While listening to one of my older cassette tapes today, Blue Oyster Cults “Fire of Unknown Origin”, one of my coworkers came up to me and told me that a couple of the bandmembers of KISS had discovered BOC in a Brooklyn nightclub. Does anyone know if there is any truth to this?
BOC started out as Soft White Underbelly, and often played using the Soft White Underbelly moniker in small clubs even when they were really big and playing monster outdoor stadium shows.
BOC/Soft White Underbelly started in the late 60’s. Kiss didn’t get big until '76 or '77, and I doubt if they started much before that.
I think it’s a crock.
I thought maybe you reversed the story, because BOC predates Kiss by a few years…
The All Music Guide doesn’t mention the Blue Oyster Cult possibly discovering Kiss though…
On the other hand, Gene Simmons was instumental in getting Van Halen signed to a label.
Not that that has anything to do with the OP, but I thought I’d share just the same.
No Kiss didn’t discover BOC for the reasons stated above, but they did sort of discover Van Halen. Gene Simmons had gotten ahold of VH’s demo tape and put it into the hands of some Warner Bros. execs it might not have otherwise.
Chris W
As mentioned earlier, Blue Oyster Cult’s first album, came out in 1971, long before Kiss even existed.
Kiss didn’t “discover” many bands, but to their credit, they always seemed to have excellent bands as their opening acts. At one time or another, Rush, Judas Priest and Queensryche (among many others) opened for Kiss.
A lot of big-name bands have always been afraid of being upstaged by their opening acts, and have always toured with lousy bands. So, I applaud Kiss for usually having quality bands on tour with them.
Sidebar: though Gene Simmons did help out Van Halen early on, David Lee Roth has always claimed that Gene had ulterior motives- that he really wanted to steal away Eddie Van Halen to replace Ace Frehley in Kiss.
Actually, KISS used to open for BOC in their early days (1973-74). A few years later when KISS got big they had BOC opening for them. Other bands that have gotten their first national exposure opening for KISS: AC/DC, Bon Jovi, Iron Maiden (in europe), The Plasmatics (can you imagine?!?!) and Cheap Trick. I guess this doesn’t mean that they were actually discoverd by any of the band members, but touring with KISS in the '70s had to be a huge, huge break.
On the other hand, it’s weird to see an established band open for one that hasn’t been around as long. Ted Nugent was opening for KISS as recently as last year, Motorhead will open for just about anybody (the fact that they never got as big as Metallica is a crime), and I saw Bachman Turner Overdrive open for Van Halen in about 1986.