Okay, I’ve had enough Buds already today, anyone wanna chime in?? Any other people out there who weren’t allowed to listen to KISS in seventh grade and still listen to it in their …Xth… decade?? I know it isn’t great music, I know it is totally over the top, but I LOVE IT, get a little quiver in my stomach when I hear LOVE GUN… love it, almost as much as my namesake-a and his old band. COME ON, 'FESS UP!!!
Rock ‘n’ Roll All Night was playing as muzak at the grocery store for me last week. I was grinning like a weasle the whole time. Passed a 50-something looking woman who was humming along to it while browsing through the spices. Surreal times.
“Destroyer” was my intro to KISS, still have the album. Lots of hatin’ on KISS 'round here, but I think that album is worth a listen.
Love KISS. Hate Gene Simons.
I liks KISS fans as they seem so passionate and just out for a good time. I think KISS themselves area godawful band.
I wanna party with you, Roberta!
I named my Fantasy Football team KISS Army this year and it’s my first winning year! Coincidence? I don’t think so! Ha ha.
I was so totally into them when I was 13, mumble-mumble years ago. I still love them but more for nostalgic reasons. Ace was always my fav, being a fellow guitar player. But I loved the whole band. And …
… they were my first concert!
When KISS was popular, I was in grade school. They scared me.
Have you seen the movie “Detroit Rock City”? It’s a KISS fan must-see. I love that movie.
I walked into a store in Utah and started singing along with the KISS song they were playing and the clerk said “Sorry ma’am there’s no rocking allowed in the store” and then gave me big grin. My brother in KISS.
I used to have posters and pictures on my wall and air guitared relentlessly to KISS from age 12 to 14
I have a fond memory of when a friend’s mom took a vanload of us 13 y.o.'s to see them in Little Rock. The year was 1976, and they were on the Destroyer tour. Great show!
A year later, 1977, I discovered Punk Rock and kind of fell by the wayside a bit, but in 1975-76, I was Mr. KISS Army.
I’m a fan of KISS. I became curious about them after they released “Revenge” in 1992 and wanted to find out if there was anything to them besides the makeup shtick. The public library had an old copy of ALIVE! on vinyl I listened to it and got hooked.
- The Destroyer tour: I was 12th row center at their Oakland show. In my camera bag (allowed in the olden days), I had stuffed 100+ mini-frisbees*. Each with the KISS logo written with day-glo marker. Why they let me bring them in, I’ll never know.
After a blistering set from Bob Seger, the house lights came up for intermission. Out came the camera bag, and I let fly with one KISS-disc after another. Soon the arena was filled with flying objects. The crowd really got into it…except for the guy I nailed in the face…sorry!
It all set the mood for the main attraction…Stanley, Simmons and Co. delivered big time. Absolutely one of the best shows I’ve ever been to. I still have a film container of confetti from that show, but I didn’t manage to keep one of those KISS mini-discs.
*actually mailing-tube caps, very much like a Pringles’ lid.
ALIVE! was the very first album I ever had, and my oldest sister gave it to me when she moved out, when I was about 4 years old. I was fascinated, and played it repeatedly.
In a sense, KISS defined a certain dimension of rock ‘n’ roll; namely, the over-the-top, wild lifestyle, glitzy element. It was the presentation, the act, the theater of it, in addition to the music. I like most of their music, but the stage act was so overwhelming that it surpassed the music.
Very similar to my story. Except I drifted towards what I thought was cooler hard rock at the time: Aerosmith, UFO, Cream, etc…
Me, too. I liked it. What, no love for "Strutter " yet?
I’m lukewarm about KISS, but I think Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley are two of the coolest guys in show business.
I formed this opinion while watching the VH1 show “KISS: Beyond the Makeup”
In most of these shows, they will interview, the rockstars, and at some point, the star will star rhapsodizing about Art and Creativity. They’re trying to sound serious and high-minded, but they end up sounding vain and pretentious.
Simmons and Stanley never do that. Gene Simmons never talks about Art. He talks about craftsmanship. Paul Stanley never brags about his Creativity. He brags about his work ethic.
I thought that was a refreshing change of pace.