Line #33 Trivia/KISS


1	* BlackSheepHit: 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!).
2	* BuryYourArt: The band loathes their 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.
3	* 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 which [[Music/{{Pantera}} Dimebag Darrell and Vinnie Paul]] were buried. Gene Simmons personally donated the kaskets to the family.). 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.
4	* CreatorBacklash: With a career as long and storied as Kiss's, the band members are bound to regret ''some'' of their career decisions.
5	** ''Everyone'' in the band hated their cover of "Kissin' Time" by Bobby Rydell. It was recorded two months ''after'' their debut album's release on orders from Neil Bogart, and the band didn't have the clout to say no at the time.
6	** Paul has repeatedly expressed dissatisfaction with the first two albums, because while the music makes up a big chunk of their classic material, he felt the recording quality was too poor to represent the band's live sound.
7	** Gene Simmons [[https://youtu.be/akeN-tteH48?t=218 has admitted]] that "I Was Made for Lovin' You" is the only song he hates performing, because he feels embarrassed by his "do do do" backing vocal part.
8	** ''Music/MusicFromTheElder'' is ''easily'' their biggest regret. In the October 1993 issue of ''Goldmine Magazine'', Gene and Paul rated their work up to that point; ''"The Elder"'' got [[BrokeTheRatingScale a question mark]] from Paul, while Gene said, "As a Kiss album I give it a zero. As a bad [[Music/GenesisBand Genesis]] album, I give it a two." Interestingly, "A World Without Heroes" was brought back for the ''MTV Unplugged'' show; and they tried performing "I" during their May 15, 2004 show in Australia, but Gene had long forgotten the lyrics.
9	** ''Film/KISSMeetsThePhantomOfThePark'' also has little love from Gene and Paul, except for some callbacks during [[WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooAndKissRockAndRollMystery their animated crossover with]] ''Franchise/ScoobyDoo''.
10	** On the other hand, 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 didn't [[TookTheBadFilmSeriously take the movie seriously]].
11	** Gene and Paul refused to perform at their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame because it excluded later members of the band, such as Bruce Kulick, Eric Singer, and the late Eric Carr.
12	** 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.
13	* DyeHard: Eric Singer is a natural blonde. When he originally joined during the ''Revenge'' era, Gene and Paul had serious meetings about the first "blonde" member of KISS before they realized that was silly of them.
14	* EarlyBirdCameo:
15	** Bruce Kulick played guitar on "Lonely Is The Hunter" and "Murder In High Heels" on ''Animalize'', before he became an official member during the tour following the album's release.
16	** Eric Singer played drums on Paul Stanley's 1989 solo tour.
17	** Tommy Thayer sang backing vocals on ''Revenge'' and actually played most of the guitar parts on ''Psycho Circus'', before he became Ace Frehley's replacement in 2002.
18	* ExecutiveMeddling:
19	** 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.)
20	** Also, the songs on ''Dynasty'' and ''Unmasked'' were originally far less commercial sounding, but producer Vini Poncia (who had produced Peter Criss's 1978 solo album) insisted on polishing them up.
21	* FalseCredit: Peter Criss was the first example. After only playing on his StepUpToTheMicrophone track on {{Music/Dynasty\|Album}}, 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.
22	* 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 Peter, 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.
23	* InMemoriam: To Neil Bogart, the founder of Casablanca Records, in ''Creatures Of The Night'', and to Eric Carr in ''Revenge''.
24	* IronyAsHeIsCast: For the recording of ''Dynasty'', the group hired producer Vini Poncia, who worked on Peter's solo album, specifically to placate him as tensions within the band were rising. Peter Criss only played on ''one'' song on ''Dynasty'', as Poncia didn't consider his drumming good enough to use on the album, and didn't appear on any tracks on their follow-up ''Unmasked'', also produced by Poncia.
25	* 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\|Album}}'', the albums that featured "Rock and Roll All Nite" and "Shout It Out Loud", respectively.
26	* TheMerch: KISS is infamous for plastering their name and faces on anything they can get their hands on. They are probably the only rock band with their own line of caskets.
27	* MoneyDearBoy: Possibly the TropeCodifier for musical artists. If you accuse Gene Simmons of being a sellout, he'll just laugh and agree with you wholeheartedly. He has stated several times over the years that the reason he became a rock musician was because he wanted to get rich and get girls, which is exactly what he did, many times over. Further exemplified by the fact that Simmons actually [[DisneyOwnsThisTrope owns the trademark to the image]] of a [[ThiefBag sack of money with a dollar sign on it]]. When British indie rockers Teenage Fanclub put that image on the cover of their 1991 album ''Bandwagonesque'', the band's label wound up giving Simmons a cut of the royalties.
28	* ThePeteBest: Five in fact, back when the band was originally Wicked Lester.
29	** Lead guitarists Stephen Coronel (1970-1971) and Ron Leejack (1971-1973), with the former co-writing the songs "She" and "Goin' Blind". Guitarist Bob Kulick was also a top contender for the lead guitarist spot when they started out, however he didn't quite have the right look. Despite this, he did session work for the band, and his younger brother Bruce eventually took the lead guitarist spot for over a decade.
30	** Drummers Joe Davison (1970) and Tony Zarella (1970-1972), with the latter replaced by Criss.
31	** Keyboardist Brooke Ostrander, who passed away in 2011.
32	** 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.
33	* PopCultureUrbanLegends: Some rumors claim that Gene Simmons' OverlyLongTongue didn't come naturally; rather, he had a cow's tongue grafted onto his own. But this is not the case: even if such a thing were possible with 1970s medical technology, a cow's tongue wouldn't fit into a human's mouth.
34	* PromotedFanboy: Tommy Thayer used to be in a Kiss tribute band. He then co-wrote a couple of filler songs for Kiss during TheEighties. Then he was a session musician in the ''Psycho Circus'' album. Moreover, he also used to be Kiss' tour manager and Ace Frehley's guitar coach during TheNineties reunion era before finally being made a band member and taking over Frehley's guitar chores.
35	** 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.
36	* RarelyPerformedSong: CreatorBacklash ensured songs from ''Music from "The Elder"'' wouldn't appear in the setlists. "A World Without Heroes" entered their MTV Unplugged following a fan vote, and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oS9GJECOrKs once they attempted other songs to learn they forgot the lyrics!]]
37	* ReclusiveArtist: Vinnie Vincent was not seen publicly from 1996 until January ''2018''. He returned to the public eye at the Atlanta KISS Expo (brought on by months of gentle prodding from a major fan, through Vincent's lawyer), and explained that his 22 year absence was a combination of his lengthy lawsuit against his former band, an abysmal marriage to his now deceased second wife, a disdain for social media, and a general feeling that no one cared about him anymore. Needless to say, he was wrong on that last part, as he got a warm reception, and even had fans fly in from all over the world to see and meet him (including one fan from Australia who had the autograph of every member of KISS except for his).
38	** Mark St. John basically disappeared from the industry after a collaboration with ex-Kiss drummer Peter Criss ended up failing miserably. He wasn't completely gone like Vinnie Vincent, but never did anything with any kind of profile again, and even spent time in jail prior to his death.
39	* ThrowItIn: Peter actually messed up the lyrics to "Rock N Roll All Nite" during their ''MTV Unplugged'' episode, but everyone just kept going like it was perfectly normal.
40	* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
41	** ''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.
42	** Criss had a short-stint with a female-fronted rock group called "Balls Of Fire" that only played seven live shows before breaking up.
43	** Criss was also recording an 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.
44	** During the ''Dynasty'' Tour, Stanley wanted to have a headgear that fires a laser out of his right eye during the show (likely [[TakeThat to mock the oh-so mediocre special effect from their movie]]), but found out he and/or the audience could be ''permanently blinded'' if he tried it once.
45	** There were plans for a travelling KISS-themed amusement park the same year, but that wound up being nixed due to the cost being too expensive.
46	** Eric Carr initially used to take the persona of an hawk. Needless to say, [[http://www.kissfanshop.de/EricCarr/hawk80.jpg it didn't look great]]. Paul even noticed the resemblance with [[Series/SesameStreet Big Bird]]!
47	** 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"[[note]]These two were eventually featured in the compilation album ''Killers'' and the 40th anniversary super deluxe edition of ''Creatures of the Night''.[[/note]] and an early version of ''Asylum''[='=]s "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''.
48	** After Ace Frehley left, before they brought in Vinnie Vincent, KISS considered other guitarists:
49	*** Eventual 80's guitarist Bruce Kulick.
50	*** Music/WhiteLion guitarist Vito Bratta. They liked his look and playing, but thought his name was "too ethnic" and wanted him to change it.
51	*** They spoke to a young 19-year-old, then-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.
52	*** One of the guitarists they auditioned was a kid from Philadelphia named Saul Hudson, who they turned down because he was only 17 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.
53	*** Gene Simmons has frequently said that Eddie Music/VanHalen wanted to join the band in 1982, fed up with dealing with David Lee Roth. He claims he told Eddie Kiss was HIS band, and he would have to do what he was told and have no say in the music, to which Eddie decided to stay with Van Halen. According to Paul Stanley, this is just a legend. He and Eddie spoke on the phone in 1982, during the time when Eddie's frustrations with Dave were becoming unbearable, and asked for advice on how to handle the idea that his band might fall apart.
54	*** Future Music/BonJovi guitarist Richie Sambora auditioned for the band but was not selected, though Sambora claimed he [[Main/MoneyDearBoy "didn't really want it. I was really only trying for it as a good business measure."]]
55	** Vinnie Vincent while auditioning for the band was also in a project with New England drummer Hirsch Gardner called "Warrior" and he recorded a few demos of songs which would later end up on the "Vinnie Vincent Invasion" albums, the demos featured vocals by Jeff Scott Soto and Vinnie himself, the project was ultimately abandoned when Vinnie was accepted into KISS.
56	*** Vinnie was also working on a project called "Guitars From Hell" in the late 80s/early 90s with Robert Fleischman after the break-up of "Invasion", some demos were recorded but the project fell apart after Vinnie went behind the record labels back and tried to get a better deal elsewhere, leading the label to cancel the project.
57	*** In the mid-90s he also planned to release a solo album called "Guitarmaggedon" and the "Euphoria" E.P. was a teaser for it, but the album never came out.
58	** At one point in the 90s, Gene was planning to have Creator/SabanEntertainment create a ''KISS'' cartoon. This fell through when, during a meeting, Haim Saban remarked in Hebrew that he would "gut him like a fish." Little did he know that Gene [[BilingualBackfire spoke Hebrew natively]]--he shot back with a flawless "You asshole, I am one of you!" before storming out.
59	** Bruce Kulick has said that if the band put the paint back on while he was in the band, his design would have been a dog.

Context Trivia / KISS