Nothin' to Lose: The Making of KISS

530 Pages·2013·12.2 MB·English

by  Ken Sharp

DEDICATION
T B A , N B S D
O ILL UCOIN EIL OGART, AND EAN ELANEY—
’
IF THEY HADN T BEEN THERE,
THIS STORY MIGHT NEVER HAVE BEEN TOLD
CONTENTS
Dedication
Introduction
1
Meeting of the Minds 2
Something Wicked This Way Comes 3
10 East Twenty-third Street 4
Larger Than Life
5
Nothin’ to Lose
6
Queens Boulevard
7
Daisy Daze
8
Lipstick Killers
9
Gotham City
10
Rock Steady
11
All the Way
12
On the Road to Casablanca 13
Three, Two, One, Liftoff!
14
Great Expectations
Great Expectations
15
“Put Your Two Lips Together…”
16
The Great White North 17
On the Radio
18
Kissin’ Time
19
Black-Leather Barbarians 20
Have Road, Will Travel 21
Rock Bottom
22
Dirty Business and Divorce with a Bunny 23
Road Wars
24
The “Dartboard Tour”
25
High Times, Hard Times 26
Heavy Metal Masters
27
Behind the Curtain
28
Power Play
29
Media Battles
30
Rockin’ in the USA
31
Critical Mass
32
On the Skids
On the Skids
33
The Big Picture
34
Alive and Kicking
35
The Hottest Band in the Land 36
The Roar of the Greasepaint, the Smell of the Crowd Picture Section
E-book Exclusive: 22 Additional Rare and Never-Before-Seen Photos
Cast of Characters
Acknowledgments
Notes
About the Authors
Also by Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons, and Ken Sharp
Copyright
About the Publisher

INTRODUCTION
THE MEASURE OF A MAN IS WEIGHED NOT ONLY BY HOW HARD
HE WORKS BUT BY HOW BIG HE DREAMS….
“Before the beginning of great brilliance, there must be chaos. Before a brilliant
person begins something great, they must look foolish in the crowd.”
—I C
HING
“Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave
a trail.”
—R W E
ALPH ALDO MERSON
Forty years ago, in a perfect storm of attitude, oversize ambition, and plain old
dumb luck, Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons, Ace Frehley, and Peter Criss came
together for the first time, and KISS was born. Outfitted in black leather and
studs, lipstick, and greasepaint, the thunderous sound they created, coupled with
lyrics that resonated with teenage angst, frustration, rebellion, and lust, became
the mighty soundtrack for generation after generation of fans.
KISS literally changed the face of rock and roll. They invented and defined
the live concert experience. You’ve heard it many times before: “You wanted
the best, you got the best, the hottest band in the land….” That was their battle
cry then, and it remains their battle cry today. Blazing their own trail to
superstardom, persevering despite ever-changing musical styles, fashions, and
fads, KISS is truly a great American success story, built of blood, sweat, and
rock-and-roll glory. Today, KISS is much more than a successful rock-and-roll
band; they’re part of the fabric of American pop culture, standing alongside such
enduring legends as Elvis Presley, James Dean, and Marilyn Monroe.
Not only are the band and its members icons, KISS is a brand in itself.
Boasting a catalog of over three thousand officially licensed products—from
KISS koffins to pinball machines—the band has grossed over $500 million in
merchandising and licensing fees over the past thirty-five years. Spanning the
globe from Tokyo to Moscow’s Red Square to New York City, KISS are
universally recognized as larger-than-life music figures—a far cry from their
humble beginnings.
On January 30, 1973, KISS performed their first concert at a seedy hole-in-
the-wall called Coventry in Queens, New York. Tickets were a few bucks and
the group was lucky that a handful of people showed up. But like the Beatles’
residency at the Cavern Club in Liverpool, it was inside the cramped and peeling
walls of this ratty club where KISS first came alive onstage. Stubbornly
confident, the band never doubted they’d make it, playing their early gigs as if
they were headlining a sold-out show at Madison Square Garden—a feat they’d
achieve after a whirlwind four years. Hell-bent on making it at any cost, KISS
dreamed big, and they had the drive and ambition to achieve those dreams.
Their mission was simple: they wanted to conquer the world. But the road to
the top was a bumpy one. They were reviled by critics and designated public
enemy number one by an army of concerned parents. Yet against all odds and
enough roadblocks to frustrate lesser men, four ordinary musicians pulled off the
impossible and became internationally renowned rock superstars. Long before
KISS’s initial rush of mega-fame that sold out multiple nights at New York’s
Madison Square Garden and packed outdoor stadiums in Australia and Brazil,
the band’s formative days playing local haunts—Coventry in Queens, the Daisy
in Amityville, Long Island, and New York City’s Hotel Diplomat—sowed the
seeds for their emergence as one of rock and roll’s most popular and enduring
groups.
Think about it. The odds of becoming a big rock-and-roll star are a million to
one. For a band whose members wear greasepaint and outrageous costumes and
look like intergalactic aliens with guitars, the odds are even worse. KISS’s
extraordinary commercial breakthrough in 1975 was miraculous.
The saga of KISS is far from your classic overnight success story. Theirs is a
story of struggle, of fortitude and determination, of resilience and a tireless work
ethic, and of ambition and an unrelenting drive to succeed. Their success is an
enduring testament to the American dream. In record speed, KISS pulled off the
impossible. Denigrated by critics as a flash in the pan and viewed by many as a
joke, the band soldiered on, confident that massive rock-and-roll stardom was
theirs for the taking. In less than three short years, KISS went from playing to
fewer than ten people in a shabby club in Queens to selling out arenas across
America. Their fourth album, KISS Alive!, delivered on the promise of their first
three studio records, selling over four million copies. The album’s powerhouse
single, a rousing live version of “Rock and Roll All Nite,” was a smash top-10
hit and a milestone in their career. Day by day, as the number of foot soldiers in
the KISS Army grew, the band solidified their hard-won status as one of rock
and roll’s hardest working and most successful outfits.
Understanding an artist’s backstory—whether it chronicles the meteoric rise
of a former Memphis truck driver named Elvis Presley or documents the
Beatles’ formative years honing their chops in Hamburg, Germany—lends
insight into the essence of his artistry. And it’s no different with KISS. Theirs is
a tale of four individuals with next to nothing in common who merged fiery hard
rock with stylish theatricality and were deemed outrageous, confounding, and
ridiculous for doing so. Yet despite their mistakes and blunders, missed
opportunities and career missteps, KISS ultimately reached the heights of global
superstardom.
We spoke to the band, to manager Bill Aucoin, to producers, engineers, road
crew, club owners, fellow touring acts, concert promoters, booking agents,
costume and stage designers, publicity reps, photographers, art designers, music
writers, and to record company, radio, management, marketing, and retail
personnel who populate the narrative of the band’s meteoric rise. This is their
remarkable story.
B , the Beatles were no more. The nightmarish residue of
Y THE END OF THE SEVENTIES
1969’s Altamont Music Festival, at which three hundred thousand fans
witnessed the brutal stabbing of concertgoer Meredith Hunter by crazed Hell’s
Angels midway into the Rolling Stones’ set, was the death knell of the peace-
and-love generation and the beginning of a tougher, less forgiving decade.
Richard Nixon was in the White House. Women’s Lib swept across the nation,
with Gloria Steinem out in front. The sitcom All in the Family—a caustic TV
show that commented on societal mores via the loudmouthed and bigoted
patriarch, Archie Bunker—was the top-rated show on TV.
Music had come a long way from the innocent pop exuberance of the
Beatles, the protest-folk stylings of Bob Dylan, and the trippy psychedelic acid
rock of Jefferson Airplane, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Moby Grape, and
the Grateful Dead. Anchored by English bands like Yes, Genesis, King Crimson,
and Emerson, Lake & Palmer, progressive rock was the rage, a musical crusade
distinguished by virtuoso instrumental flash and complicated song structures.
The sunny expanse of Southern California was ground zero for the
singer/songwriter movement. The landmark multiplatinum success of Carole
King’s Tapestry album ushered in a wave of mellow acoustic troubadours like
James Taylor, Cat Stevens, Joni Mitchell, Jackson Browne, Jim Croce, and
Harry Chapin.
In England, a musical revolution was taking shape. Led by David Bowie,
Slade, T. Rex, and Mott the Hoople, glam rock exploded, igniting a powder keg