Gone But Not Forgotten
By: Ron Forrester

I first saw a picture of them in a newspaper in 1975. Alive! had just come out and the radio stations were playing "RnR All Nite" from Alive! a lot on the radio. I was 14 and was brought up in perpetual bible school, but the lure of worldly ways overcame me and I started looking away from the church for entertainment. And there they were. My 9th grade Art teacher (who was also from NY and claimed to have worked for Disney there), when shown a Destroyer album, said they looked like the four horsemen of the apocalypse. I was hooked! They played good, original rock and roll, they looked cool, and adults hated em!! Which was cool with me cause it just gave my folks another reason to stay out of my room.

So in short, I spent the next few years like a typical KISS fan. It was more than a trend. These guys were the Walt Disney of rock music. I didn't get to see them untill 1979, first show of Pete's last tour. I graduated the next year gave all my KISS stuff to a good friend for keeps. I thought I had outgrown the teeny bopper fanclub bullshit, got all grown up and went and joined the Army (the real one). But I still felt the inclination to continue to keep up with their music, and even hung a couple of posters in the barracks. In short, I followed their career long enough to have a valid opinion concerning the eventual fate of KISS. I say, true enough, that the merchandise is expensive, but whether or not it costs too much depends on how much you want it. That's what gives it value. But in truth, the real lure of KISS for a good portion a their fans is the merchandise, and if you follow the bidding activity on ebay you will see that KISS generates a respectable draw compared to most entertainers.

I can't think of a better legacy for a band whose sole purpose is to give their fans their money's worth. I say, I never figured they would go back to the first KISS (although I secretly hoped for it), so when they did it was like my second youth. I even started collecting KISS records with all the inserts. It wasn't easy, but I put together the entire catalog in about two years. It's still cool having them around, the comics are great, but I'm still waiting on that 3-D issue.

Well, I'm running out of room here so I'll just say guys (KISS), as long as you keep rockin' I'll keep listening. And when you're gone, I'll be one of the ones who will make sure you're not forgotten.

Thanks for everything.
Frosty the KISS fan

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