is producing a pair of videos that will be shown and is printing some collateral materials. Jim Jr. is helping develop the auction. "We are all involved with the fundraising effort," says John.

"My sons are unbelievable," Jim Thayer Sr. says. "It's unbelievable how enthusiastic they are to make this thing work."

Many years from now, when a visitor arrives at the Gen. James Thayer Oregon Military Museum on its renovated grounds at Camp Withycombe, the remembering might well begin with the name of the veteran above the door.

-- Mike Francis

__________________________________________________________________________

All-Star Salute to the Oregon Military

What: Auction, dinner and musical fundraiser for the Oregon Military Museum and surrounding grounds. Master of ceremonies will be golfer Peter Jacobsen. Guests include Ted Kulongoski, Vic Atiyeh, Mike Bellotti, Patrick Lamb, Bill Schonely, Jerome Kersey and Tommy Thayer.

Why: The event, conceived by Kiss guitarist Tommy Thayer, kicks off a two-year, $6.5 million capital campaign. The military museum will bear the name of his father, retired Gen. James B. Thayer Sr.

Where: The Oregon Golf Club, 25700 S.W. Petes Mountain Road, West Linn

When: May 18, beginning with cocktails at 5 p.m.

Tickets: Individual tickets cost $125 and table sponsorships are available. More information at: allstarsalute.com

This year's Special guests are KISS guitarist Tommy Thayer and KISS drummer Eric Singer! This is Tommy's first official appearance as a guest at a KISS Expo, and his only KISS Expo appearance this year! Come meet Tommy and Eric as KISS gets ready to hit the road for "THE TOUR" 2012! Each band member will also do a Q/A and be available for photos an autographs.

• Shout it out loud and sing your favorite KISS Klassics at KISS Karaoke!

• Come celebrate the 35th Anniversaries of LOVE GUN and Alive II! We will have a trivia contest based on lyrics, history, and everything in between regarding these KISS album!

• Enjoy a costume contest for all ages

• KISS merchandise and collectibles will be on sale throughout day from vendors from all over the country!

• KISSOnline will be attending with Exclusive KISS merchandise!

For more details visit: www.Getalifeinc.com

The 2012 INDY KISS Fan Expo is a fan produced event. By the fans, for the fans!

Rock and roll icon and one of rock's founding fathers, Little Richard stops backstage at Dancing With The Stars to congratulate the band on their explosive performance.

By John Katsilometes - Photo: Glenn Pinkerton/Las Vegas News Bureau

KISS at the Academy of Country Music Awards at MGM Grand Garden Arena

KISS made a none-too-understated arrival at the Academy of Country Music Awards at MGM Grand Garden Arena tonight pouring out of a stretch limo/monster mini-truck and wearing full stage attire.

That would be heavily studded codpieces, one-piece costumes made of Spandex and full stage makeup.

Yee-haw?

“We love a lot of country artists,” Gene Simmons said, rattling off Rascal Flatts, Keith Urban and Brad Paisley.

The band was on hand to introduce one of the night’s awards (read further for how they handled that task), but first they conducted a nifty bit of self-promotion. In an appearance on the red carpet before the show, Paul Stanley talked of the upcoming KISS/Motley Crue summer tour.

“It’s called ‘The Tour,’ and it’s called that for a reason,” Stanley said as an "Inside Edition" mic was pushed into his face. “It’s because you have two of arguably the greatest live bands ever. I know that breaks the hearts of critics, but you have two great bands going out there, doing their full shows -- brand-new shows -- putting together great shows and blowing everybody away.”

The public has responded, says the man for decades dubbed “The Starchild.”

“So far, ticket sales say, ‘We need you,’ ” Stanley said.

The tour stops at Mandalay Bay Events Center on Aug. 11.

More notes from the show:

• In one of the great mismatches of sensibility in entertainment history, KISS announced Vocal Group of the Year Lady Antebellum. Just before making the announcement, Simmons shouted, “This is country music! Lemme hear ya!” When pausing for a couple of beats too long for some fans, Simmons said, “Keep your britches on!” before calling out Lady Antebellum, which was bemused at the site of the fully attired band members. “Wow! It’s KISS!” said Charles Kelley after grabbing his (Kelley’s) trophy.

Check out this interview with Tommy, Eric, Mick Mars and Tommy Lee...

Kiss/Motley Crue stars: Eric Singer,Tommy... by emmprofiles1