Michael Des Barres Photo credit: Greg Gorman
There’s a thin line between pleasure and pain, and what you give – as well what you get – is all fair in the never-ending game of rock and roll. It’s the consequences of our actions that lead to our fate, and the soundtrack to this personal drama has suddenly never sounded so good.
Like a jolt of lightning to the soul and an electric shock to our bodies, Michael Des Barres unleashes a seductive proposition of grandeur with “Kiss or Kill Me,” the potent new single out this week on CD/digital via Rum Bar Records. Ahead of New Music Friday, The Big Takeover is today premiering the track’s colorful and lively music video.
Of course, it’s no coincidence that this dramatic romp of grandeur, excess, and swagger officially arrives on the eve of Valentine’s Day, February 13 (with the 7-inch vinyl arriving in early March).
“It’s now or never,” says Des Barres, the glam rock provocateur who has always played by his own rules. “Really the song is an anthem of love – love me or leave me. You either bring love to life, or you’re not living.”
The 26th Marquis Des Barres has been truly living for several decades now, balancing a high-wire act of rock and roll aristocracy and Hollywood charisma that has positioned the British-born and Los Angeles-based actor and performer like few in his class. He’s seen it all; and has lived to tell the sordid tale – as he does in the 2015 documentary Michael Des Barres: Who Do You Want Me to Be?, now streaming on Amazon Prime.
“It’s in my blood,” he warns. “And it always has been.”
From a litany of notable and ground-breaking bands (Silverhead, Detective, Chequered Past, and fronting The Power Station at Live Aid) to an extensive acting resume (portraying “Murdoc” on iconic ’80s series MacGyver and appealing in hundreds of films and shows, from 1967 debut To Sir, With Love to Miami Vice, 21 Jump Street, and countless others) to now hosting a daily garage rock and soul history program on Little Steven’s Underground Garage on SiriusXM, Des Barres has never been afraid to lay it all on the line.
Now with the formidable “Kiss or Kill Me,” a whirling dervish of aural hedonism, he’s offered perhaps his most intriguing proposition yet. It’s doused in a double shot of rebellion from Bowie, the street-walkin’ swagger of The Stooges, and the slick sonic seduction of T.Rex. “Kiss or Kill Me” is fueled by hyperactive strains of glam, garage rock, and proto-punk, but to Michael Des Barres it’s simply rock and roll.
And like any great film or television show, he’s once again surrounded himself with one hell of a cast. Longtime collaborator, conspirator, and co-writer Loren Molinare (known for his work in Slamdinistas, The Dogs, Little Caesar) provides the slick lighting to Des Barres’ holy thunder, and here the band is rounded out by Paul III on bass, Rob Klonel on drums, and Richard Duguay on backing vocals.
“I’m very excited that this single is hitting the world in a big sonic way,” says Molinare. “We both wanted ‘Kiss or Kill Me’ to have the urgency of ’70s street rock – rough and dangerous sounding. We kept it very simple: Just guitars, bass, drums, and vocals. I feel the lyrics really focused my guitar playing to be dirty rock and roll.”
Des Barres wouldn’t want anyone else by his side as he thrusts back into the rock and roll world, with “Kiss or Kill Me” his first release since 2024’s covers album It’s Only Rock N’ Roll. There’s a balance at play, where the primal nature of the track’s intensity belies its relatively basic DNA.
“Loren is amazing, he’s a shocking guitar player,” Des Barres adds. “His thing is so simplistic and yet so powerful. It’s got a fantastic guitar, Paul delivers incredible bass. What I want is simplicity — guitar, bass, drums. Who did that? Elvis. Zeppelin. All the greats. Let’s have a guitar, bass, drums record out that means something.”
New music on the way? Pitch Big Takeover Exclusives.
