1978 could have been a banner year for KISS-Beatles collaborations; at least it would have been if musicians from either camp had wanted to work with each other. As Louder Sound notes, though The Beatles had broken up by then, pop culture was still using their work for inspiration, and that included a movie version loosely based on the album, “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.” Someone from The Beatles’ camp approached someone from the KISS camp asked if the guys would be interested in the role of “Future Villain Band” in the film. KISS turned down the job, purportedly because they were concerned about the optics of portraying villains, and the job went to Aerosmith, whom Louder Sound speculated were “too stoned to care.”

The rejections went both ways. That same year, Gene Simmons was keen to produce a solo album, and he invited all four of The Beatles, now involved in their own solo projects, to collaborate with him. None was interested, he said. Only Ringo Starr turned him down directly, while the others vaguely mentioned “scheduling conflicts.”