Bruce Kulick to Celebrate Late Brother Bob, Despite Estrangement
Bruce Kulick says he's learning to deal with the sudden death of his brother Bob Kulick, eight months after he succumbed to a heart condition.
The siblings, both Kiss collaborators, weren't on speaking terms in the time leading up to the tragedy – but Bruce wants fans to remember Bob’s artistic abilities. He's been sharing photos and personal memories on social media, and says posthumous music releases will take place in due course.
“From the second it happened, I always wanted to share my love and my respect for his talent and what he means to me – and the fans love it,” Bruce told Metal Rules in a new interview. “On occasion, you see one negative person that’s like, ‘Why are you doing this?’ I said, ‘Because I think people want to see a more human side of Bob, too.’ The response is just incredible, and I’m so happy about that. I’m happy to see that. And if there is a way from the afterlife that someone’s aware of it … I know he’s smiling about it.”
Bruce suggested that a lifelong failure to deal with frustration and stress was the main contributor to Bob’s death, rather than the official explanation of heart disease.
“I know my brother,” Bruce said. “When he was in one of those moods and the flight’s supposed to be half empty, but then they’d cancel another flight so now the flight is packed and that seat that he thought he had, he doesn’t have anymore, he’d take it up with the flight attendant – and they go like, ‘Sir, that’s your seat. Sit down.’ ‘But I was told –’ You know what I mean, and the conversation doesn’t get better. … Those are the battles that, yeah, you could complain and grumble, but you got to let it go. And I have a feeling that Bob wasn’t letting those things go.
“No doctors can say, ‘He died of anger; he died of sadness.’ They can’t put that on a death certificate. You know that," Bruce continued. "And yet, people do die of that. … But they don’t write down a broken heart. No, whatever was a weak thing in that person’s physiology will be what kills him – but it was really because of their sadness.”
He believed Bob’s situation was worsened by stress over the coronavirus and its effects on everyday life.
“Other people that were helping him towards the end with some business things and legal things reached out to me and said, ‘Oh, he spoke so highly of you. He loved you, and he felt really bad about everything, but he had so much respect for you,’” Bruce said. “Which, again, was really wonderful for me to hear and very hard for me to hear, because then why did he have to be so impossible with me?” Instead, “[Bob] easily could have embraced the kind of successes that he’s had, and he had so many great successes.”
Bruce cited one example of the brother he wanted to remember, which concerned the son of a friend. “He was delivering pizza for a place here in Las Vegas, and he wound up in Bob’s house. And when he delivered the pizza to Bob, he said like, ‘Oh, you’re Bob Kulick. I’m a big fan.’” Bruce said. “Bob invited him in the house and showed him the guitars, you know what I mean? When this guy told me about what happened with his son, I was so fascinated by it. And he said all these wonderful things, and he was very engaging. That’s the Bob that I wish I had 100% of the time.”
He couldn’t offer any firm details about upcoming posthumous releases, but Bruce said “I know he was working on another Christmas record. There was no way to do anything for that this 2020 Christmas, but maybe if I could figure out the business thing and do it right, I can have something also for next year. … There are so many possibilities.”
Kiss Albums Ranked
Think You Know Kiss?