WATCH: Rush reveal how they upset Gene Simmons with character ‘The Bag’ in the 1970s
In a hilarious clip from their new documentary Time Stand Still, Rush’s Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson have reflected upon their hijinks on their mid-1970s tour with KISS.
In an apparent dig at KISS’s on stage personas, Alex assumed the character of ‘The Bag’ while on the road with them, which involved him wearing a giant laundry paper bag and drawing a face on it.
“The bag would pop up every once in a while. It was just a face drawn on a big laundry bag,” Alex explains. “I would make a few holes for eyes and draw a stupid face on it and wear sweatpants and stick my arms through the sweatpants so only my hands came out at the knee… and the bag (puts on stupid voice) ‘would talk like this’.
“The Bag was always drunk and really smart and knew everything and made a lot of suggestions to people in the room.”
Laughing, Geddy adds: “Usually The Bag appeared in Ace Frehley’s room, almost always, and The Bag would come over and entertain Ace.
Alex chips in: “Gene was very very upset with The Bag and that made Ace even happier.”
Geddy elucidates further: “Gene was straight, he wasn’t high like we were so he had a different sense of reality when he came into Ace’s room. Y’know we were like drinking and smoking and generally being idiots.
“Gene came in one time and there were these two girls looking at The Bag and wondering ‘who is that guy? He’s got that thing on his head’. So one of them went over and tried to remove it.
“Well, when you try and remove the bag from The Bag that’s cause for immediate ejection from the hotel room. I threw them out and Gene was very upset with that because that’s the one reason he was in the room, ‘cos there were two girls there.”
Rush’s Time Stand Still documentary is coming to DVD and Blu-ray on Friday 18th November.