The 2020 Rock Comeback That Could Have Been: Top 12 Tours We Lost

  In late 2019, something interesting happened in the world of rock n’ roll…

A bunch of big bands who hadn’t been active in many years started announcing reunion tours and/or co-headlining tours with other big bands. While reunions and co-headlining treks were nothing new by this point, it certainly seemed like an unusually large amount of them were about to happen all at once. For people like me, this was a pretty huge deal! I knew deep down that the reason for it all was just because the world economy was better than ever at the time, and all of these dinosaur-aged, nostalgia-act has-beens wanted to take advantage of that. But I didn’t care! I was just happy that a bunch of bands that I admired were coming back and/or teaming up in new and unique ways.

And then of course, 2020 happened, and I think you know the rest of the story from there…

Some of these would-be rock revival tours have since been canceled, while others have been delayed indefinitely. Maybe they’ll still happen someday, or maybe not. That being said, whatever the future holds, I thought it would be fun to take some time to look at all of those 2020 rock comeback tours that could have been, and also evaluate what the future could hold for all of these different acts, and what they’re all doing in the meantime. Think of this as a sort of “what if” and “what can still be” glimpse, if you will…

Also, for what it’s worth; I know that artists of pretty much all other genres were impacted by the pandemic as well, but I’m not really as passionate about other genres in the way that I am about rock music in particular (and I don’t even listen to much music at all these days, to be fair). I have respect for all of those different styles of music, for sure, but they just don’t really “get me going” in the way that rock does (bar a few exceptions, of course). I used to be a snob about that sorta thing, but these days I try to keep more of an open mind. Who knows? Maybe someday I’ll actually like another genre more than rock n’ roll. But alas, today is not that day…

So, without further ado, here are the Top 12 rock comeback tours of 2020 that never were! Starting with…

12.Kiss Farewell Tour (For Real This Time…?)

In 1996, the original Kiss line-up reunited. Then in 2000, they embarked on a farewell tour (“The Last Kiss” Tour), saying that they “wanted to go out on a high.” Pretty much as soon as the tour was over, founding members Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons replaced guitarist Ace Frehley and drummer Peter Criss with hired hands, even giving them the same makeup designs and everything! Further touring and recording resumed not too long after that, and this infamous new line-up of Kiss still continues to this very day. I suppose the 2000 tour was still a “farewell” to the original line-up, at least. Nevertheless, if Paul and Gene’s goal was to “go out on a high,” they certainly failed (and that’s coming from someone who actually likes 2012’s Monster album). The group kicked off a new farewell tour in 2019 (dubbed “The End of the Road”), and were caught lip syncing at pretty much every single show right up until the pandemic shut everything down. Currently, the Europe leg has been rescheduled to early summer, which means it’ll probably be delayed by yet another year (they’re already confirmed for Download Fest 2022 in the UK anyways). Same can probably be said for the South America leg in the fall. The late summer North America leg and the winter Oceania leg might still happen though, if I had to guess. I suppose if you’re a diehard fan and don’t mind lip syncing then it’s worth going to see the band while you still can. For the rest of us, though? Hard pass…

11.Motley Crue Reunion Tour (w/ Def Leppard, Poison and Joan Jett & the Blackhearts)

When Motley Crue completed their 35th anniversary tour in 2015, they claimed that all four members had signed a contract promising that they would never perform live under the Motley Crue name ever again. Then their 40th anniversary came around in 2020, and it was announced that they’d be embarking on a massive trek of stadiums (simply titled “The Stadium Tour”), alongside three other household names. In short, they admitted that the whole contract thing was bullshit (but we all knew that anyway). On one hand, I think it’s shitty that they didn’t stick to their word, despite the fact that everyone saw it coming from a mile away. On the other hand, this tour intrigues me just because of it’s rather unique nature alone. It’s been a long time since we’ve seen a non-festival rock tour of this magnitude. Four massive bands from the annals of rock history, touring gargantuan football stadiums across America. If you’re just looking for nothing but a good time (pun intended) and want to pretend like you’re back in 1989, I’d say it’s worth checking out. I’m probably gonna pass though, as I feel that Crue has aged rather poorly. All of the summer 2020 dates have been rescheduled to 2021, from June to September to be exact. My guess is that at least the first five or six shows might still get canceled and/or delayed again though, while the post-Fourth of July shows probably have a better chance of happening still…

10.Guns N’ Roses “Next Chapter” Tour (w/ The Smashing Pumpkins and Gary Clark Jr.)

After 23 years of estrangement (pun intended), Axl Rose and Slash buried the hatchet and embarked on their big reunion tour from early 2016 all the way until late 2019. No new music came during this time, apart from a handful of old demos that the band dusted off in mid 2018 for the 30th anniversary of Appetite for Destruction. It seemed like 2020 would finally bring about a new era for the band though, as the upcoming tour was being labeled as “the next chapter,” with slogans such as “the next chapter is about to begin” scattered all over the marketing. The band actually did the first show of the tour in Mexico, in mid March, right when the coronavirus was officially declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organization. Needless to say, the rest of the tour was postponed indefinitely and the band flew home right after that. Interestingly enough though, during the soundcheck right before the Mexico gig, the band rehearsed a new song called Hard School (the demo of which leaked a few months prior, along with many other unreleased songs). Even Axl took part in that rehearsal (which he rarely does). Who knows? Maybe they really were finally on the verge of something new…

As of now, the South America leg of the tour is canceled entirely, while the Europe leg is delayed to summer 2022 (after having already been delayed from summer 2020 to summer 2021). The North America and Oceania legs are still scheduled for the fall/winter of this year (after also suffering a year-long delay). Those will probably still happen. Not sure about new music, though. Wouldn’t be surprised if the band has just given up at this point, knowing them. And if that’s the case, I don’t really care anymore. If they wanna just be a nostalgia act from now on, fine by me. I got to see them when the reunion started in 2016, so I don’t really need to see them again (unless new music really does happen, or even just another boxset of old demos for the Use Your Illusion 30th anniversary). I actually had tickets to see them in 2020, but that’s only because The Smashing Pumpkins were gonna be the opening act, and I thought it’d be cool to see both bands together (even though I already saw The Pumpkins in 2018 as well). That being said, The Pumpkins have since dropped out of the tour entirely (to focus on their upcoming 33-song double album, a “sequel” to Mellon Collie and Machina), so I refunded my tickets. Not a major loss for me, so it’s whatever.

9.Hella Mega Tour (Green Day, Weezer and Fall Out Boy)

From what I can tell, Green Day is one of the most divisive bands of all time. Some people love them, and some people absolutely loathe them. Personally, I’m somewhere in the middle. I like their popular albums, 1994’s Dookie and 2004’s American Idiot, but don’t really care for anything else, apart from the occasional single here and there. Apparently they made their most recent main album, 2020’s Father of All Motherfuckers, a bad album on purpose, cause it was the last record they were contracted to deliver to a major label. While I admire the “statement” there, I think making bad music on purpose is still a pretty shallow thing to do, but that’s just me. They also recently released the album Money Money 2020 Part II: We Told Ya So!, the sequel to 2003’s Money Money 2020, both under the pseudonym The Network (one of many pseudonyms which they use). 2020 also saw the release of frontman Billie Joe Armstrong’s first ever solo album, No Fun Mondays. Seems like Green Day enjoys escaping the stigma of their own name every now and then, which I can understand, though I still think Father of All was a mistake (I heard parts of it when it first came out, and it was a tough listen). Weezer is another band where I’ve only listened to a few of their records in full. That being said, I admire their persistence. They released an acoustic album earlier this year called OK Human, and are about to release a new electric album in a few weeks from now called Van Weezer (notice the theme?). I never paid attention to Fall Out Boy, so I won’t comment on them one way or the other. As far the dates go; the Asia and Oceania legs have been canceled entirely (the latter of which is surprising, cause Oceania is actually doing okay right now), while the Europe leg has been delayed to early summer 2021 (half of the shows are still missing new dates though) and the North America leg has been delayed to late summer 2021. My prediction is that the Europe shows will get delayed again, if not canceled entirely. The North America shows are probably the only ones that’ll still happen. A world tour downgraded to a domestic tour. Sad, but it is what it is…

8.My Chemical Romance Reunion Tour

I don’t actually know much about this band, other than that they have a pretty big fanbase, so I imagine a ton of people must’ve been pretty thrilled when they announced their reunion after a decade of inactivity. Sadly, they only got around to playing one show before the pandemic kicked into high gear. All of the other shows are delayed to 2022 now (after being delayed to 2021 first, of course). No sign of new music from these guys either, as far as I know, though I imagine that’s because frontman Gerard Way is busy working on the third season of Umbrella Academy, among his other writing projects.

7.The Rolling Stones Tour (Yes, They’re Still Around)

Imagine traveling back in time to 1962, when The Rolling Stones first formed, and telling them “In the year 2020, you guys will have to delay an entire tour leg due to a global plague. And yes, you guys are still around in 2020.” What makes this even more interesting is the fact that the band had already been touring consistently for a few years leading up to the pandemic. As a matter of fact, they only had one leg left to go, in North America. As of now, that leg is still in limbo. No dates have been rescheduled yet, but no cancellations have happened either. If I had to guess though, I think we’ve really seen the last of The Stones on stage this time. At their age, and with the paranoid world we live in now, I really can’t see these guys playing live ever again, apart from maybe a big 60th anniversary show in the UK next year. But as sad as that may be, the fact that they were able to tour for 57 years (with some years off here and there, of course) is nothing to balk at! Plus, they released a new covid-inspired single last year, along with some old demos that never saw a proper release until now. The band also recently hinted at a new album on their social media pages. Assuming that really does come to fruition, it’ll be their first new studio record since 2005’s A Bigger Bang (not counting the 2016 covers collection Blue & Lonesome). So at least there’s that to hopefully still look forward to!

6.Aerosmith Vegas Residency, Anniversary Show and Farewell Tour

When the pandemic hit, Aerosmith were in the middle of a series of residency shows in Las Vegas, which itself was part of their supposed farewell tour that’s been going on since 2017, but still has no real end in sight. The band was also scheduled to play a big 50th anniversary show in their hometown of Boston in the fall of 2020, but that show has since been pushed out an entire year, while the remaining Vegas shows are still in limbo, and all other shows have been pushed all the way out to summer 2022. This all happened at an interesting time for the band, as they had just patched things up with original drummer Joey Kramer, whom they had kicked out of the band a year prior after he had been with them nonstop for 49 years (I don’t know the specifics of the drama there). They also were apparently about to start work on a new album, their first since 2012’s Music from Another Dimension, but I’m not sure if that’s still happening or not. As far as touring goes; my guess is that the Vegas residency is toast now, but all of the other dates will probably still happen (though they’ll likely be Aerosmith’s last).

5.Genesis Reunion Tour

At the beginning of 2020, literally right before the world went to shit, Genesis reunited and announced a small run of UK shows for the fall. It would have been their first time touring since 2006-2007 (which itself was their first time touring since 2000). The band has since delayed all of the shows by an entire year (smart move). Frontman Phil Collins recently said that there’s no plans for new music, but added “never say never.” Collins himself hasn’t done a record with the band since 1991’s We Can’t Dance, and the only other record they’ve done without him is 1997’s lackluster Calling All Stations. New music would be interesting, but I wouldn’t hold my breath.

4.Faith No More Reunion Tour (w/ Korn)

In 2009, Faith No More reunited and toured for the first time since 1998. Then in 2015, they released the album Sol Invictus (their first record since 1997’s Album of the Year). For awhile, it seemed like the band was really here to stay this time. But then in 2016, after performing a pair of small shows with original vocalist Chuck Mosely, the group faded away once again. Mosely then died in 2017, while primary vocalist Mike Patton moved on to various other projects (like he always does). Then in late 2019, the band shocked their fanbase by announcing yet another reunion tour for 2020, with Korn as their co-headlining act. Interestingly enough, around this same time, Patton also reunited with his other big band, Mr. Bungle, who have since released their first studio album since 1999 (with another album potentially on the way now too). Sadly, things haven’t worked out as well for Faith No More. The tour with Korn has been canceled entirely now (apart from two shows next month), and the string of European festival dates they have booked for this summer are likely to be canceled too (if I have to guess). The Oceania leg of their tour is scheduled for early 2022. My bet is that this is the only leg that’ll still happen (at least for now). No sign of new music either. I could be wrong, but it seems like Patton just sees Faith No More as “the touring band that pays my bills,” while Mr. Bungle serves as his true creative outlet.

3.Red Hot Chili Peppers Classic Line-Up Reunion Tour

In 2007, after the Red Hot Chili Peppers completed the tour for their 2006 double album Stadium Arcadium, classic-era guitarist John Frusciante began to drift away from the group. It wasn’t the first time, as he had already been out of the band once before, from 1992 to 1998. He confirmed his second departure in 2009, and was replaced by Josh Klinghoffer, a longtime friend of Frusciante’s who had already been serving as a touring member since 2007. Apparently Frusciante saw this as a betrayal, and his friendship with Klinghoffer has been strained ever since. The band went on to make two more studio albums, I’m With You (2011) and The Getaway (2016), as well as one b-side album, I’m Beside You (2013). While all of these records were a modest success, none of them were ever able to reach the heights of the Frusciante-era stuff. So it shouldn’t really come as a surprise that when Frusciante expressed interest in returning once more in late 2019, the band relieved Klinghoffer of his duties. Personally, I really liked Josh. He seemed like a nice guy in interviews, and I felt he really came into his own as a guitarist by the time the band got to The Getaway. He was apparently going to tour with Pearl Jam as a solo act, before the pandemic hit (he even collaborated with them a bit). Hopefully that still happens, once the world is back to (mostly) normal. I wish him well.

That being said, John Frusciante is fucking John Frusciante. There’s just no one else like him. He truly is one of the most unique guitarists of all time. So if there’s an opportunity for the band to bring him back so that they can make a true follow-up to Stadium Arcadium, then I say they should go for it! They’re not getting any younger, so it’s now or never! Out of all the potential future rock albums and/or tours, this is easily the one I’m most excited for, by far. The band did actually manage to play a one-off show last year (their first with Frusciante since 2007), but were then forced to cancel the string of Europe and North America festival dates they had on the books. Currently, there are no rescheduled dates on their roster, but it seems like the new album is coming along, so at least we have that to look forward to! Also, for what it’s worth: Yes, I know the Chili Peppers and Faith No More have feuded with each other often in the past. I didn’t mean to put them right next to one another on this list. That was just a coincidence.

2.Rage Against the Machine Reunion Tour (w/ Run the Jewels)

In 2000, Rage Against the Machine frontman Zach de la Rocha quit the group to work on a solo album which, believe it or not, he’s still working on to this very day. In the meantime, the remaining members went on to form Audioslave with Chris Cornell (RIP), and the short-lived, ill-fated Prophets of Rage not too long after that. RATM has actually already reunited once before, from 2007 to 2011, but they only did a handful of shows each of those years. The 2020 tour would’ve been their first “proper” tour in twenty years (hence why it’s so high on this list). Once the pandemic hit, all shows were pushed out to 2021, and now 2022. I’m sure all of the dates will still happen, eventually, as I have a feeling the only reason de la Rocha reunited with the rest of the band in the first place is because he needs the money. I doubt new music will happen though, but I’m sure the shows will still be full of energy.

1.AC/DC Classic Line-Up Reunion Tour

The album-and-touring cycle for AC/DC’s 2014 record Rock or Bust was turbulent, to say the least. First, before work on the album even started, founding member and rhythm guitarist Malcolm Young was forced to leave the band in 2013, after being diagnosed with dementia. His nephew Stevie ended up taking his place (Malcolm, sadly, succumbed to his illness and died in 2017). Then in 2014, just after the album was released, longtime drummer Phil Rudd was charged with possession of illegal drugs and attempted murder (yikes!). He was quickly replaced with Chris Slade, who had already served as the band’s drummer from 1989-1994, when Rudd was out of the group due to other drug-related issues at the time. Then in early 2016, when the Rock or Bust Tour still had two more legs to go, singer Brian Johnson blew out his eardrums after standing too close to racing vehicles without hearing protection. The smart thing for the band to do would’ve been to just cancel the rest of the tour at that point, but as lead guitarist and central member Angus Young put it: “You can’t call the album Rock or Bust, and then bust!” In an interesting turn of events, the band recruited Guns N’ Roses frontman Axl Rose to fill in on vocal duties for the remaining dates, right when the Guns N’ Roses reunion tour had just started as well! For the next few months, Rose alternated back and forth between both bands, until all of the remaining AC/DC shows were complete. Immediately after, longtime bassist Cliff Williams announced his retirement, saying that the band “didn’t feel right” anymore due to all of the sudden line-up changes that had occurred from 2013-2016. 

For awhile, it seemed like the AC/DC story was over. Then in 2017, Johnson was able to get his hearing restored after meeting a doctor who had been developing new hearing technology with a group of scientists. Later that year, he appeared on stage with Muse to prove that he was back to performance-ready shape. Then in 2018, Rudd was cleared of all charges. How? I don’t know! But not too long after that, all four classic surviving members (Brian, Angus, Cliff, Phil) and Stevie were spotted entering a studio in Vancouver. Throughout all of 2019, there were rumblings of a new album on the way. The big rumor was that it would drop in early 2020, around the 40th anniversary of the legendary Back in Black album. Then, of course, the pandemic happened, and it was radio-silence for the next several months after that. Finally, towards the end of the year, the new record, titled Power Up, saw the light of day! The band confirmed shortly thereafter that they had wanted to tour in support of it, but that everything was now up in the air due to the pandemic, and they didn’t want to sit on the new music any longer. Shame about the tour, really. Hopefully they can play at least one or a few shows in their homeland of Australia. They owe it to themselves and their diehards to celebrate at least one last time, especially after such a triumphant return…

    Well, that’s all I got!

Peace!

UPDATE: In a similar vein to this post, it’s funny how a bunch of bands broke up or retired from touring in 2024 (Rage Against the Machine, Hall & Oates, Jeff Lynn’s ELO, Jane’s Addiction, REO Speedwagon, Aerosmith, Sum 41, etc.). Furthermore, it’s also funny how a bunch of bands changed drummers in 2025 (Guns N’ Roses, Foo Fighters, Nine Inch Nails, Pearl Jam, Aerosmith, The Who, Kiss, Oasis, Rush, etc.).

Related: List Repository

Three Things I Learned From Self-Publishing On Amazon

  So as I’ve mentioned on here before, at the beginning of this year, I finally got around to releasing my debut story collection Little Life Lessons: Fifty-Five Super Short Stories on Amazon. Needless to say, I learned quite a bit through this experience, so I thought it’d be cool to do a quick little post detailing the top three things that I felt were the biggest “lessons learned” here, so to speak. So without further ado, let’s just dive right in:

1. Do Your Research! As Much Research As Possible!!

Shortly after I self-published the book, a friend of mine read it and had some constructive criticism for one of the story entries in particular, “Lost Causes.” Without giving away the ending, the story tells the tale of a teenage boy who wants to become a carpenter, but is pressured towards a more “respectable” direction in life by his strict, elitist father. Furthermore, he’s struggling in school, particularly in math class. My friend pointed out to two things in particular: Carpentry is actually considered to be a respected field of work amongst most people, and strong math skills are usually required to be successful in carpentry.

So basically, I jumped to conclusions here with this story, instead of doing more research like I should have. That being said, I suppose the reader could just assume that the father in story ignorantly considered carpentry to be a waste of time, and that he just simply wanted his son to go to university for something more “book-focused” and less “hands on.” I suppose the reader could also assume that the protagonist lost his motivation to improve in math once his father took the option of carpentry away from him. Nevertheless, I should’ve still done more research on this subject in particular, before finalizing the story. When you’re self-publishing, and not working with an editor of any kind, it’s up to you as the author to fact-check all of these things, and that’s something I’ll definitely make sure to do for my future stories going forward.

2. Format! Format! Format!

No disrespect to Amazon, as I’m thankful to them for even giving me a platform for my books in the first place, but their uploading process sure is tricky! Apparently it used to be worse, so kudos to them for improving it since, but it can definitely still be smoother than it currently is. Every time I tried uploading the document for my book, the previewer would show it all messed up, even when I made sure it was reading the page size correctly and whatnot. Whether I uploaded it as a word doc or a PDF, it would look wrong in the previewer every single time. This would happen over and over for both the paperback upload as well as the Kindle upload. I even had to download an app to help with setting up the Kindle version, and as soon as I downloaded that app, it vanished from my computer (and yes, I made sure to download the right version for my OS). 

Finally, my stupid ass realized (thanks to a point made by my mother, admittedly) that I needed to add page breaks in order to fix the error. Thankfully, this worked. However, as I was converting the stories over to a new document, one entry at a time, and adding page breaks, the format got messed up somehow and I lost all the italics. The reason this is an issue is because, in my old document, I used italics to distinguish characters’ internal monologues from the prose narration. At this point, I was so anxious to just get the book out there after so many failed attempts, that it was only after I had uploaded and published it that I realized I had made this error. Sure, I could go back and fix it now, but by this point a bunch of friends and family members had already ordered their copies, and I didn’t want to make things more confusing for myself and others than they already were. Besides, from what most friends have said, it was still easy for them to tell apart the internal monologues from the narration, even without the italics. Nonetheless, I should’ve still double-checked all of my formatting one last time, which is something I definitely will do now from now on (along with adding page breaks from the very get-go, of course!).

3. Adult Content = No Advertisements

So after I finally got the upload process right, Amazon presented a series of questions I needed to answer before allowing me to hit the “Publish” button. One of these questions was whether or not my book contained any adult content in it. I wasn’t really sure how to answer this at first, because the book itself is a collection of many different short stories that are all pretty different from one another. That being said, as I thought about it more, I recalled that some of the stories, mainly towards the end, were pretty dark and “mature.” One of them was about a sex slave escaping from traffickers, one of them was about someone who was being held hostage in a dungeon… You get the idea. So I decided to answer “Yes” for the “Any adult content here?” question.

…And then, after the book was published, I tried to set up some ads for it on Amazon, only to then find out that any books that were marked as “mature” weren’t allowed to be advertised on the main website, and that once a book was published, it was too late to go back and change that. If I wanted to fix it, I would have had to re-publish the book, and again, I didn’t want to make things more confusing for myself than they already were. A warning on this during the initial publishing process would’ve been nice. To be fair to Amazon, though, maybe there was actually a warning there, and I just missed it. In any case, I’m not really doing any of this stuff for money or attention, so I’m not too bothered by it. 

That being said, I noticed that once my book started to fall further and further down the Bestseller charts, it became more and more difficult to search for it through Amazon’s search engine. Their algorithm is clearly configured in a certain way so that, the higher a book is on the charts, the easier it is to find when typing it in the search bar. The only way to make my book show up near the top of a search now is to type out it’s full name, subtitle and all. And again, I have no problem with this. I just figured it’d be worth mentioning here in case anyone reading this is planning to self-publish something on Amazon for the first time in the hopes of actually making some money.

So there you have it! Those are my biggest lessons learned from publishing on Amazon for the first time. If you’re an aspiring writer like me, hopefully some of this has been useful for you!

Peace!

2025 UPDATE: Also remember to double-check the book dimensions. I messed that up twice in a row. Furthermore, be sure to include synopses in your books themselves, and list your other works (especially for books that are part of a series). In hindsight, these are all things I wish I would’ve done, back when I was publishing frequently on Amazon.

How My Short Story Collection Came To Be

  So I was originally going to tie this blog post into the release of my debut book, titled Little Life Lessons: Fifty-Five Super Short Stories. However, due to technical difficulties, the book still isn’t out yet. That being said, I didn’t want to sit on this post any longer, so I’m putting it out there now. Once the book finally is out, I’ll come back to this post and edit it so that it includes a link to the actual book itself.

        Update: Here it is!

So with that now out of the way…

I thought I’d make a blog post to explain what exactly this book is, and how it came to be! As the title indicates, it’s a collection of “fifty-five super short stories,” but when I say short, I mean really short! Have you ever heard of flash fiction? Stories that are only a thousand words or less? That’s what all of these story entries are. Why write a book consisting entirely of stories that are that small? Well, to understand that, we’d have to backtrack to the beginning of my “journey” as a writer…

So it was a few years ago, right as I finished college, when I decided that I wanted to take creative writing seriously. Initially, my goal was to write a film script in the realm of sci-fi, fantasy, etc. Something along the lines of the kind of films and books I grew up with. I knew I didn’t want to direct because I had heard horror stories of all the moving parts that sort of job entails. I figured if I could write a strong enough script with a low-budget “feel” and get it onto what they call “the spec market” (a place where independent scripts could potentially be sold to studios), then I could probably get somewhere with it… Needless to say, it didn’t take long before those delusions started to fade. Soon enough, I realized that even if I were to complete a script (and a good script, at that!) the chances of it ever getting sold were slim-to-none, and the chances of it actually getting made after being sold were even slimmer! Furthermore, even if it did ever get made, by some miracle, the film producers probably would’ve made tons of changes that I likely wouldn’t have agreed with, and there would’ve been nothing I could’ve ever done about it (once you sell your script, it’s not yours anymore).

Funny enough, these days, I don’t really take my art that personally anymore. But back then, I still did, and I quickly realized that I wanted to have full control of whatever it was that I was creating. So what did I do? To put it simply; I woke up one day and said “Screw it! I’m gonna write a book instead!” As a starting point, I took my script idea, which I already had an outline for, and started “transposing” that over to novel format. Rest assured, this phase didn’t last long either. I soon realized that different storytelling mediums required different forms of pacing. In other words; what works for a movie doesn’t necessarily work for a novel, and vice versa. I started making changes to my outline, which helped a little, but ultimately, I still struggled to get beyond the fourth or fifth chapter before feeling the need to scrap everything and start again, over and over…

It was at this point when I realized that I needed to take a break from writing altogether, and focus on some actual reading, for a change! I bought a bunch of sci-fi and fantasy books, things that seemed similar in one way or another to what I myself wanted to write. And it was here when I started to realize something… I don’t really like full-length novels as much as I once thought. It was also around this point when a writing peer of mine who had several more years of experience under his belt provided some profound advice; “Don’t start with a full book. Start by reading and writing short stories instead. Then you’ll see what to do.”

I didn’t believe him at first, but then I went to go pick up a collection of Philip K. Dick short stories and started working my way through those, and pretty much instantly, I realized he was right! Suddenly, I started to see storytelling from an entirely new angle, one which excited me far more than the long-form narrative format. And so, I took the ever-evolving outline for my story idea, trimmed out a ton of fat from it, and wrote it out as a short story that was about ten thousand words long (so a novelette, if you wanna get specific). I sent this to a friend who was kind enough to take the time to read it, and his feedback was that it felt like “a shortened epic.” Hearing this made me feel that maybe I had made it too short, so I wrote another draft that was double the length (so a novella this time). The same friend read this revision, and called it a “vast improvement,”which left me feeling elated, of course, but deep down, I knew something was still “off” with the story…

It was at this point when I started to truly learn and understand the concepts of theme and tone. You can’t just throw whatever you want into a story. Everything needs to “fit together” somehow. Once I was finally able to grasp that concept, I took another look at my novella draft and realized that I had basically taken multiple story ideas and squished them all together, without even realizing it! And so, logically, I started to break all those ideas apart again, isolating each of them into their own stories, and making sure to maintain consistent theme and tone in each of them as much as possible. From here, even more new story ideas started to prop up. At this point, I was still sticking to the realm of “genre fiction” (sci-fi, fantasy, etc.). As I continued to write different drafts of different stories and share them with friends, I kept receiving the same feedback from multiple people; “This doesn’t feel like a proper short story. It feels like it wants to be a full book.”

I was still missing something! I just didn’t know what, exactly. Then one day, somewhat out of nowhere, one of these friends I had been getting feedback from proposed an interesting idea; “Have you ever heard of micro-fiction? You may wanna look into that. I think it could help you a lot.” I knew that by micro-fiction he really meant flash fiction, which I had heard of already, but hadn’t explored much of yet. I decided to take his advice and shift my focus towards reading more flash. Around this time, another writing mentor of mine mentioned how he often practiced his craft by writing a form of flash called drabbles (stories that are exactly one hundred words). I began to take an interest to these types of stories as well, and found myself beginning to move away from the “genre” stuff and focusing more on story ideas that were set in “the real world,” if you catch my drift.

From here; I entered my “idea explosion” phase. Now that I was no longer limiting myself to “genre stuff,” I was coming up with new story ideas left and right, almost every single day! I made giant lists of working titles on my phone. I also used an excel document for this purpose at one point, but it was too difficult to maintain, so I quickly abandoned that approach. As you would probably expect, I soon found myself overwhelmed by all my different ideas; “Where do I even start now?!” Furthermore, I couldn’t make up my mind about how I wanted to actually release any of this stuff! “Do I submit these stories to a bunch of different magazines? Do I put them all up for free on a blog? Do I group them together as collections, and put those out on Amazon?”

In the end, I went with the last of those options. The idea of grouping everything together into collection books gave the stories a sense of “tangibility,” which boosted my motivation, and I specifically chose Amazon as my outlet because I knew that people would be able to order physical paperback versions of my books, and the thought of actually being able to hold my own work in my hands like that enticed me even further. But despite all of that, the same question still remained; “Where do I even start?!” After some more thought, I ended up grouping the stories based on “genre,” which meant one group for sci-fi stories, one for fantasy stories, one for apocalyptic stories, one for “real life” stories, and lastly, one for period pieces. I decided that these would become my “books,” so to speak. 

I then decided that the “real life” stories would be the first that I would tackle… The only problem was that I had sixty-three different story ideas for that group listed out. All intended to be flash fiction, of course. But still, it was a lot! Nevertheless, over the course of about a year or so, I worked through them all, and believe it or not, it was fun! Writing all those stories never once felt like a chore. As a matter of fact, I would even say that the act of writing them all was “therapeutic,” in a way. Throughout my year of this frequent writing, I essentially “tricked” myself into thinking that it was all just a hobby, and that I wasn’t writing anything for a book of any kind. I think this helped to alleviate a lot of the pressure, and therefore kept me motivated to keep working…

Once the stories were all actually done, I knew right away that the next step would be to figure out how to organize them. Make no mistake; this part was not fun! For months, I tried all different kinds of combinations, each of which gave me a raging headache. Eventually, I hit a point where I decided to list all sixty-three stories on a word doc on my computer. Next to each title, I listed a few “key factors” pertaining to the story, such as whether it was in first-person or third, whether or not the story was a drabble and/or double-drabble, and most importantly, what type of story it was. It was through this exercise that I realized that the vast majority of these stories could be distinguished by one of five different “types”; Family Stories, Youth Stories, Office Stories, Aspiration Stories, and lastly, Tragedy Stories.

Finally, I was starting to get some sense of “structure” for my work! It was also at this point when I made the choice to narrow the number of stories down to fifty-five (eleven per section). This allowed me to eliminate some of the stories that I felt were a little weak and/or redundant. I ended up eliminating more than expected, however, so I took the opportunity to write some new story entries at the last minute that I felt fit better with the new structure, as well as helped to “fill in some gaps,” so to speak.

But I still wasn’t done there! From that point onward, I was revising different stories all over the entire book up until the very last possible moment. This entailed changing certain stories to make sure they all stood out from one another, yet still “fit together” appropriately, among other things. Sometimes stories would move to different places in their respective sections, or be swapped out for one of the rejects, or something new. I even changed the cover art at the very last minute! It’s true what they say; revision is where the art really happens!

And so, eventually, I got to a point where I was finally ready to call the book “good enough.” Is it perfect? No, of course not! Could I have worked on it even more? Yes, of course! But sometimes, you have to just say “screw it” and be done with it. Move on to something new, which is exactly what I’m doing now! I still intend to finish and release all of my other short story collections (in some shape or form), as well as continue to study and write poetry (something I started to do only just very recently). Rest assured, I still plan to continue with this blog as well.

I hope you enjoyed reading about my writing journey here, and hopefully, some of my experiences and findings may help you on your own path as well…

Peace!

RELATED: About My New Sci-Fi/Fantasy Story Collection

The Good & The Bad: KISS (Non-Original Lineup Studio Albums)

        A few weeks back I did a run-through of the Kiss studio albums made by the original line-up (for the most part, at least). So I figured that now it made sense to also go over all of the other studio albums that Paul and Gene went on to make without Ace and Peter (again, for the most part). And just as a reminder; this review series does not involve any form of ranking, rating, etc. I just simply state the things I like and dislike regarding each entry.

So, without further ado, let’s just jump right in:

1.Music from “The Elder” (1981)

THE GOOD: So when I first listened to this album, I made the mistake of listening to the original track order that was mandated by the record label, against the band’s wishes, and didn’t like it at all. The reason that was a mistake on my part is because this is supposed to be a concept album, where the songs need to be heard in a specific sequence in order for the overall narrative to make sense. Thankfully, the band was able to eventually do a reissue of the album, with the correct order restored. I listened to that version shortly after, and instantly went from hating it to liking it. Is it as stellar as concept records made by the likes of Pink Floyd, Genesis, or The Who? No, of course not! But for those new to the whole concept album listening experience that may be looking for something a little “simpler” to digest, this is a solid starting point.

THE BAD: While I like the record overall, there are still a solid handful of clunker tunes on here that drag it down a bit, sadly. Paul’s “broadway” falsetto voice on tracks like Just A Boy still doesn’t really work for me. Odyssey goes on for way too long. And while I don’t mind the opening instrumental Fanfare (it “sets the tone”), I can see it giving most listeners a pretty bad first impression, and sometimes, first impressions really are everything…

2.Creatures of the Night (1982)

THE GOOD: Whoa! Holy crap… Now we’re talking! After the band’s last few records were poorly received (despite being looked back on as cult classics now), they decided to return to their hard rock roots here, and the result is fantastic! Also, as diehard fans know, while Ace appears on the cover art, he actually doesn’t play on this album at all, as he had already decided to quit after The Elder. Therefore, Paul and Gene decided to use this record as an opportunity to secretly “audition” various potential replacements. All of the uncredited guitarists who play on here were definitely determined to bring their A-game to the table, and it shows! All of the guitar work on this album is absolutely top-notch!

THE BAD: The song Saint & Sinner is definitely the weak link here (it grew on me, though). Also, the track Keep Me Comin’ sounds a bit like a Led Zeppelin ripoff, but a good Led Zeppelin ripoff, at least! Similarly, Killer is a ripoff of Highway Star by Deep Purple, but again, that never bothered me.

3.Lick It Up (1983)

THE GOOD: While Creatures received critical acclaim upon release, it still sold poorly, so the band wiped the makeup away to regain some public attention (shock value sells, after all) and made what could basically be seen as “Creatures 2.” Though not quite as strong as its predecessor, this is still a very solid release! And the guitar work is just as great as last time, Sadly, this is the only record to feature axeman Vinnie Vincent as a full member (which makes sense, since he's a raging asshole), but even though he was only in the band briefly, at least he made his time count.

THE BAD: The last three songs are all crap, and basically ruin what would otherwise be a perfect album, in my opinion. Funny enough, all three of those tracks happen to be written and sung by Gene, so it doesn’t surprise me that they suck, since this was around the start of when Gene prioritized his acting career over his music. As you could probably guess, the whole acting thing didn’t really work out for him, and by the time the 1990’s came around, he was back to focusing mostly on music (along with other business ventures, of course). Shame it took him that long to snap out of it… Another factor to take into account is the fact that, much like how Dynasty represented a shift towards appealing mainly to kids, this record represented a shift towards appealing more so than ever towards teens and adults, which only served to make things even more confusing than they already were!

4.Animalize (1984)

THE GOOD: The first two tracks, I’ve Had Enough (Into The Fire) and Heaven’s On Fire, serve as a solid start, and the rest of the songs all grew on me a bit over time too (expect While The City Sleeps, that shit still sucks).

THE BAD: While I no longer hate this record as much as I used to, it still feels a bit “flawed” to me. Why didn’t it work? I think part of it has to do with the fact that this was technically Paul’s first time producing on his own, and he clearly still had a lot to learn in that regard (the whole album sounds like shit, from a production perspective). Also, one-time guitarist Mark St. John (RIP), despite being talented, just didn’t fit with the band, I’m sorry to say. I’m not surprised that this ended up being his only outing with them…

5.Asylum (1985)

THE GOOD: After stumbling on Animalize, the band got back on track with this album. Paul improved a ton as a producer! Guitarist Bruce Kulick made his “official” debut here, and made sure to deliver the goods! The singles Who Wants To Be Lonely and especially Tears Are Falling are some of my favorite songs in the band’s entire catalog (terrible music videos, though, since the band outfits were atrocious during this era!). And there are plenty of other underrated tracks on here, most notably I’m Alive (seriously, why isn’t that one talked about more?!). EDIT: I don’t like this album as much anymore.

THE BAD: There are three tracks on here I don’t like. Two of them are Love Is A Deadly Weapon and Secretly Cruel, both of which are sung by Gene who, once again, was still phoning it in a bit at this point. The other track I dislike on here is Radar For Love which, like Keep Me Comin’ from Creatures, sounds like a Zeppelin ripoff, only this time, not a good one. Some of the other Gene songs like Any Way You Slice It and Trial By Fire aren’t necessarily bad, but still far from his best. Also, Uh! All Night is catchy, but a little too cheesy.

6.Crazy Nights (1987)

THE GOOD: So I actually avoided listening to this one for a long time cause I saw that it was ranked either dead-last or second-to-last on most people’s rankings, and I also heard it described as “Kiss Jovi” (and I’m not really a Bon Jovi person). I finally listened to it recently and while I understand why most people rank it so low, at the end of the day, I’d still much rather hear Gene and Paul sing than Jon Bon Jovi…

THE BAD: Aside from a few of the Gene songs (Hell Or High Water and Thief In The Night in particular), the rest of this record sounds very dated. Which is surprising, since Gene was apparently still focusing mainly on his movie career, at this point. I think on stuff like The Elder and Carnival of Souls, he was the one concerned with chasing trends, whereas on this record, it was Paul. Also, a bunch of label executives apparently gave this album a standing ovation when they first heard it. I guess I can see why it would’ve sounded cool way back in 1987, but it certainly hasn’t aged well…

7.Hot in the Shade (1989)

THE GOOD: This album, the last to fully feature drummer Eric Carr (RIP), is certainly a standout in the band’s catalog, with one of the biggest reasons being that it’s basically just a bunch of demo recordings with some “polish” on them. Most people would see this as a bad thing, but I actually kinda like it! The lo-fi quality helps the record to feel much more unique, when standing next to the rest of the band’s discography. This album also marks a nice return-to-form after Crazy Nights and those two god-awful bonus songs they did for that compilation in 1988!

THE BAD: At fifteen tracks in total, this record is certainly long in the tooth. Almost half of these songs would’ve fit better as b-sides, rather than album tracks proper, and Read My Body (a shameless ripoff of Def Leppard's Pour Some Sugar On Me) should've been deleted from existence altogether…

8.Revenge (1992)

THE GOOD: Damn! With Bob Ezrin returning to the producer chair, and Vinnie Vincent briefly back (as an outside songwriter), the band were able to recapture their “hard rock roots,” just like they did a decade earlier with Creatures (too bad neither record sold well, though). And once again, the result is fantastic! I love this album! It’s still not quite as strong as most of the makeup-era records, of course, but it comes pretty damn close, as far as I’m concerned! A nice return to form.

THE BAD: Parts of the song Spit sound like a ripoff of Led Zeppelin’s Whole Lotta Love, but that song was also a ripoff, so who cares? The only tracks I really dislike on here are Heart Of Chrome (who thought singing two different choruses at the same time was a good idea?) and Every Time I Look At You (most generic ballad ever). 

9.Carnival of Souls (1997)

THE GOOD: Recorded in early 1996, but shelved for a bit to avoid conflict with the original lineup reunion at that time, this is Kiss’s “grunge” album (they were still chasing trends, at this point). They even went as far as to recruit Toby Wright, producer of Alice in Chains’ seminal Dirt, which is funny since AiC have cited Kiss as an influence, in more ways than one. Most people see this record as a step too far, but I actually like it! Is it because I grew up on grunge? Probably, but at the end of the day, all I really care about is whether I like something or not. I try not to concern myself too much with the politics behind something…

THE BAD: Rain is a ripoff of AiC’s Rain When I Die, but once again, in this case, I don’t really care. There are only three tracks on here I truly dislike. Two of them are Childhood’s End and Seduction Of The Innocent (both sound really “desperate” to me). The other one is the closing track, I Walk Alone, which guitarist Bruce Kulick sings, and quite frankly, his voice sounds terrible. To be fair, I’ve never heard him sing anything else, so maybe his voice has improved since this recording…

10.Sonic Boom (2009)

THE GOOD: These last couple of records are gonna be hard for me to talk about cause they were made by “Scab Kiss.” For context, when the original lineup reunited in 1996, they also put the makeup back on. Eventually, Ace and Peter were replaced again by other people; the band’s tour manager Tommy Thayer and a returning Eric Singer, respectively. Only this time, Paul and Gene had the two of them maintain the makeup and costume designs that Ace and Peter once wore. I can only speak for myself, but I have very mixed feelings about this, but it would be too much to go through here, so I’ll save that for another day… As far as this album itself goes; I enjoy about half of the songs (mainly on the second side). I surprisingly like All For The Glory, which Eric sings. He did a good job capturing the “spirit” of Peter there, in my opinion.

THE BAD: Aside from Modern Day Delilah and Hot & Cold, all of the songs on the first side of this record sound like total trash. There’s also a song on the second side I dislike, and that’s When Lightning Strikes, which Tommy sings. Unlike Eric, I think he failed to capture the spirit of Ace (at least on this album in particular, he failed)…

11.Monster (2012)

THE GOOD: Wow… I can’t believe I’m saying this, but the “scabs” actually made a decent album here. Guess they needed to make a “practice record” in the form of Sonic Boom before finding their own chemistry as a band for this one. Even Tommy finally figured out how to properly capture Ace’s character on the track Outta This World, while Eric continued to channel Peter’s character on For The Love Of Rock & Roll. On top of that, Paul and Gene sound full of energy here! Even the bonus track Right Here, Right Now kicks ass! This ended up being the last studio album before the band announced their farewell tour (I’m pretty sure they mean it for real this time). Not a bad way to end things, I’d say…

THE BAD: Back To The Stone Age is a ripoff of MC5’s Kick Out The Jams, but once again, I don’t really mind. The only track I legit don’t like is The Devil Is Me. It’s not bad, necessarily, just kinda boring, is all… Also, I enjoy Wall Of Sound, for the most part, but I also feel like something is missing on that track, in particular…

So there you have it! Overall, I like all of these other versions of Kiss too. While I complained last time about Kiss “chasing trends,” in a way, I’m kinda glad they did so, particularly on these records. It allowed each release to “stand out,” while also showing the band’s persistence to grow and evolve. I respect them for that. It’s sad that none of the lineups ever got more recognition for their actual talent…

It was also while listening to these specific records, however, when I started to notice just how repetitive Kiss can be sometimes. The older records had this sense of repetition as well, but at least Ace and Peter were also there to “balance it out.” Eric Carr was a good vocalist too. I kinda wish they would’ve had him sing more, back in the day. Maybe that would’ve helped. Oh well. Too late now…

Peace!