The Kiss Army better be ready to deploy quickly on this one because there’s a temporary museum dedicated to the legendary band coming to the San Fernando Valley in May.
But there’s a catch because it’s only happening on select days for one month and only six people will be allowed in per day, plus the organizer isn’t giving out the museum address. Instead people will be picked up at a mall in Northridge and driven to the venue. There’s no word on whether fans will be blindfolded once in the vehicle to keep the location top secret.
Once inside the venue, which is dubbed Knights In Satan Service Museum, Kiss fans who fork over $500 per ticket will be immersed in more than 2,500 band artifacts that includes unique merch, one-of-a-kind collectibles, musical instruments, outfits, toys, records, banners and just about everything any Kiss fan would want to see from the band’s gilded era, spanning from 1973 to 1983.
“Kiss isn’t touring anymore and Kiss fans are really chomping at the bit for something and I thought this is the perfect time to have people come and enjoy it. This is the first time they’ll be able to touch the outfits, to see what it feels like, or see things that there’s only one of or things they’ve only looked at in pictures,” said John 5, a respected guitarist and owner of the expansive collection.
The museum dates are May 5-9, May 12-16, May 19-23 and May 27-30.
This is the first time John 5 has ever exhibited his collection and the musician, who met the members of Kiss in the early 1990s and is now friends with them, is keeping the number of visitors to just six per day because he will be leading all the tours personally and wants to tell the stories behind some of the items he’s collected over decades.
“I want to walk through it with people, I want to be there, I want to go there with them and talk and tell stories,” he said.
John 5 is a successful guitarist who has toured the world with musicians such as Marilyn Manson, Rob Zombie, Rob Halford and Mötley Crüe. But before that as a kid growing up near Detroit he became obsessed with Kiss after going to Sears with his mom and seeing a record store display for the band’s album “Love Gun.”
“There was a big display of the image of the cover and the music was playing and I was just literally in shock,” he said. “It was a total epiphany for me and it just changed my life and I was obsessed and that was also the year I started playing guitar at 7 years old.”
This obsession led the musician to a lifelong journey of collecting anything he could find related to the band and fans who are lucky enough to score a ticket to his museum will be able to get up close to items that include one of the few known pairs of Gene Simmons’ Destroyer Boots from 1976 and his first outfit from 1974. There will also be banners from the band’s appearance at Woodfield Mall, outside Chicago in 1974 for the “National KISS-Off” kissing contest.
“These are just pieces that are so iconic,” John 5 said.
Kiss pinball machines also became iconic in the late 1970s and of course John 5 has a couple at the collection that he plans on putting to use during the tours.
“At the end we get to play pinball, which will be fun. We’ll just have a really wonderful afternoon that people will remember for a long time,” he said.
For tickets go to john5store.com