History Trivia / Kiss

* OldShame: Gene and Paul seem to have mixed feelings on the non-makeup albums in the Eighties. Gene missed the theatrical elements of the makeup era and felt they'd become another generic rock band, and Paul resented having to carry the band while Gene was off pursuing a movie career and managing other groups. Paul also really disliked some of the videos, like "Let's Put The X in Sex". Few of the songs have been performed since the makeup returned in the Nineties.

** Eric Carr. According to both Gene and Paul, he stunned them both by asking for their autographs during their audition, probably thinking he wouldn't have a chance against all the other candidates, however this genuine enthusiasm is partly what led to his eventual hiring

*** They spoke to a young 19-year-old, unknown Swede named Music/YngwieMalmsteen. They asked him if he was hot, and what his height was (they were trying to gauge how he looked, as they had no pictures of him). He answered "192" (centimeters). Not realizing he was speaking metric, the conversation ended.
*** One of the guitarists they auditioned was a kid from Philadelphia named Saul Hudson, who they turned down because he was only 18 years old (in his book, Paul Stanley said he was very nice at the audition). He would go on to greater fame as Slash of Music/GunsNRoses.

* ExecutiveMeddling: One of the contributing factors to ''Music From "The Elder"'''s failure - the track order was meddled with by the studio to put the singles closer to the start. On any other KISS album, that might not have mattered, but on a ConceptAlbum, it made the storyline almost impossible to follow. (The correct track order was restored when the album was reissued on CD.)

** Drummer Anton Fig is a weird example. He was a session drummer on ''Dynasty'' and ''Unmasked'', but a little known fact is that he actually ''was'' an official full-time member of the band... for a little over a day, before Gene and Paul decided to go with Eric Carr.

* BlackSheepHit / ChartDisplacement: Music/{{KISS}}' highest-charting single in the United States is "Beth", which is a tender ballad that uses a piano and a string quartet with Peter Criss on vocals. It's radically different than typical rocking KISS songs with either Paul or Gene on vocals. Their second highest, "Forever", is another PowerBallad (co-written by Music/MichaelBolton, of all people!).

* MagnumOpusDissonance: Paul often cites "Love Gun" as the best song he's ever written. While "Love Gun" is certainly well known (you're almost guaranteed to hear it at a Kiss concert), "Rock and Roll All Nite" and "Shout It Out Loud" are infinitely more famous (you'll ''definitely'' hear them at any Kiss concert). Ironically, the ''Music/LoveGun'' album did a lot better in sales than either ''Music/DressedToKill'' or ''Music/{{Destroyer}}'', the albums that featured "Rock and Roll All Nite" and "Shout It Out Loud", respectively.

* FalseCredit: Peter Criss was the first example. After only playing on his StepUpToTheMicrophone track on {{Music/Dynasty}}, Criss was entirely absent on {{Music/Unmasked}} despite being credited for playing on the album. Ace Frehley would be credited for an album he did not work on years later. Despite being featured on the album cover and credited as the guitarist, Frehley did not play a single note on Music/CreaturesOfTheNight. The album's lead guitar parts were actually played by Frehley's replacement, Vinnie Vincent on the majority of tracks, with some help from rhythm guitarist Paul Stanley and session musicians Steve Farris and Robben Ford.

* CashCowFranchise: It's often said that "Most rock bands want to be Music/TheBeatles, but KISS wanted to be Coca-Cola." They have all kinds of licensed merchandise, including action figures, comic books, [[VideoGame/KissPsychoCircusTheNightmareChild a video game]], ''condoms'', and, last but not least, the infamous '''Kiss Kaskets''' (in one of which [[Music/{{Pantera}} Dimebag Darrell and Vinnie Paul]] was buried). From 2013 to 2016, Gene and Paul owned their own Arena Football League team in Los Angeles. The team was named the LA Kiss and used the band's logo. In addition, purchasing a season ticket included access to a KISS concert.

** Interestingly, Ace [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcB2lV62jj0 has stated]] that he likes both ''"The Elder"'' and ''Phantom of the Park''. His problems with ''"The Elder"'' were that his solos had been edited out and that he felt it was the wrong type of album to release at the time; and he had fun filming ''Phantom'' because he was the only one who wasn't [[TookTheBadFilmSeriously taking the movie seriously]].

** Gene and Paul refused to perform at their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame because the induction excluded later members of the band, like Bruce Kulick, Eric Singer, and the late Eric Carr.

* ThePeteBest: Five in fact when the band was originally Wicked Lester.

** At one point in the 90s, Gene was planning to have Creator/SabanEntertainment create a ''KISS'' cartoon; but Haim Saban himself decided to insult Gene in Hebrew ("now, we gut him like fish"). Gene flung it back at him, saying "[[BilingualBackfire You asshole. I am one of you!]]" So any chance of a ''KISS'' toon on Creator/FoxKids were dashed.

* CreatorBacklash: In some interviews in the early 90s, Gene pretty much disowned everything from ''Lick It Up'' through ''Hot in the Shade''. Stanley also stated that ''Lick It Up'' only sold more than ''Creatures of the Night'' because "people were now listening with their eyes rather than their ears" given the band removed their make-up.
** In October 1993, Gene and Paul rated their work to that point for ''Goldmine Magazine''. When it came to ''Music/MusicFromTheElder'', Paul gave it a question mark and Gene said, "As a Kiss album I give it a zero. As a bad Music/{{Genesis|Band}} album, I give it a two."
** Ace said that he threw a tape of the album against the wall because most of his solos had been edited out (this was later confirmed in a separate interview by album producer Bob Ezrin).
** Interestingly, one song, "A World Without Heroes", was revived for the ''MTV Unplugged'' show. And once they attempted "I" only to discover they had forgotten the lyrics.
** They didn't have much good to say about their MadeForTVMovie ''Film/KISSMeetsThePhantomOfThePark'' either. Although some might've changed given [[WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooAndKissRockAndRollMystery their animated crossover with]] Franchise/ScoobyDoo clearly had some callbacks to ''Phantom of the Park''.
** Both ''Unmasked'' and ''Dynasty'' are generally not fondly remembered by the band due to the overly polished production compared to the last few albums and sounding too far removed from the band's signature sound.
*** Gene [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akeN-tteH48?t=230s revealed]] that the latter's greatest hit, "I Was Made For Lovin' You", is the one song he hates playing, if only because he's reduced to singing "Do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do..."
** Regarding Ace, nowadays [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcB2lV62jj0 he's stated]] that he actually likes both ''Music From The Elder'' and ''Phantom Of The Park''. His biggest problem with ''Elder'' is that he felt it was the wrong type of album for the band to release at the time (later proven right on several fronts because it performed like crap, and the band ultimately went with his idea to return to their hard rock sound anyway with ''Creatures Of The Night'' after he'd left the band). With ''Phantom'', he said he had a blast filming it, stating that the others thought they were [[TookTheBadFilmSeriously filming some masterpiece]], while he knew full well what kind of movie it was going to be.
** Both Paul and Gene were not happy with the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's decision to [[{{Unperson}} exclude]] later members of the band such as Bruce Kulick, Eric Singer and the late Eric Carr and refused to perform at the induction.
** ''Everyone'' in the band hated their cover of "Kissin' Time" by Bobby Rydell. It was a promotional gimmick thought up by their managers and the band didn't have the clout to say "No" at the time.
** Paul has multiple times expressed dissatisfaction with how the first two albums turned out. Obviously not with the songs, which make up a sizable chunk of their classic material, but with the production, which he, along with many, consider to be a poor representation of what the band sounded like live.

** After the failure of ''Unmasked'', the band started to work on an album called ''Rockin With The Boys'', which was supposed to be a return back to their Hard Rock roots and included the songs "Partners In Crime", "Nowhere To Run" and the original "Love's a Deadly Weapon".[[note]]The former two were eventually featured in the compilation album ''Killers'' and the 40th anniversary super deluxe edition of ''Creatures of the Night'', while the latter made its way on ''Asylum''.[[/note]] However, they ended up with Bob Ezrin and [[NiceJobBreakingItHero produced instead one of the less liked albums overall,]] ''Music from "The Elder"'', which sold even ''worse'' than ''Unmasked''.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: ''The Keep'', the only band that had two former KISS members, Peter Criss and Mark St. John, as official members. Recorded a couple of demos which were poorly received, and the band promptly imploded after some disagreements between Criss and St. John.
** A couple of songs were eventually re-recorded and released on different solo projects by both members, however.

** Criss was also recording a rock album as a follow-up to "One For All" and it was almost finished (the vocals were the only left to add) when both he and his wife were diagnosed with cancer and the project got left on the sidelines.

** Eric Carr initially used to take the persona of an hawk. Needless to say, [[http://www.kissfanshop.de/EricCarr/hawk80.jpg it didn't looks great]]. Paul even noticed the resemblance with [[Series/SesameStreet Big Bird]] !
** Also, after the failure of ''Unmasked'', the band started to work on an album called ''"Rockin With The Boys"'', which was supposed to be a return back to their Hard Rock roots and included the songs "Partners In Crime", "Nowhere To Run" and the original "Love's a Deadly Weapon". However, they ended up with Bob Ezrin and [[NiceJobBreakingItHero produced instead one of the less liked albums overall,]] ''Music from "The Elder"'', which sold even ''worse'' than ''Unmasked''.

* OldShame: The band's unreleased album when they were still called Wicked Lester, which is why the band purchased all rights to the album in 1977 after fearing Epic would release the album (which included then-rare pictures of Simmons and Stanley without makeup since at the time the band had a strict "no without makeup" rule after they only did so at one point in 1974 for ''Creem'' magazine before their record label told the magazine to not publish them out of fear from fans, though these photos would be published two years later in the ''National Enquirer'') to capitalize on their subsequent fame.
** Paul considers his biggest to be giving Eric Carr the impression they'd already moved on from him while he was getting cancer treatment. At the time, Gene and Paul both thought they were just telling him to focus on getting better while they left his spot open. Paul broke down at Eric's funeral after getting the cold shoulder from his family and finding out Eric thought they'd kicked him out of the band and left him when he needed them.
** Paul has multiple times expressed dissatisfaction with how the first two albums turned out. Obviously not with the songs, which make up a sizable chunk of their classic material, but with the production, which he, along with many, consider to be a poor representation of what the band sounded like live.

** Lead guitarists Stephen Coronel (1970-1971) and Ron Leejack (1971-1973), with the former co-writing the songs "She" and "Goin' Blind".

* HostilityOnTheSet: During TheSeventies, the band was a DysfunctionJunction of two different pairs - business-minded Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley on one side, and the wilder, hard-partying Ace Frehley and Peter Criss on the other - whose clashes eventually escalated to intense friction, not helped by the latter two starting to struggle with their performances due to being so intoxicated (Frehley was also developing CreativeDifferences). Tellingly, both were gone by 1982, and even when the quartet reunited in 1996, Paul and Gene ensured that the album ''Music/PsychoCircus'' barely had any input from Ace and Paul, who left again in 2001. Not helping is the the myriad allegations everyone's made about each other over the decades, of out-of-control egos, poor work ethic, racism, homophobia, anti-Semitism and general dickishness.

* NamesTheSame: Gene is not to be confused with the actress [[Film/{{Spartacus}} Jean]] [[Theatre/GuysAndDolls Simmons]]. Or rockabilly singer Jumpin' Gene Simmons, known for his 1960s novelty hit "Haunted House". Or mass murderer Ronald Gene Simmons, who went by his middle name.
** Paul Stanley shares his name with a prolific TV director of action series like Series/HawaiiFiveO and Series/MissionImpossible, among many other series.

** Couple of songs were eventually re-recorded and released on different solo projects by both members, however.

** Criss was also recording a rock album as a follow-up to "One For All" and it was almost finished(the vocals were the only left to add) when both he and his wife were diagnosed with cancer and the project got left on the sidelines.