49 Fun Facts About KISS

Which comic-book-style persona did Gene Simmons take on in Kiss?

The Demon breathes fire and spits fake blood, and the fire has bitten back: at a New York show on New Year's Eve 1973 Simmons set his own hair alight, the first of many times.

Kiss traces its roots to which earlier New York band led by Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley?

Wicked Lester recorded a whole album that Epic Records refused to release; unhappy with its soft, unfocused sound, Simmons and Stanley abandoned the band in 1972 to start Kiss.

Kiss's first-ever show, in January 1973, drew fewer than ten people to a club in which New York borough?

Queens: Gene Simmons had cold-called the Popcorn Club and talked it into booking his unknown band for three nights, and the four earned $50 for two sets on the first.

Just before Kiss formed, drummer Peter Criss played in a New York trio with which apt name?

Lips folded in 1972, so Criss placed a Rolling Stone advert as an experienced rock and roll drummer looking for an original group; Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley answered it.

What do the four members of Kiss wear, along with their makeup, on the cover of 1975's Dressed to Kill?

Business suits, and mostly borrowed ones: drummer Peter Criss was the only member who owned a suit, and photographer Bob Gruen says the one squeezed onto Gene Simmons was his.

Which Kiss anthem flopped as a 1975 studio single, then hit big in a live version?

Rock and Roll All Nite stalled at No. 68 until the concert recording from Alive! carried it to No. 12 in early 1976, and it went on to close almost every Kiss show.

Which producer, once Jimi Hendrix's engineer, made Kiss's 1975 live album Alive!?

Eddie Kramer later admitted the 'live' album was patched up in the studio with overdubbed guitars, something Kiss denied for years before owning up on VH1 in 2003.

Kiss's Destroyer producer had made his name with which act's early-1970s hits?

Alice Cooper's producer Bob Ezrin ran the Destroyer sessions like boot camp: he wore a whistle round his neck, called the band 'campers' and told them they knew nothing.

Which Kiss single won the band a People's Choice Award in 1977?

Beth was tucked away as a B-side until radio DJs started flipping the single over; the ballad, sung by drummer Peter Criss with an orchestra and none of his bandmates, reached No. 7.

On which TV show did Peter Criss and Ace Frehley rejoin Kiss on stage in 1995?

MTV Unplugged: the two originals joined in for the last songs of the acoustic taping, the founding four's first set together since 1979, and the fans' reaction led to the 1996 reunion tour.

Kiss's song Detroit Rock City tells the story of what?

A fan killed driving to a Kiss show: Paul Stanley wrote it after someone died in an accident on the way to one of their concerts, struck that a night so full of life could end that way.

Which polling firm named Kiss the most popular band in America in 1977?

Gallup's poll caught Kiss mania at its peak: that fame put the band's painted faces on lunch boxes, dolls, board games and pinball machines.

Which comics publisher printed a 1977 Kiss comic using red ink mixed with the band's own blood?

Marvel: a notary public watched the blood being drawn, and the four flew to the printing plant to see it go into the ink for a story that pitted them against Doctor Doom.

Which animation studio produced the 1978 TV movie Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park?

Hanna-Barbera, a cartoon studio, made the live-action film, and the band so despised how buffoonish it made them look that for years nobody who worked for them was allowed to mention it.

Kiss voiced cartoon versions of themselves in a 2015 animated movie alongside which franchise's characters?

Scooby-Doo and the gang head to an amusement park called Kiss World for a Halloween concert, where the four band members turn up as superpowered versions of themselves to help crack the case.

Gene Simmons closed his 1978 solo album with a cover of which Disney song?

Simmons said he barely spoke English when he first heard it but knew the words were true.

Which hit songwriter co-wrote I Was Made for Lovin' You with Paul Stanley and Vini Poncia?

Desmond Child recalled that Paul Stanley wanted to write a good disco song, so he sat down to help him do it on purpose; Child went on to co-write Livin' on a Prayer.

Which fan club began in 1975 when two Indiana teenagers badgered a radio station into playing Kiss?

The Kiss Army was what Bill Starkey and Jay Evans called themselves when they kept phoning a Terre Haute station that refused to play the band; it became the official fan club.

In October 1975 Kiss played a gymnasium in Cadillac, Michigan, to honor which local group?

The high-school football team had turned two opening losses into seven straight wins after an assistant coach played Kiss in the locker room, so the band came to town for homecoming.

Eric Carr's proposed 'Hawk' persona was dropped after the costume drew comparisons to which character?

Big Bird: the feathered Hawk costume came out bright orange-yellow and nobody could design make-up to match it, so the whole idea was scrapped before Carr's 1980 debut.

Which persona did drummer Eric Carr take on when he joined Kiss in 1980?

The Fox made his debut in July 1980, weeks after Carr auditioned as, in Paul Stanley's words, a guy who cleaned stoves for a living.

Kiss drummer Eric Carr died on November 24, 1991, the same day as which rock frontman?

Freddie Mercury's death filled the news, and Carr's, from heart cancer at 41, drew so little coverage that his bandmates wrote to Rolling Stone to say they were shocked and disappointed.

Vinnie Vincent's Kiss makeup was designed around which symbol?

An Egyptian ankh: with a new guitarist to fit into the act in 1982, Paul Stanley designed the looped-cross face himself, and the character went by the Ankh Warrior or the Wizard.

Kiss first showed their faces without makeup on television in 1983 to launch which album?

Lick It Up was the album the unmasking was staged to sell, and the stunt worked: after years of sliding sales it put Kiss back in the Top 30 and started a second run of success.

Which Velvet Underground musician co-wrote songs for Kiss's 1981 concept album Music from The Elder?

Lou Reed helped write three of its songs, including the single A World Without Heroes, but the album sold so poorly that Kiss skipped touring for the first time in its history.

What did Kiss blame when guitarist Mark St. John missed the start of its 1984 tour?

Reactive arthritis was the band's official line, and his hands did swell; but St. John later called it 'a cover up for the other reasons', and his stand-in had the job by December.

I Walk Alone, from Carnival of Souls, is the only Kiss track with which member on lead vocals?

Bruce Kulick sang lead for the only time on the album's closing track, then saw the record shelved when Kiss chose a reunion of the original four; bootlegs forced its release in 1997.

Which 1984 Kiss album produced the MTV hit Heaven's on Fire?

Animalize was close to a one-man job: with Gene Simmons away acting in the film Runaway, Paul Stanley ran the sessions himself and came out with a platinum album.

Kiss's 1990 Top 10 power ballad Forever was co-written by Paul Stanley and which singer?

It peaked at No. 8, the band's first US Top 40 single since 1979.

Who introduced the original Kiss lineup, back in full makeup, at the 1996 Grammy Awards?

Tupac Shakur told the audience the Grammys needed something different, said 'let's shock the people', and out walked the four originals in full makeup together for the first time since 1979.

Sold as the original four's reunion album, which 1998 Kiss record had Peter Criss drumming on just one song?

Psycho Circus was a reunion in name only: session man Kevin Valentine played the drums on every song except Into the Void, the one track all four originals recorded together.

Ace Frehley's final performance as a member of Kiss came at the closing ceremony of the Olympic Games held where?

Salt Lake City, at the 2002 Winter Olympics: Frehley played a single song and was gone, and at the band's next show Tommy Thayer walked on wearing his Spaceman makeup.

Which musician was buried in a Kiss Kasket donated by Gene Simmons?

Dimebag Darrell, the Pantera guitarist who posed in Ace Frehley makeup as a boy, was buried in the casket in 2004 with Eddie Van Halen's striped Bumblebee guitar laid inside.

Kiss's 2009 album Sonic Boom was sold exclusively in the US through which retailer?

Walmart sold it as a three-disc bargain package, and the band's first studio album in 11 years entered the Billboard chart at No. 2, the highest placing of its career to that point.

Who inducted Kiss into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2014?

Tom Morello made the speech, but the night had no Kiss music: only the four original members were inducted, and they accepted the honour together without playing a note.

Kiss announced the End of the Road farewell tour in 2018 after performing on which TV show?

America's Got Talent: Kiss played Detroit Rock City on the 2018 season finale and announced one last tour, which a pandemic year of postponements stretched to almost five years.

Where did Kiss play the final show of the End of the Road tour on December 2, 2023?

Madison Square Garden, in the band's home city: when the four left the stage, digital avatars of them appeared and played on, announcing that Kiss would continue as a virtual act.

Kiss's digital avatars were built by Pophouse Entertainment and which visual-effects company?

Industrial Light & Magic, the effects house George Lucas set up for Star Wars, built the avatars that took the stage as the real band walked off at the end of its farewell tour in December 2023.

The company that bought Kiss's catalog for a reported $300 million in 2024 was co-founded by a member of which group?

ABBA's Björn Ulvaeus co-founded Pophouse, the Stockholm firm that backed the ABBA Voyage avatar concerts, and it bought Kiss's songs and brand to build a virtual show of the same kind.

In which country was Gene Simmons born?

Israel: born Chaim Witz in Haifa, he arrived in New York at eight with his mother, a Holocaust survivor, and took her maiden name to become Gene Klein long before he was Gene Simmons.

What did Ace Frehley wear to his Kiss audition that made a poor first impression?

Mismatched sneakers, one red and one orange: the band thought he looked hopeless until he plugged in and played, and about three weeks later he was their lead guitarist.

The Kiss logo's lightning-bolt letters resemble an insignia outlawed under Section 86a of which country's criminal code?

Germany bans the Nazi SS runes that the two S's resemble, so since 1980 Kiss records sold there have carried a redrawn logo with letters like backward Z's; Simmons and Stanley, both Jewish, deny any intent.

Ace Frehley's first-ever lead vocal, Shock Me, was inspired by what incident?

His near-electrocution on stage came in Lakeland, Florida, in 1976: Frehley grabbed an ungrounded metal railing, was knocked to the floor, and still finished the show after a delay.

Kiss drummer Peter Criss was diagnosed in 2008 with which illness?

Breast cancer: Criss noticed a lump on his chest while working out and was treated with a lumpectomy; shocked to learn men were at risk at all, he became a spokesman on the male form of the disease.

In 2001 Eric Singer caused controversy by debuting in which persona's makeup?

The Catman had only ever been Peter Criss, so when Criss left during the 2001 farewell tour and Singer took over his whiskers as well as his drum stool, some fans cried foul.

Why did Ace Frehley wear makeup on only half his face at a Hotter Than Hell photo session?

Stitches from a car accident: Frehley had driven into a telephone pole in the Hollywood Hills the night before, so a doctor let him paint only one side and every shot was a profile.

Kiss's 1980 ballad Shandi missed the US Top 40 but spent eight weeks in the Top 10 of which country?

Australia sent Shandi to No. 5, and the band's 1980 tour there was one of the biggest in its history, with sold-out crowds just as its American audience was drifting away.

In October 1976 Kiss performed three songs on whose Halloween TV special?

Paul Lynde shared the bill with Margaret Hamilton, back as the Wicked Witch of the West; Peter Criss said his mother was thrilled about the booking, because Lynde was her favourite comedian.

Which cover song was added to Kiss's debut album months after release to boost sales?

Kissin' Time, an old Bobby Rydell hit, was recorded on label boss Neil Bogart's orders to tie in with a kissing contest he was promoting; band and producers fought the idea and lost.