Last night, Rage Against the Machine's Tom Morello inducted Kiss into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
Be sure to check out the 13-minute-long video below, which shows the band's entire induction speech.
The clip shows a slightly jarring sight — former Kiss members Peter Criss and Ace Frehley sharing the stage (once again) with current members Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons.
"To Ace Frehley, his iconic guitar playing has been imitated but never equaled by generations of guitar players around the world," Simmons said to the crowd at a packed Barclays Center. "To Peter Criss ... well, there's not a guy out there who beats the sticks like Peter. Nobody's got that swing and that style." He added that there was no one better to have on your team than Paul Stanley, saying, "We wouldn't be here today without the original fantastic four."
"When I was 13 years old and I picked up my first guitar, I always sensed I was going to be into something big," Frehley told the crowd. "Little did I know a few years later, there it was."
Perhaps Kiss guitarist Paul Stanley summed it up best when he thanked the band's fans, who made the induction happen. He also garnered the biggest applause when he bashed the critics who had been bashing the band for decades:
"I believe the spirit of rock and roll is that you follow your own path regardless of your critics and regardless of your peers. And I think we've done that for 40 years. Here we are tonight basically being inducted for the same things that we were kept out from." He added, "The people pay for tickets. The people buy albums. The people who nominate, do not."
As promised, Kiss did not perform last night, despite very audible pleading from fans.
