In a new interview with Marko Syrjala of Metal-Rules.com, former KISS guitarist Bruce Kulick spoke about his plan to release his autobiography. He said: “Yeah, I mean, actually, over 20 years ago — like 25 years ago — I started working on a book with a friend of mine in the industry. He wanted to write it, and I was pretty cool with that. He started doing interviews with people. Fortunately, I still have all those interviews. One of my projects last year was to digitize them all. My parents, my brother, Bob Ezrin, Eddie Trunk, and even Michael James Jackson — though I didn’t really work with him — were all interviewed. Obviously, having my parents and my brother included is fascinating to me. Carrie Stevens and many other friends and industry folks who were pretty hip to KISS and my career were also interviewed.”But here’s what happened. The reason I probably said [in the past] that I’d never write a book is because we did start working on it. He even put together some sample chapters — maybe 30 or 40 pages. But the reaction at the time was, like, ‘Wait a minute, this isn’t… We’re looking for stuff like MÖTLEY CRÜE’s ‘The Dirt’.’ You know what I mean, right? But that’s not my life. That’s not my experience. I’m more of a musician who was part of a famous band and some of the other groups I worked with are really interesting. A lot of people don’t know much about Meat Loaf and don’t know that much about Michael Bolton, let’s say, or a Billy Squier record. There’s so much about my career that’s unique — it isn’t just one thing. And I was never involved with drugs or wild debauchery. So when they wanted salacious stuff, I kind of put the brakes on. Then my friend got busy with his career, and I got busy with mine. We shelved it and didn’t revisit it for a long time.”I used to have a web site — Kulick.net—but for the past five or six years, it’s been BruceKulick.com. Back in the day, I used the web site to write blogs when people were still into web sites. Now, it’s all about social media. I wrote about record releases, anniversaries, and things like that. I’ve amassed all this material over the years and realized there’s a good story to tell here.”I think my journey — from being a guitar player from Brooklyn to being with KISS, one of the most iconic bands in the world — has value. And I embrace that. I don’t want to write a book to slam people. I want to share my perspective — how I saw things — but I don’t need to do that by saying horrible things about other musicians or people I’ve known.”I was shocked at some of the stuff other KISS members said in their books. Gene [Simmons] and Paul [Stanley] are like brothers, which probably explains why they take liberties picking on each other, you know? In their books, they told it like it is — or how they wanted it to be. And if they wanted to be snarky, they had the platform to do that. But I want my book to focus more on my learning experiences and successes. I hope to share some life lessons because I’ve certainly seen a lot in my career.”Bruce previously talked about his upcoming book last month in an interview with Paul Salfen of AMFM Magazine. He said at the time: “I amassed a lot of materials from [my] era [of KISS]. When I first started a book with a guy in the industry back in ’99, there were a lot of interviews done, and I was able to get all those tapes digitized because that’s important, to spark my memories and stuff. I have notes of subjects.”It’s certainly gonna be a really in-depth discussion of my life as a musician with, of course, hefty amounts on my KISS years, ’cause I know that the fans are gonna wanna get my thoughts on how it felt and what I did,” he continued. “It’s certainly not gonna be some salacious slam book. It’s not me. But I do have a lot of stories that I never really discussed that I think are gonna be really fun for people to read about and fascinating for them to see.”Everything was, in many ways, a very interesting journey, and there were many [instances] of where you fall in the ditch, but you’ve gotta pull yourself out — that kind of thing.”In a separate interview with Loaded Radio, Kulick was asked why he wasn’t ever approached to rejoin KISS after Ace Frehley left for good back in 2001. He responded: “That’s a great question. And not everyone’s aware of some of the backstory. I would hear things about them having problems with Ace and Ace was getting erratic or difficult. And [later KISS guitarist] Tommy Thayer was actually tour managing with them; he was on the road with them. Because even during my era, he was involved with the band, helping with ‘Kisstory’ and doing things for the group. He wrote some songs with Gene [Simmons, KISS bassist/vocalist] and was always part of the inner circle, shall I say. So from what I understood, there was one or two things that KISS did — not a concert, even though once Ace was almost not gonna make it and they made Tommy get the outfit on. [He had a] similar build — tall and thin — and Ace made it to the show. But there were a couple of other things they needed to do. I believe ‘That ’70s Show’, when they were taping, Ace didn’t show up. ‘Tommy, get the outfit on.’ And then I think there was a private gig, too, that no one would really know about — one of those things where you go to an island and play for some rich people. And Ace wouldn’t go. And KISS wasn’t gonna say, ‘All right, we’re not gonna take the gig.’ So if they ever had a thought of me, I think they would have known that that probably would have been a lot harder. Tommy was younger, there already, if you know what I mean, working with them. And Tommy, not everybody knows that he was in a tribute band for fun at times called COLD GIN as Ace Frehley.”Bruce continued: “So if they would have went to me, I can’t say I absolutely would have said ‘no.’ I miss being in KISS. I do realize it would have kind of pooped on my era because then I’d have to kind of play the role of the ‘Spaceman’ and shoot rockets and play more like Ace. I was never given that direction from Gene and Paul [Stanley, KISS guitarist/vocalist], where Tommy knew that it actually was more comfortable with his natural style of guitar playing. He wasn’t a Floyd Rose, play-some-flashy-riffs king of the mountain. So I never felt like they made the wrong choice — ever. I always felt that was the right way to go ’cause then Tommy could assume the role of the Spaceman in the group. Eric [Singer, KISS drummer] sometimes gets some criticism, like Tommy has, but Eric being behind the drums and having five years in the band without the makeup, maybe he gets a little less. Neither of them really deserve criticism because they’re talented players doing a great job. And it was Gene and Paul’s choice to say, ‘And now you’re the Catman,’ ‘And now you’re the Spaceman.’ It wasn’t [Tommy and Eric] saying, ‘Please, I wanna be the Spaceman.’ And to new generations, Tommyis the Spaceman. Even though Eric has a lot of credibility from ‘Revenge’ and ‘MTV Unplugged’ and ‘Carnival Of Souls’ and all the work that we did together for those five years. So, I actually kind of lost the big gig on many levels for the right reasons though. And I was never fired the first time. It was simply, ‘Well, we’re making all this money. Now we’re selling out from arenas to stadiums in makeup.’ So my era ran its course.”In 1984, Bruce joined KISS, where he remained as their lead guitarist for twelve years, accompanying the band on the “Animalize” tour and continuing with the band until the 1996 reunion tour. Bruce is heavily featured on “Kissology – Vol. 2” and “Vol. 3”, the band’s DVDs spanning their historic 45-year career.In an April 2020 interview with Sleaze Roxx, Kulick said that he was “relieved” he wasn’t approached to rejoin the band after Frehley left for good back in 2001.”When I had to leave in ’96 after the success of the KISS ‘Unplugged’ performance, people were aware of the musicianship that existed in the band between Eric Singer [drums] and I, but after 20 years of people hearing about KISS in makeup, it was kind of like ‘Star Wars’ when it was rebooted people went to see what it was all about,” he said. “I understood that it was the original guys, they put the makeup on and people were excited to either see it again or see it for the first time. That carried on, then it carried on and it carried on. [Laughs] It then reached a point where Gene [Simmons] and Paul [Stanley] couldn’t continue with Peter [Criss] so they called on Eric Singer to step into the role and the makeup.”Eric is such a tremendous drummer,” he continued. “I was genuinely happy for him. I still am. Then when Ace started dropping the ball, it was seamless for them to go with Tommy Thayer who does such a fantastic job as the ‘Spaceman.'”If I had been asked to step into the ‘Spaceman’ role, it would have been really awkward for me. I get asked by the fans a lot, ‘Well, why aren’t you there?’ I think Tommy stepping into the role was a lot more natural than Bruce Kulick becoming the ‘Spaceman’ and shooting rockets off of my guitar. I would have had to play the songs note for note like Ace. I don’t think I could do that and remain happy in the band. Tommy does that to perfection. I was never required to learn the classic stuff note for note, but if you’re going to be the ‘Spaceman,’ it would have to stay true to the way Ace plays it. That’s not to say that I don’t play the classic songs with respect. I play the GRAND FUNK RAILROAD songs with respect, while injecting my own style into them, like I did in my time in KISS. I would lose my ‘liberties’ if I stepped into the ‘Spaceman’ role.”I’m friends with Tommy, Bruce added. “We’ve gotten closer over the years on the ‘Kiss Kruise’. We’ve spoken a lot on the ‘Kruise’. He once said to me, ‘Hey, I never got into the Floyd Rose whammy bar thing. How do you play ‘Crazy Nights’?’ I said, ‘Don’t worry about it. Play it how you play it. It’s what works for you. I don’t take any offense and you don’t need to copy how I do it.'”Tommy’s style is so much closer to Ace’s than mine. I have a unique style to my approach you can hear it on ‘Tears Are Falling’, ‘Who Wants To Be Lonely’, ‘Unholy’ and even the acoustic solo on ‘Forever’. I am proud of my body of work for that era of KISS. I’m embracing it. The fans are embracing it. It’s all good.”Kulick went on to say that he is at peace with the fact that he will never be part of the makeup era of KISS.”I was relieved [when they didn’t ask me to step in after Ace left],” he said. “I think if I had been asked and done it, I think it would hurt. I know that Tommy and Eric avoid… I’m close to both but I’m closer with Eric. They avoid reading things online. Their best medicine is to just do a great job every night and not read that stuff. I’m shocked that sometimes someone will leave a snarky comment toward me. I’m, like, ‘Really?’ I don’t get into that stuff and I don’t like anything negative on social media and I never do or post anything negative. I won’t allow anything negative. There’s times I read something and I choose to ignore it. Everyone has a voice these days. They have a laptop, a tablet or a smartphone.”I was relieved, but how could I not have ‘entertained’ the idea if I was asked? At the time when they swooped Tommy right in, I was already in GRAND FUNK RAILROAD and I was and still am pretty happy with my role in the band. Sure, it wasn’t KISS, but it’s a great gig. Now think of it from this angle. Let’s say they made the right proposition and I took it, then Ace wanted back into the band. Where would that have left me? No KISS gig and no gig in GRAND FUNK.”In some of his recent interviews, Bruce once again confirmed that he wasn’t asked to perform at KISS’s final show and wasn’t invited to attend the event, which was held in December 2023 at New York City’s Madison Square Garden.