Condi may not be a rocker, but Kiss likes her

REYKJAVIK (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice may have attended just four rock concerts in her life, but the rock band Kiss apparently thinks she is pretty cool.

After a day-long international conference on Iraq, Rice was dining Thursday evening with Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt at a 19th-century villa when a call came in that Kiss was in the Nordic capital on a tour and wanted to see her, aides said.

The U.S. group had heard Rice was in town.

“It was really fun to meet Kiss and Gene Simmons,” Rice told reporters on her plane en route to Iceland on Friday.

Simmons, who sings and plays bass, is famed for posing while wagging his long tongue.

Rice and her entourage returned to their hotel and gathered with the rock stars in a conference room where photos were taken of the occasion -- without the band members wearing their trademark black-and-white facial make-up.

Rice, who plays the piano and considered a career in music before turning to Soviet studies, told reporters she enjoyed “the whole range of music” but had only been to four rock concerts. She proceeded to list them.

At age 10, she saw Paul Revere and the Raiders. At age 16, on her first date with an Air Force cadet, she saw Smokey Robinson and the Miracles.

Later Rice saw Earth Wind and Fire, and she said she has also been to a U2 concert.