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I Was Made for Lovin’ You: The Night KISS Went Disco and Lived to Tell About It
I Was Made for Lovin’ You: The Night KISS Went Disco and Lived to Tell About It In the spring of 1979, the biggest rock band in America was terrified. KISS — the demons and spacemen in greasepaint, the band that had turned rock concerts into comic-book warfare — was watching its empire crack. Album…
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KISS: The Human Hearts Behind the Makeup
For fifty years, KISS hid behind the most famous disguises in rock: the Demon’s bat wings, the Starchild’s star, the Spaceman’s silver, the Catman’s whiskers. The makeup was armor — it let four ordinary guys become superheroes, invincible gods who breathed fire and never bled. But armor, by definition, covers something vulnerable. Behind the paint…
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How KISS Created “Alive!”: The Story Behind the Masterpiece
In the summer of 1975, KISS was running out of road. Three studio albums in, the most spectacular live band in America still hadn’t cracked the Top 30. Their label, Casablanca Records, was teetering on the edge of bankruptcy. The band was, by some accounts, living off their manager’s credit card, playing to half-empty theaters…
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The Untold Story of KISS: Fifty-Dollar Paychecks, a Hair Fire, and the Night They Went Disco
They are the most merchandised band in rock history — lunchboxes, pinball machines, coffins — but before the empire, KISS was four broke New Yorkers playing to empty rooms in face paint. Their story has everything: a fifty-dollar first gig, a frontman’s hair catching fire, fake blood made from breakfast ingredients, a ballad that became…