Kiss (band)

• 1. Introduction

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  Kiss played its first show on the 30th of January 1973 at the Popcorn Club in Queens, New York. Fewer than ten people were in the audience. The band was paid $50 for two sets, after Gene Simmons cold-called the venue and talked the owners into hiring the unknown group for three nights.

  The band's last show took place in New York City in December 2023. By then Kiss had earned 30 Gold albums, the most of any band from the United States. Between those two nights lay face paint, comic book heroes, a record label close to bankruptcy, and a long procession of guitarists and drummers who came and went.

  How did a band whose early albums barely sold become one of the most successful rock acts in America? Why did its members take off the makeup that made them famous, and why did they put it back on? And what did the men behind the paint think of one another?

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• 2. Faces And Names

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  The comic-book characters made their debut on the 9th and the 10th of March 1973 at The Daisy in Amityville, New York. The band had already worn makeup for its first three gigs, between the 30th of January and the 1st of February. Paul Stanley became the Starchild and Simmons became the Demon. Ace Frehley took the role of the Spaceman, also called Space Ace, and Peter Criss became the Catman.

  The name itself came from a car ride. Stanley, Simmons and Criss were driving around New York City when Criss mentioned that he had once played in a band called Lips. Stanley answered by floating the idea of Kiss.

  Frehley drew the lightning-bolt logo that now appears on everything the band sells. He was writing the new name over the words Wicked Lester on a poster outside the club where they were booked, and he made the two S letters look like bolts. Some Wicked Lester artwork had already used a single bolt for the S in Lester.

  Stanley later redrew the logo with a Sharpie and a ruler, and he drew the two S letters out of parallel because he worked by eye. The art department offered to redraft it perfectly. He refused, saying, "It got us this far, let's leave well enough alone. Our number one rule has always been no rules."

  Rumors about hidden meanings in the name have followed the band for decades. Some people claimed that Kiss stood for "Knights in Satan's Service", "Kinder SS", or "Kids in Satan's Service". Simmons has denied every one of them.

  In Germany, the jagged letters resemble the insignia of the Nazi SS, a symbol outlawed there under Section 86a of the criminal code. Simmons and Stanley, both Jewish, have denied any intentional likeness. Since 1980, most German album covers and merchandise have used a different logo, in which the letters look like a backwards ZZ. The same version is used in Austria, Switzerland, Lithuania and Hungary to avoid controversy.

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• 3. Fire And Blood

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  On the 31st of December 1973, Kiss made its official industry premiere at the Academy of Music in New York City, opening for Blue Öyster Cult. Simmons performed his fire-breathing routine with hair coated in hairspray, and the hair caught fire. It was the first of many times that happened. His stalking stage moves were inspired by a creature named Ymir from the film 20 Million Miles to Earth.

  The spectacle was built from simple, clever effects. The stage blood was made mostly from eggs, yogurt, red food coloring and maple syrup. Fire breathing meant spitting a flammable liquid at a torch. Frehley soloed while his guitar burst into smoke, thanks to light and smoke bombs hidden inside.

  Criss played on a drum riser that rose into the air and sprayed sparks. Stanley smashed guitars in a style borrowed from Townshend, and pyrotechnics went off throughout the night. This reputation for live shows grew while the studio albums were still failing to sell.

  When the original lineup reunited in 1996, the band looked back at its 1977 show as a pinnacle to build on rather than copy. Bombs, a flying rig and breaking guitars all returned. The Psycho Circus Tour opened at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles on Halloween in 1998 and was simulcast on FM radio across the U.S. It was the first tour to bring 3D visuals into a stage show.

  On the 9th of November 2009, at the MTS Centre in Winnipeg, a lighting truss caught fire from a pyro cue. The truss had to be lowered while crews put the flames out, which took about five minutes. The band filled the time by playing "Firehouse". No one was hurt, and the show went on.

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• 4. From Broke To Alive

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  Wicked Lester, the New York band that Simmons and Stanley led before Kiss, recorded one album that Epic Records shelved. The two abandoned it in 1972. They then spotted an ad in the East Coast edition of Rolling Stone placed by Criss, a drummer who had played in the bands Lips and Chelsea. They met him at a nightclub where he was playing, liked his singing, and invited him to audition.

  Frehley joined in early January 1973. His first audition impressed the group enough that he was asked back for a second. A few weeks later the classic lineup was set.

  Bill Aucoin, a former TV director, offered to manage the band in mid-October 1973 after watching it at a handful of showcase concerts. Kiss agreed on one condition: he had to land a record deal within two weeks. On the 1st of November 1973, Kiss became the first act signed to Casablanca Records, the new label of Neil Bogart.

  The band's first tour began on the 5th of February 1974 at a cafeteria at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology in Edmonton, Alberta. The debut album followed on the 18th of February, and it sold just 75,000 copies. The members rode hundreds of miles a day in a station wagon, ate at roadside taverns, and lived on an $85 weekly salary.

  Hotter Than Hell, released on the 22nd of October 1974, stalled at No. 100. Kiss was pulled off the road to record again, and Bogart stepped in to produce Dressed to Kill, released on the 19th of March 1975. It contained "Rock and Roll All Nite", later the band's signature song. By mid-1975, Casablanca was almost bankrupt, and both sides needed a hit.

  The answer was a double live album. Alive! came out on the 10th of September 1975, compiled from shows in Wildwood, New Jersey, Detroit and Cleveland. It reached Gold status and produced the band's first top 40 single, a live "Rock and Roll All Nite" that was also the first version with a guitar solo. Poison covered that version in 1987. The band later admitted that audience noise and some overdubs were added for excitement and realism.

  Producer Bob Ezrin, who had worked with Alice Cooper, then guided the orchestral Destroyer, released on the 15th of March 1976. Sales faded until radio began playing the ballad "Beth", first issued as the B-side of "Detroit Rock City". The single was flipped, and "Beth" peaked at No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100, the band's first Top 10 single.

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• 5. Selling Everything

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  On the 29th of October 1976, ABC aired The Paul Lynde Halloween Special, in which Kiss lip-synched "Detroit Rock City", "Beth" and "King of the Night Time World". Aucoin co-produced the show. Lynde heard the members' first names and joked, "Oh, I love a good religious group."

  Rock and Roll Over arrived on the 11th of November 1976, Love Gun on the 30th of June 1977, and the live Alive II on the 14th of October 1977. All three went Platinum soon after release. Kiss earned $17.7 million from royalties and publishing between 1976 and 1978, and its gross income for 1977 alone was $10.2 million.

  A 1977 Gallup poll named Kiss the most popular band in America. In Japan, the band sold out five shows at Tokyo's Budokan Hall, matching the record the Beatles set there in 1966.

  In May 1977, Kiss made its first comic book appearance in issue 12 of Howard the Duck, published by Marvel. Marvel later issued a pair of Kiss comics, and the first used ink mixed with blood donated by the band. Products also included a pinball machine, dolls, "Kiss Your Face Makeup" kits, Halloween masks, board games, lunch boxes and trading cards. The fan club, the Kiss Army, counted members in the six figures. Worldwide merchandise sales between 1977 and 1979 reached an estimated $100 million.

  On the 18th of September 1978, the four members released solo albums on the same day, a first for a rock band. The band's 1976 contract actually required four solo records. Casablanca spent $2.5 million on promotion and announced that five million copies were shipping. None of the albums sold well. Simmons's charted highest in the U.S., at No. 22, while Frehley's produced the only Top Forty single, a cover of "New York Groove".

  The second half of the 1978 plan was a film, pitched to the band as a cross between A Hard Day's Night and Star Wars. Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park debuted on NBC on the 28th of October 1978. The members felt it made them look like clowns rather than superheroes, and the failure opened a rift with Aucoin.

  Dynasty, released in 1979, gave the band the disco-flavored hit "I Was Made for Lovin' You", which peaked at No. 11. The tour that followed drew a much younger crowd, including many preadolescent children in makeup. Plans for a traveling Kiss amusement park called Kiss World were dropped because of the cost.

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• 6. The Revolving Door

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  On the 31st of October 1979, Kiss appeared on Tom Snyder's late-night The Tomorrow Show, and the strain showed on camera. Simmons and Stanley tried and failed to rein in an inebriated Frehley, whose laughter overshadowed the conversation. Criss brought up his large gun collection, to Simmons's chagrin. The last show of the Dynasty tour, on the 16th of December 1979, was the final time Criss played with the band for almost 17 years.

  Session drummer Anton Fig played on most of Dynasty and, uncredited, on Unmasked, released on the 20th of May 1980. Unmasked was the first non-Platinum Kiss album since Dressed to Kill. Fig was a member of Kiss for one day after Criss's departure, then Stanley and Simmons fired him. He went on to drum for David Letterman's television shows.

  In June 1980 the band auditioned dozens of drummers, including Tico Torres, who later joined Bon Jovi. They chose Paul Charles Caravello, a Brooklyn musician who took the name Eric Carr. His first makeup design, modeled on a hawk, was rejected, and by mid-July he had created the Fox. He debuted at the Palladium in New York City on the 25th of July 1980.

  Music from "The Elder", released in 1981, was a concept album presented as the soundtrack to a film that was never made. It peaked at No. 75 and missed Gold status. Frehley, unhappy with the direction, recorded his guitar parts at his home studio in Wilton, Connecticut, and mailed them to Ezrin. His departure was negotiated in June 1982 and became official that December.

  Simmons wrote in his autobiography that Eddie Van Halen wanted the job, but Stanley has denied it. Slash, Richie Sambora and Yngwie Malmsteen were among those who auditioned. The job went to Vinnie Vincent, who had wanted to use his birth name, Cusano. Simmons rejected it as "too ethnic", and the name Mick Fury was also refused.

  Vincent was fired after the Creatures tour, then reinstated because no replacement could be found before recording Lick It Up. He received writing credit on eight of its ten songs. He was fired again after the Lick It Up tour, partly over excessive soloing at a 1984 concert in Quebec. Simmons later said the reason was "unethical behavior", not lack of talent.

  Mark St. John replaced him but developed reactive arthritis and was dismissed in December 1984. Bruce Kulick joined in 1985 and stayed 12 years.

  In March 1991, a tumor was found on Carr's heart. It was removed the next month, and tumors in his lungs followed. He was declared cancer-free in July, then suffered the first of two cerebral hemorrhages in September. Carr died on the 24th of November 1991, at the age of 41. His replacement, Eric Singer, had played in Stanley's backing band on a 1989 solo tour.

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• 7. Unmasked And Reunited

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  On the 18th of September 1983, Kiss appeared on MTV without makeup for the first time since its earliest days, timed to the release of Lick It Up. The tour began on the 11th of October 1983 at Pavilhão Dramático de Cascais in Lisbon, Portugal. Lick It Up became the band's first Gold record in three years, although the tour drew thin crowds.

  Animalize, released on the 13th of September 1984, was boosted by constant MTV play of the "Heaven's on Fire" video. It sold over two million copies in America, the band's best result of the decade. "Crazy Crazy Nights" reached No. 4 in the United Kingdom, the band's highest-charting single there. "Forever", co-written by Michael Bolton, hit No. 8 in the US in 1989. Simmons, meanwhile, spent more time on outside interests such as acting, and Stanley took a larger role.

  In 1995, the band published Kisstory, a 440-page, nine-pound chronicle of its history. It also ran a Worldwide Kiss Convention Tour, with vintage costumes on display, cover bands, and a two-hour acoustic set built from fan requests. At the first U.S. convention, on the 17th of June 1995, Criss joined the band to sing "Hard Luck Woman" and "Nothin' to Lose". He had not performed publicly with Kiss in nearly 16 years.

  On the 9th of August 1995, Kiss played MTV Unplugged and invited Criss and Frehley for the final songs, "Beth", "2000 Man", "Nothin' to Lose" and "Rock and Roll All Nite". Months of reunion speculation followed.

  The reveal came at the 38th Annual Grammy Awards. Tupac Shakur introduced the original lineup, in full makeup and Love Gun-era outfits, with the words, "We need something different, something new, we need to shock the people." Kiss was back.

  On the 16th of April 1996, the band held a press conference in New York City, hosted by Conan O'Brien and simulcast to 58 countries. Four days later, nearly 40,000 tickets for the first show sold out in 47 minutes. The tour began on the 28th of June at Tiger Stadium in Detroit before 39,867 fans. It ran for 192 shows, drew an average of 13,737 people, and made Kiss the top-drawing concert act of 1996. The 1996-1997 reunion tour grossed $143.7 million, the band's most successful.

  Psycho Circus, released in September 1998, showed Frehley and Criss prominently on its artwork, but their contributions were minimal. Most lead guitar was later revealed to be the work of Tommy Thayer, and session musician Kevin Valentine played most of the drums. The album debuted at No. 3, and its title track earned a Grammy nomination for Best Hard Rock Performance.

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• 8. The Long Goodbye

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  Kiss launched a U.S. Farewell Tour in March 2000 and kept adding dates through April 2001. On the 31st of January 2001, on the eve of the Japanese and Australian legs, Criss left again after a dispute over his contract salary. Singer took over the Catman persona. In November 2001, the band released a 94-track, five-CD collection called The Box Set. That summer it also introduced the Kiss Kasket, with Simmons joking, "I love livin', but this makes the alternative look pretty damn good."

  In February 2002, Kiss played the closing ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, with Frehley on lead guitar. It was his final performance as a member. On the 6th of March 2002, Thayer wore Frehley's Spaceman makeup for his first live show with the band, at a private concert in Trelawny, Jamaica.

  In February 2003, the band recorded Kiss Symphony: Alive IV with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra in Melbourne. Criss returned for it because promoters required at least three original members. That year Kiss toured with Aerosmith and introduced a Platinum ticket package, with the top tier priced at $1,000. The tour earned more than $64 million. Criss's contract expired in March 2004, and Singer replaced him again.

  On the 27th of July 2007, Stanley was hospitalized with a very rapid heartbeat before a show, and Kiss played as a trio for the first time since 1982. It was the first Kiss concert Stanley had missed in 34 years.

  On the 5th of August 2006, about 200 fans protested outside the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, the first known organized demonstration seeking a band's induction. Kiss was inducted on the 10th of April 2014 in Brooklyn, though only the four founding members were honored. Stanley and Simmons also invited Kulick, Singer and Thayer to attend.

  Sonic Boom, released in October 2009, debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200. Stanley produced it, and the band vowed there would be no rapping. The 2012 album Monster was recorded on 24-track tape with an old Trident board. Simmons said that analog was the love of your life, because it always gives back when you push hard.

  Other ventures included the Los Angeles Kiss, an Arena Football League team that folded in 2016, and Kiss by Monster Mini Golf, an 18-hole indoor course that opened in Las Vegas in March 2012. In 2014, Kiss toured 42 cities with Def Leppard, donating a dollar per ticket to military charities. On the 28th of January 2015, the band released a collaboration single with the Japanese idol group Momoiro Clover Z.

  Kiss began its final worldwide tour in January 2019. Since the end of touring, the members have reunited occasionally to attend Kiss-related events and to record new music.

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