Christopher Scapelliti | Guitar Player

Former Kiss guitarist Bruce Kulick performed “The Star-Spangled Banner” at the LA Kiss game against the Portland Steel on May 28, and LA Kiss co-owners Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley were in attendance. The game was held at Honda Center in Anaheim, California.

Kulick became the fourth lead guitarist in Kiss when he replaced Mark St. John in 1984. He stayed with the band until 1996, during which time he recorded Asylum, Crazy Nights, Hot in the Shade, Revenge,Alive III, Kiss Unplugged, and Carnival of Souls: The Final Sessions.

Prior to joining Kiss, Kulick knew the band through his brother, Bob, a session guitarist who had originally auditioned for the group’s lead guitar spot in 1973. Bruce spoke extensively about his time with Kiss in a recent interview with Joel Gausten.

“It was kind of funny; I didn’t really know how they worked together as a band,” he recalls. “I had a little bit of a taste of working with Paul in the studio, because I did some of the ghost guitar work on [1984’s]Animalize. I never actually worked in the studio with Gene [before Asylum]. I saw them one time [in the studio] when they were doing Creatures of the Night, because my brother and I visited.

“My job as the lead guitarist was, look, I knew they were the principal creators of Kiss. Not to take anything away from Ace and  Peter [Criss], but you know that Gene and Paul were always really the driving forces in the band. They really had a vision for a rock band that could be huge, and they succeeded. I was just going to basically do my job.”

You can read the full interview here.