50 Fun Facts About KISS

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

Simmons's fire-breathing and fake-blood spitting were built around the character.

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

Simmons and Stanley left the group behind and recruited a drummer through a newspaper ad before Kiss existed.

Roughly how many people watched Kiss's first-ever performance in January 1973?

The show was at the Popcorn Club in Queens, which was renamed Coventry shortly afterward.

Paul Stanley suggested the name Kiss after Peter Criss mentioned he had been in a band with what name?

The name came up while Stanley, Simmons and Criss were driving around New York City.

On the 1975 business-suit album cover, who owned every suit except Peter Criss's?

Criss was the only member who owned a suit; the shot was taken at West 23rd Street and 8th Avenue in Manhattan.

The live Rock and Roll All Nite hit No. 12 in 1976; where had the studio single peaked in 1975?

It became the group's closing number at almost every concert from 1976 onward.

Who produced Kiss's breakthrough 1975 live album Alive!?

The band later admitted on VH1 that the album was overdubbed to capture the energy of the show.

Destroyer's producer had previously worked with which shock-rock act?

The same producer went on to co-produce Pink Floyd's The Wall.

Which Kiss single won Favorite Song at the 1977 People's Choice Awards?

It started life as a B-side and climbed to No. 7, the band's first US Top 10 hit.

Peter Criss's hit ballad began as a demo about the wife of a bandmate in which of his pre-Kiss groups?

The demo was originally called 'Beck' after Becky, who kept phoning rehearsals to ask when her husband would come home.

The opening track of Destroyer tells the story of what?

The album became the first Kiss record certified platinum, in November 1976.

A 1977 Gallup poll named Kiss what?

Between 1977 and 1979 Kiss merchandise sales reached an estimated $100 million.

What did Kiss famously add to the red ink used to print their first Marvel comic?

The 40-page 1977 story was written by Steve Gerber and pitted the band against Doctor Doom and Mephisto.

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

It debuted on NBC on October 28, 1978, with the band playing superpowered versions of themselves.

Under what title was Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park released in cinemas outside the United States?

AVCO Embassy Pictures put it in theaters abroad in 1979, a year after its US TV debut.

New York Groove, the hit from Ace Frehley's 1978 solo album, was originally recorded by which band?

Russ Ballard wrote it; Frehley's version rose to No. 13 on the Hot 100, the best showing of any single from the four solo albums.

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?

Stanley said he wrote it partly to prove how easy it was to make a hit disco record; it peaked at No. 11 in the US.

The Kiss Army began in 1975 as a teenage fan campaign to get local radio play in which city?

Bill Starkey and Jay Evans pestered station WVTS until it played the band; it became the official fan club soon after.

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

Assistant coach Jim Neff had been playing Kiss music in the locker room to motivate the players.

Eric Carr's proposed 'Hawk' persona was dropped after Paul Stanley said it looked like which character?

Carr's first show with the band was at New York's Palladium on July 25, 1980.

Which persona did drummer Eric Carr end up adopting?

Carr, born Paul Charles Caravello in Brooklyn, drummed for Kiss from 1980 until his death in 1991.

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

Carr was 41 and had been diagnosed with heart cancer.

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

Vincent, born Vincent Cusano, co-wrote eight of the ten songs on the first album he was pictured on.

Kiss's first public appearance without makeup, on MTV in 1983, coincided with the release of which album?

It became their first album certified gold since 1980's Unmasked.

Which Velvet Underground founder co-wrote songs on the 1981 concept album Music from The Elder?

The album flopped badly enough that Kiss skipped a supporting tour for the first time in its history.

Guitarist Mark St. John's brief 1984 stint in Kiss was cut short by what?

He played only a handful of shows before being dismissed that December.

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

He and Mark St. John are the only two members never to have worn makeup or costumes.

Which album, helped by the Heaven's on Fire video, was Kiss's top US seller of the 1980s?

It sold more than two million copies in America.

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?

The band wore Love Gun-era stage outfits for the surprise appearance.

On 1998's Psycho Circus, Peter Criss played drums on only one track. Which one?

The rest of the drumming was mostly by session player Kevin Valentine.

Ace Frehley's final performance as a member of Kiss came at the closing ceremony of which event?

Tommy Thayer stepped into the guitar spot at a private show in Jamaica the following month.

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

The casket went on sale in 2001; Dimebag's brother Vinnie Paul got one too in 2018.

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

It debuted at No. 2, the highest chart position the band has ever reached.

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

Only the four original members were inducted, and the band chose not to perform at the ceremony.

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

The tour ran 250 shows and closed in New York City on December 2, 2023.

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

The tour had opened almost five years earlier at Rogers Arena in Vancouver.

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

The band announced a 'new era' in which it would live on as fully virtual stage performers.

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

Pophouse Entertainment was set up in Stockholm in 2014 by Bjorn Ulvaeus and Conni Jonsson.

In which country was Gene Simmons born?

Born Chaim Witz in Haifa, he moved to Queens with his mother at age eight.

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

The band liked what they heard anyway; he later designed the double-lightning-bolt logo that Stanley polished up.

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

The resemblance is to the Nazi SS runes, so altered logos are used there.

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

It happened at a concert in Lakeland, Florida; the song appeared on 1977's Love Gun.

In 2008 Peter Criss went public as a survivor of which illness?

He found the lump while exercising and was treated with a lumpectomy.

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

Singer, born Eric Mensinger in Cleveland, had drummed for Lita Ford and Badlands before Kiss.

Why did Ace Frehley wear only half of his makeup for the Hotter Than Hell cover shoot?

The album's Japanese-influenced artwork was designed by John Van Hamersveld.

Shandi from Unmasked stalled at No. 47 in the US but reached No. 1 in which country?

It was also a top-10 hit in Australia, New Zealand and Norway.

In October 1976 Kiss lip-synched three songs on whose Halloween TV special?

The ABC special is now a cult favorite mostly because of that appearance.

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

The song had been a Top 20 hit for Bobby Rydell in 1959, and the addition went against the band's wishes.