Kiss shenanigans

I have never been a huge Kiss fan. I always thought they were cool but I was never a diehard fan. I never had any albums by them until Animalize (forgot when this came out I may have been in middle school and I ordered from the Columbia House Club). Went back and picked up Lick It Up and then Asylum and eventually Thrashes, Smashes & Hits. Really that was all I needed as I was more of a fan of the non-makeup years in the 80's. I think at one point I owned all the non-makeup CD's up to Hot In The Shade. Saw them on that tour.

Anyway, was thinking about Kiss the other day and looked to see what was on Amazon Prime and I downloaded Kiss Alive! and listened to it for the first time in a LONG LONG time. I decided to see what else was out there and learn a little more about them. I came across the infamous Tom Snyder interview and you can clearly see Gene and Paul are pissed at Ace during the interview. The whole thing is on YouTube but here is a shorter version. If you have never seen it, it is worth checking out.



After watching that this one popped up on my feed. I had never heard the story of the fake Peter Criss. This is also an interesting story. I looked online to try and find information about the fake Peter (Chris Dickinson) and Cheryl Thompson (the girl in the clip) and could find nothing on either but one blog stated that the fake Peter died a few years after this segment.



It is long but interesting. I personally think the girl is full of crap but that isn't really for me to decide. And the fake Peter seems extremely nervous when the real Peter shows up. The blog I read went on the say that Peter's wife (who stands up later in the show) ended up leaving him for the guy she is sitting next to (their lawyer I think).

As for Kiss I now only have 2 cd's and I think it is all I really need as a casual fan.




One that covers the makeup years and one that covers the 80's. I'm happy with those because as a casual fan those 2 cover what I like. At one point a friend made me a copy of Sonic Boom just to hear it but I don't have it anymore.

I'm gonna check out some more on Spotify, I'd like to hear Dynasty, Unmasked and Creatures. Then I'll go back and start with the first album and work my way up.... At one point I owned Destroyer on cassette which also came from Columbia House.

That Tom Snyder interview was always a hoot. I remember the nonsense about the fake Peter Criss but I had never seen the Phil Donahue show in it's entirety. I'll have to catch that at some point.

And I'm a huge KISS fan. I'd say you can't go wrong with Creatures, it's one of my top albums by them (along with Animalize).

Gonna check those videos out, as I'm not familiar with any of that history.

But I wanted to post that KISS is such a weird band to be "only hits comps" band to me, especially the 70s. Everything through Love Gun is essential front to back, plus Ace's 78 solo record is probably the best thing with the KISS logo across it and Dynasty contains one of my top 5 KISS songs (a cover of the Stones' "2000 Man"), and then Unmasked is probably my absolute favorite KISS album, though most people wouldn't agree.

The 80s era for me, while I listen to all the full albums, a good compilation would probably suffice. I would probably be okay with just owning the 20th Century Masters vol 2 for that era, as far as pre-made compilations go.

Just as a KISS aside, last week, My wife and I took our sons, 5 and 7, to see KISS, and man, it was a cool experience to watch my kids see them. My 7yo has been pretty obsessed with KISS since he saw them in the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade when he was around 3, so it was awesome he got to see them before they call it quits. After standing around bored for an hour (he is really impatient), waiting for the show to start, it was cool to see his face light up when Detroit Rock City started and the lights and shit started firing off and KISS was on stage. He grabbed me to hold him up, and he was like, "oh my god, it's KISSSSSSSSS!!!" He had his horns up and his tongue out the rest of the show.

My 5yo has never really gotten into KISS and has been kinda anti-KISS bc his brother likes them so much, but he became mesmerized by the show, and aside from being concerned about Gene's bloody mouth, he also was up on my shoulders with his horns up and his tongue out.

A really good first concert experience for them both (well, my older son saw the Wiggles when he was 3, which was fun, but of course, way different).

The Tom Snyder interview is legendary. Ace: "I'm the lead trout player!"
Watch Gene's face closely, you can see him getting increasingly annoyed as Ace keeps stealing the spotlight, haha.

I love these old interviews. Years ago I had a couple of bootleg VHS compilation tapes full of their old TV appearances, I bought'em at one of the Kiss conventions I attended in the early 90s. Those tapes are long gone but most, if not all, of the material is on YouTube now, so yay internet!

Here's another good one:
Kiss introduced Eric Carr as their new drummer on the Saturday morning show "Kids Are People Too."
Before the interview, the host asks some of the kids in the audience who their favorite Kiss member is, and one kid sez "Peter Criss." Ooooh, awkward.

Kiss is like one big parody band that actually made some good music on occasion.

Quote :

Just as a KISS aside, last week, My wife and I took our sons, 5 and 7, to see KISS, and man, it was a cool experience to watch my kids see them. My 7yo has been pretty obsessed with KISS since he saw them in the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade when he was around 3, so it was awesome he got to see them before they call it quits. After standing around bored for an hour (he is really impatient), waiting for the show to start, it was cool to see his face light up when Detroit Rock City started and the lights and shit started firing off and KISS was on stage. He grabbed me to hold him up, and he was like, "oh my god, it's KISSSSSSSSS!!!" He had his horns up and his tongue out the rest of the show.

My 5yo has never really gotten into KISS and has been kinda anti-KISS bc his brother likes them so much, but he became mesmerized by the show, and aside from being concerned about Gene's bloody mouth, he also was up on my shoulders with his horns up and his tongue out.

Nice!

Probably not on the same level, but I almost felt something similar seeing Ace for the first time a few weeks ago. I had seen KISS a bunch of times in the last few years, so it was awesome to hear a bunch of stuff that the band never plays like "2,000 Man," "Hard Times," "Watchin' You," "Parasite," "Rip It Out," etc.

"This outfit is self explanatory."
"You're like a spaceman, right?"
"No actually I'm a plumber."
"I have this piece of pipe backstage I'd like you to work on."

Lari wrote:

"This outfit is self explanatory."
"You're like a spaceman, right?"
"No actually I'm a plumber."
"I have this piece of pipe backstage I'd like you to work on."

I don't know how true it is but supposedly Ace was drunk during this interview. His laughing is a little odd but very entertaining

mikeinfla wrote:

Lari wrote:

"This outfit is self explanatory."
"You're like a spaceman, right?"
"No actually I'm a plumber."
"I have this piece of pipe backstage I'd like you to work on."

I don't know how true it is but supposedly Ace was drunk during this interview. His laughing is a little odd but very entertaining

Pretty sure I've read in the past that both Ace and Peter were loaded during the "Tomorrow" taping.