Kiss drummer Eric Singer stepped aside for a younger model when he allowed a 12-year-old to play with the band.
Logan Gladden played and sang Nothin’ To Lose with Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley and Tommy Thayer at the band’s acoustic Meet & Greet set in Durant, Oklahoma, last Friday.
Logan, from Dallas, Texas, caught the attention of Singer when his parents posted YouTube videos of him playing along to rock songs when he was just three-years-old.
The sixth grade youngster tells TeamRock: “I’ve been playing drums and listening to classic rock music all my life. My parents put videos of me on YouTube when I was small and Eric saw them and invited me to meet him when I was three and he was with Alice Cooper.
“That day I played his drums during soundcheck and still remember it. Since then, Eric has helped me so much by giving me advice and introducing me to people and by following and supporting me and just being a cool friend. But I never thought I would actually get to play with them.”
And Singer made Logan’s dream come true when he invited him to take over on Friday night. Logan adds: “After a song ended, Eric asked Gene and Paul if I could come up and he told them he knew me and he promised them that it would be good.
“That made me feel really good that he had confidence in me to not mess up. When the song started I just went into performance mode and I have played that song and listened to the unplugged version so much that I just went into auto pilot and pretended like it was my band.
“I remember thinking a few times that this will probably be the only chance I will ever have to play with Kiss so I tried to relax and just have fun.
“My favourite part was seeing Paul smiling and looking at me and hitting the changes with me. And then hearing their voices backing me up on vocals was amazing to think that I was singing with them on stage. I just kept thinking that, even if it was for only a few minutes, I was actually playing with Kiss!”
Logan plays in his own band called The Robotix and made it to the quarter finals of America’s Got Talent when he was just nine.
Last month, Simmons rushed to the bedside of a teenager who’s dying wish was to meet him. The bassist and vocalist spent time with 17-year-old Dilan Kohn at the Children’s Hospital of Nevada in Las Vegas.
