GENE SIMMONS: Solo Album To Feature Songs From DYLAN, ZAPPA

KISS bassist/vocalist Gene Simmons' first solo record in 25 years will feature songs co-written by Bob Dylan and the late Frank Zappa, Billboard.com has reported. In addition, Simmons is courting a number of singers, including GUNS N' ROSES frontman Axl Rose, for guest vocals. The as-yet-untitled disc will be among the first albums released through his recently revived Simmons Records' new deal with Sanctuary Records.

Among the tracks set to be included on the effort are the following:

01. Waiting for the Morning Light
02. Black Tongue
03. Dog
04. Looking Out The Window
05. Asshole

The Dylan co-penned tune, "Waiting for the Morning Light", was completed during a one-day writing session at Simmons' home in Los Angeles six or seven years ago, the KISS bassist/vocalist revealed.

"Bob came up with the chords, most of them, and then I took it and wrote lyrics, melody, the rest of it," Simmons told Billboard, adding that he kept urging Dylan through the years to put lyrics to the song. "I'd see him on tour, and I'd say, 'Bob, you wanna write the song? And he would say, 'No, man, you write it, Mr. Kiss.'"

Of the one-day session, Simmons says, "We understood each other right away. He picked up an acoustic guitar, and we just tossed it back and forth, 'How 'bout this, how 'bout that?' And he started to strum, because he — at least with me — tended to talk and strum guitar at the same time. And as soon as I heard the first three or four chords, I went, 'Wait, wait, what's that? Do that again.' So I went and started to write a lyric around that."

Simmons says he also plans to build a song around an unused Zappa riff titled "Black Tongue". "The plan is for [Zappa's children] Dweezil, Ahmet, and everybody to play on it, and to take Frank's voice and create a brand new song. It's very dark, very sort of KING CRIMSON, 'In the Court of the Crimson King'-kind of sound, with 7/8 time."

In addition to the solo set, for which no release date has yet been set, Simmons says he's also closing in on signing the first artists to Simmons Records in more than a decade. The label was last active in the late 1980s and was previously distributed through RCA/BMG. It released records by hard rock acts such as HOUSE OF LORDS, SILENT RAGE, and GYPSY ROSE with moderate success.

KISS is nearing the July 22 release of "The Kiss Symphony: Alive IV", which captures the band's Feb. 28 performance with the Melbourne Orchestra, the first release from Kiss Records via Sanctuary. A summer co-headlining jaunt with AEROSMITH begins Aug. 2 in Hartford, Connecticut.