Here is one of the greatest stories ever told, in my friend Willie and my opinion and now I'm here to share it with you!
SHAZAM! The best doesn't happen overnight, it happens in a downtown Manhattan loft, where former rabbi-in-training Gene Klein is sketching a picture of someone who will become "the Demon".
POW! It happens in a Queens bar called the Kings Lounge, where the bass-playing Klein and guitarist Stanley Eisen are scouting out a former student of Gene Krupa by the name of Peter Crisscoula.
ZAP! It happens when a band fully connects with its audience, creating what Klein, after changing his name to Gene Simmons, calls "an electric church: the back and forth, call and response thing."
KER-BOOM! It happens when that band is KISS.
"There's nothing exciting about sitting on a stool in front of 30 people, strumming away," Simmons once opined. That's exactly what he and Stanley were doing with ther band Wicked Lester in 1970. Back then, groups like the New York Dolls and the Harlots of 42nd Street were tearing apart rock clubs. But the guys in Lester were Beatles copyist, pure and simple. Can you say run-of-the-mill? So it wasn't long before Klein and Stanley made a move. Their goal? To create a band that was louder, ballsier, more glamorous, and just flat-out better than anyone else. They nabbed Crisscoula through a ROLLING STONE ad and gave him the standard interview: "Are you good looking?", "Do you have long hair?". Then they did the same for the 22-year old guitarist Paul Stanley.
First they changed the names. Klein became Simmons. Stanley became Paul. Crisscoula became Criss. Frehley took the name "Ace". Then came the costumes. Simmons was imspired by the comic books he grew up with to become "the Demon". Stanley was the "Starchild". Ace was the "Space Man". Criss took a while before showing up at one rehearsal made up as his pet Tabby. He became "The Cat". Then KISS was born.
TV producer Bill Aucoin decided to manage the band in 1973, and within two weeks, he had signed them to the Casablanca record label. Casablanca boss Neil Bogart was so taken with Simmons' dedication to showmanship that he tried to assist with the singer's fire-breathing act and nearly burnt down his office.
On stage, KISS got in your face. Once they did that, it was hard to shake them. Their 1974 debut only made it to No. 87, but was packed with insant party anthems like "Deuce". KISS toured behind that and their 1975 DRESSED TO KILL in any toliet that would take them, sometimes funded solely on Aucoin's credit card. Slowly, a legion of dedicated, dispossessed teenagers- the KISS army- coalesced around them. In 1975, ALIVE!- the perfect momento of KISS' flame-throwing, blood-dribbling primal rock- was unleashed. It became their first platinum record. The live version of DRESSED TO KILL's "Rock and Roll All Nite" went to No. 12.
KISS were now the stars the aspired to be. Led by Criss' million-selling ballad, "Beth"(originally a smutty smoocher he used to sing with his old band Chelsea), the muscular anthems of 1976's DESTROYER also proved that KISS was as good a band as they claimed.
For the best, that was not enough. The tour for 1977's Love Gun used exploding cannons. A Gallup poll declared KISS the most popular band in America and on the streets you could feel their power. In arcades, kids played KISS pinball games and read the Marval comic books, printed with ink made of the band's own blood! They went to school with KISS lunch boxes; on Halloween, they dressed as Space Man; some even violated their sisters' Barbie dolls with Mego's Starchild action figures.
The greatest hits compilation, 1978's DOUBLE PLATINUM, became a household item in America. For an encore, the guys released four solo albums on the same day. They finished their most bobmastic year with the cheap thrills of an NBC TV movie- KISS MEETS THE PHANTOM OF THE PARK, filmed at the Majic Mountain amusement park in Southern California.
In 1979, "I Was Made For Loving You" went to No. 11, but the disco anthem sowed the seeds of destruction. KISS's fan base was getting older, getting laid and getting high at posh party zones like Studio 64. Simmons was dating Diana Ross, and the Supreme one was full of ideas. SHe told Criss he was too talented to waste his time with KISS, so the drummer married the girl from the Coppertone ads and departed in 1980 for the wastes of a solo career.
KISS used future Late Night with David Letterman drummer Anton Fig on the Unmasked album, and hired Eric Carr for their world tour. Carr was second in line, but KISS's first choice made the mistake of circulating pictures of himself without make-up. He got the boot. Carr's credentioals: "I always wanted to be famous, and I always wanted to be in a band like KISS when I was growing up."
They swore their next record would be "pure, pure heavy metal." Instead it was a confused concept album call MUSIC OF THE ELDER, with songs co-written by Lou Reed. Following a near-fatal car accident, Frehley left. He was replaced by Vinnie Vincent. In 1983, running low on sales and gimmicks, the make-up came off. The dermatological dammage had been done.
Albums like LICK IT UP, and ANIMALIZE had some nifty AOR howlers like "Heaven's on Fire", but they weren't really KISS. "Crazy, Crazy Nights" and "God Gave Rock and Roll to You II" were hits in Europe, but as Simmons admitted in 1995, "During the '80's, we completely sold out."
At this point, the action behind the scenes was more interesting than what was making it to the records. Vincent was replaced by Mark St. John in 1984, but a year later the guitarist contracted Reiter's Syndrome and was unable to hold his insturment. He was replaced by Bruce Kulick, whose brother, Bob, had played on Stanley's 1978 solo album. In 1991, Eric Carr discovered he had cancer and entered a hospital for open-heart surgery. It was almost too much for Kulick, who said, "It made me realize how fragile you are, that one night you're playing before 10,000 fans and the next night you're..." In November, Carr died at the age of 41. Eric Singer replaced him, but when KISS looked back at the drum stool, they still could swear they saw Carr there.
At the start of the '90's, SImmons considered writing his autobiography. It never materialized. Instead, he organized the 1994 tribute album, KISS MY ASS, enlisting fans like Lenny Kravitz and Garth Brooks to contribute. The band began to play their own KISS army conventions, getting back in touch with their still sizable audience, and playing the way for an appearance on MTV's Unplugged in 1995. At the taping, Peter Criss and Ace Frehley got back on stage to rattle through some songs with their old band. "We saw that they were happy and their eyes weren't foggy," said Simmons. "GThat's how the real KISS was reborn." They put the make-up on for a reunion tour that became the biggest draw of the '96-'97 concert season.
WHAM! Simmons was back in KISS merchandizing mode. The band's faces appeared on a Visa card, and KISS created a customized Chrysler. KISS lunch boxes started appearing in scholl cafeterias again. A film was made: Detroit Rock City wasn't The Phantom of the Park-thank God-but it did feature KISS, and once again the foursome were the wild men their aging fans wished they had been as teenagers.
THOOM! You want the best, you got the best! 80 million records sold! Twenty-three gold records! On tour! In 3-D! PSYCHO CIRCUS is No. 1 in Sweden and Canada!!!! They're on the Super Bowl!!!! They might even break up for good this year!!!??? Ladies and gentlemen, from the concert arena to the information superhighway, we give you the band America deserves... We give you KISS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
