I can remember it like it was yesterday.....
The year is 1992.
I was laying on the couch watching Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey. It's at the end of the movie and Bill & Ted go in the future to learn how to play the guitar. They start to play and I sit up and listen very carefully because the song grabbed a hold of me and I fell in love.
The song they played - "God gave Rock and Roll to you II" and the artist......KISS
At that point forward my life was forever changed.
Now I'm sure that wasn't the first time I have heard KISS. My dad listened to WHJY all the time,and also his workout room was in the room right next to mine so he would listen to all his music while he lifted and Kiss was in the rotation. But something about that song just grabbed me. I watched the end of that movie many, many times and listened to all the words so I could write them down so I could sing it along with the movie. (You got to remember that this was way before I could pop on google and grab the lyrics with in a minute) Now at this point I have only heard KISS and have no idea what these guys look like. Now as a 9 year old kid when I finally got to see the Original band in costume I was hooked. I tried my best over the next few years to get into the band but as 9 year old kid it was hard to just go to the store and pick up a KISS CD. So I had to settle for the radio and Bill & Ted.
It wasn't until 1995 that really changed everything for me with KISS.
On our local public access channel they actually had a show called - "Rock & Roll All Night" and it was a show dedicated to all things Kiss. On one of the episodes they announced that KISS would be doing a MTV unplugged and it would be airing on Halloween night. I was overjoyed.
So I watched the show and if I wasn't hooked before, then I was now. I didn't know the history of the band too well but I knew seeing Peter Criss and Ace Frehley walk on stage to perform was something big and special in the Kiss world.
As a kid Kiss was everything. I mean think about it. You had a band wearing makeup with guitars standing on a stage while things blew up and they sang some catchy tunes. I saw them and just thought how cool they looked.
Now my next piece will be Seeing Kiss live for the first time and my thoughts on the Rock n Roll hall of fame.
Until next time....
No place for hidin' baby
No place to run
You pull the trigger of my............Kiss Report(wont be Love Gun cause that's Paul Stanley's Dick and that's gross)
Gary
hey man! you know what strikes me as funny and great at the same time? that you got into Kiss and loved them when they were past their 'prime'... which means only that they were still a popular (and very capable)band, but not the mega post-Beatles they used to be when i discovered them, back in 1980, when i was a tiny lad 8 years of age. they changed my life too. i became obsessed with them (the only religion i ever embraced ha)for a couple of years. thanks to them i discovered hard rock/metal and other cool rock genres. and there was no looking back. grew my hair long, became a drummer, later on a drinker, a mild (pot)smoker and avid reader/writer and though i'm almost 49, rock and jazz are still my biggest obsessions.. it was all becasue of them. as of lately, i fell in love again with their best/worst album: 'The Elder'... it's just a bloody masterpiece, imo. so they sound like rush and styx and maybe sabbath- so fuckin' what? it rules. however, Ace is my hero and he loathes the album, and we all know the guy only recorded his songs and bailed out. but all the solos are massive, the songwriting's weird and beautiful, intelligent yet catchy. ok, now, this is my funny fact: i live in Mexico City, Mexico. a huge place, not as third world as one might think, but... the thing is that back in 1980, Kiss was HUGE here. if you had to go to the store to buy a bloody notebook, all you'd see were life-size Kiss posters surrounding you. kids at my sort of snobbish school would bully me because they thought Kiss was for the 'low classes' or 'a crap band when compared to pink floyd or the stones or queen'... there were magazines (imported or domestic)with them on the cover, books, tv specials, there were even two or even three daily AM radio shows that played nothing but Kiss, i mean picture that! yet international rock shows were a no-no back then, since the governmente thought it was a toxic, satanic thing, or maybe(flamin')youth revolutionary gatherings ha.. and the band's popularity was already waning in the US, as far as i know... first time i saw them was in 93 or 94, here in Mexico, when lots of things changed and every foreign band, big or small started touring here. it was a great show, Bruce Kulick is an outstanding player and they were all in great shape. then i saw them again with the original line-up in 96 and 97, and they were still great, a dream come true, but i was much too old and noticed that they were not really on fire. i have to say that they were a better band during their non-make up era. and hey, saw them again in 2014 when they headlined a huge metal fest here in Mx again- great song selection from all eras, but the sound was tiny, and i personally can't stand other people dressed up as the space man or the wild cat, because Peter and Ace are the guys i grew up with, and i even memorized all their poses as a kid haha.. ok, so thanks for your Kiss texts, i love to hear stories from fellow fans!
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