There is an old adage that states “Never meet your heroes” because they might disappoint you, but one Jackson County resident found this is not necessarily true.
Jim Breeding, 54, grew up in eastern Kentucky and has been a fan of the rock band KISS since the 1970s. Little did he know that someday he would be out on the road with the band working as their roadie.
“My first five KISS albums were given to me by my Granny Ivory, much to the chagrin of my mom and dad,” Breeding said. “Bless her heart, she passed away in May of 2001, and I started working for the band that November and would have loved to have bought my grandma a KISS T-shirt.”
He became hooked on the band as a youngster after he saw a TV commercial for the Kiss radio, where band member Ace Frehley hit a note on his guitar and the radio blew up, and his life has never been the same, Breeding said.
Breeding joined the U.S. Air Force after high school, and while he was serving, his parents moved to Jackson County, so when he was finished with the Air Force, he moved here, too.
Fast forward to 2001 when Breeding attended a KISS Expo with his wife, Callie, and struck up a conversation with one of the vendors, Keith Leroux.
“A few weeks after the expo, he called and asked if I would like to come work for him, and actually, he called my wife while I was at work at Walmart at that time, and she told him she was pretty sure I would,” Breeding said. “Here I am 21 years later and I’ve been to Germany, Belgium and France and many, many places across the United States with KISS.”
He has been to about 50 KISS events, and his favorite song by the band is “Detroit Rock City,” their show’s opening song.
The four original rock band members were Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Ace Frehley and Peter Criss.
Simmons and Stanley are the only two originals left in the band, which has been performing for four decades. KISS has 30 gold albums and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2014, according to rockhall.com.
Breeding’s first day on the job with the band in 2001 was as a bodyguard for the drummer, Eric “Catman” Singer, making sure he got in and out of the event without people bothering him. Singer first joined the band in 1991 following the death of KISS’ second drummer, Eric Carr.
Between 1996 and 2003, the band alternated between Singer and Criss. Then after Criss left for good in 2004, Singer became a permanent member.
“Over the last 2o years, I’ve graduated to be pretty much their gopher for whatever they need done, like the time Eric asked me to take him to the Indianapolis Kroger in the middle of the night in my pickup to go shopping,” Breeding said. “He still sends me a Christmas message every year and sings ‘Happy Birthday’ on my birthday, and we are still very close.”
Breeding’s duties as a roadie over the years have included carrying the money through the airport, taking photos for Simmons whenever he has wanted pictures with fans, helping carry merchandise in for the shows and working at the table during KISS Expo. Just whatever they needed Breeding to do, he was glad to oblige.
“The phone would ring and my wife would ask ‘Where are you going this time?’ and they’d give me plane tickets and I’d be off to the airport, plus they pay for all of my lodging and food,” Breeding said. “Between 2001 and 2010 was when I did the most traveling, and I’d use all of my vacation time from work, and much of that time, I was working construction with my dad, so I could take off whenever I wanted. Now, I’m a production supervisor at Valeo.”
Breeding was supposed to go to a KISS event this past May, but his wife had a heart attack, and he didn’t want to leave her.
“I chose her over the band, and I stayed home and she’s doing better now and works the switchboard at Schneck Medical Center with a desk job, but it can be stressful,” he said. “I don’t do as many events anymore because I have to have insurance, and I like being married and we’ve been married for 31 years now, so I mostly stay home these days.”
Breeding said when Callie first met him, she knew he was a KISS fan, and when he received the call to work for them, she was like, “This is your dream. Your dream has come true, so enjoy it,” and he has. He said she has been great about his touring, plus she has cats and he travels with KISS, so he thought that was a fair trade.
“The KISS and Mötley Crüe concert in Noblesville a few years back was the only one my wife went to with me,” he said. “Mötley Crüe made her a little scared when they came walking through the arena to go onstage. My son, Cody, has been to a few shows with me, too.”
People often ask Breeding what the members of KISS are really like.
Paul “Starchild” Stanley is a talented musician and artist and has always been great to Breeding. He had the chance to attend a soundcheck with Stanley when he did his solo tour. Just imagine eight people in the venue listening to Stanley play whatever he wanted, he said.
During downtime, Stanley creates portraits and abstracts and likes to play blues music with his band, Soul Station.
“Gene ‘Demon’ Simmons is such a smart businessman and again, great to me,” Breeding said. “At an event in Indy, my wife and I took our photo with Gene. He was in between us and said, ‘Whichever of you has your hand on my butt, please remove it’ and neither one of us did, so he got us both good.”
Simmons lives in Canada with his wife, Shannon Tweed, and he just opened a place in Las Vegas where he displays all of his memorabilia.
“Ace ‘Spaceman’ Frehley is a true rock star who is great with fans and great to me,” Breeding said. “Peter ‘Catman’ Criss, loves the fans and hugged me once because I asked him for an autograph for my son, Cody.”
Tommy Thayer first hit the stage with KISS for a private show in 2002 as the new Spaceman after the departure of original guitarist Frehley. Thayer is very caring and makes sure every fan is happy and he’s always a pleasure, Breeding said.
Thayer purchased some vineyard property in Oregon and plans to produce Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc wines.
“Eric Singer shows up on other people’s albums from time to time, and he and I bonded the most,” Breeding said. “We were having dinner in Indianapolis one night and he was looking at his phone and said, ‘Dude, this is you’ and it was a picture of Junior Samples from the TV show ‘Hee Haw,’ so we joke about that.”
While touring with KISS, Breeding had the opportunity to meet members of other bands and has become friends with members of Grand Funk Railroad.
“That’s because Bruce Kulick, who was in KISS during the time they stopped wearing makeup, is also one of my best friends, and he plays with Grand Funk now, so I’ve done some things with them,” he said. “I’m also friends with John Corabi, who replaced Vince Neil in Mötley Crüe.”
Breeding said one of his favorite stories is when Kulick sent him to Starbucks with a diagram of how he wanted his coffee.
“They call him Larry David because that’s the kind of personality he has, and the barista did as he wanted but got coffee all over the cup,” he said. “I told her he wouldn’t drink it and would send me right back, so she poured it into a fresh cup. Bruce was happy and said it was the best coffee he’d ever had, but he wouldn’t have drank it a few minutes earlier with coffee dripping down the side.”
Looking back on his start of working with the band, Breeding said he never knew he would become as close as he is with Leroux, Singer and Kulick.
“Remember I said my parents did not care much for my hobby. Now, they tell people their son works for KISS. Dreams come true, and I am proof,” he said.
The End of the Road World Tour is the ongoing final concert tour by KISS. The tour began Jan. 31, 2019, at Rogers Arena in Vancouver, Canada, and is scheduled to end with a concert Nov. 30 in Tokyo, Japan. A recent announcement states the band might extend its tour through 2023.
The band’s closest concert to southern Indiana will be Sept. 24 during the Louder Than Life music festival at the Highland Festival Grounds at the Kentucky Exposition Center, 937 Phillips Lane, Louisville. Information about KISS can be found at kissonline.com.