KISS is not only my favorite band, but they have been my obsession since 1976. I had countless magazines, toys and records growing up and even got to see them on October 17, 1979 on the Dynasty tour at Lloyd Noble Center in Norman, Oklahoma (that date was erroniously left out of the program). I later saw them in March of 1983 at the same venue on the Creatures tour. It wasn't until July 9, 1995 that I was able to see them again. This time in Nashville, TN for their Convention tour...Very AWESOME. I saw KISS again on July 7, 1996 in San Antonio, TX and again Septerber 10th 1996 in Witchita, KS during their Reunion Tour.

KISS was coming to Lubbock, TX, where my brother lives, on March 29th, 2000 with Ted Nugent and Skid Row. Since this was their farewell tour, me and my brother decided to make a banner. We wanted to make the biggest banner KISS has ever seen so went to Wal-Mart the night before the show and bought a bunch of supplies. We went back and forth with ideas for what it should say. Finally, we decided to make a banner that simply said "Thank You KISS" with the 5ft KISS logo big enough for Gene to see from his "God of Thunder" platform.

On the day of the show I had the whole day off from work and told my brother that I was gonna drive to the arena early to watch the trucks unload and to see if the inflatables were gonna be used this tour.

I drove down to the United Spirit Arena at about 11:30am wearing black Addidas sweatpants, a KISS T-shirt, KISS ballcap, a fanny pack, and I brought some work gloves..... just in case KISS needed an extra roadie.

I walked down the concrete ramp at the service entrance of the stadium and was greeted by a security guy. I said "Who's in charge down there?" He replied, "Who, Bill?" I then said, "Yeah is Bill here yet?" and he said "Yeah he should be down around the forklift." I thanked him and proceeded to put on my gloves as I headed down the ramp.

Once I got down to the bottom of the ramp there were about 20 guys all dressed like me, and a few girls too. Bill was calling off names from a clipboard and when he was finished he said, "Whose name didn't I call?" I raised my hand and he asked my name and he wrote it down on the clipboard and said, "Let's start unloading those trucks." IT WAS THAT EASY!!! I couldn't believe it!!!

After unloading countless cases, PA speakers and assorted trusses, I noticed a pay phone by the loading dock. I called my brother at work and said, "Dude!! I'm helping KISS set up the stage!! I'll meet you at your seat when I'm done!!" He couldn't believe it.

I was first assigned to lay power cables for Billy, from the back of the stadium floor and run it up to the sound board. Then I was part of Ricky's crew that put together the truss that carries Paul out to his platform in front of the sound board for Love Gun. I unloaded a case that said "Gene's Gag". It had his wench system in it. I volunteered to be lifted up in the harness to give it a load test but someone with the KISS crew did it later. I was a part of a team that hung the Icons (motorized lights) on the lighting truss too, those things are really heavy.

We assembled the stage and rolled it from the far side of the arena floor to under the lighting trusses that were now hanging from the rafters. Now that the stage was in place, Shawn had me place two icon lights at the top of each staircase. Each step of the stairs are extra high because of KISS' platform boots. Peter's drum platform was raised onto the stage and everything was set. Shawn and I also set up the bass cabinets on Genes side. We lined them all up and straighted all the amplifier heads. We did the same on Ace's and Paul's side of the stage too. Yes, most of the amps are just for show but they are still very heavy.

It was getting close to show time and I was then told to take some glow in the dark tape and outline the back of the stage and do the same with all of steps leading to the stage. As I was on my knees laying the tape on Gene's entrance, the local fire marshall was there to inspect the pyro. I was about 3 feet away from where they did the flame test. They call the large flame throwers "Dragons". Before they set off the dragons, they'd yell "FIRE IN THE HOLE!!" and set it off.

When I finished laying the tape, I went back to the loading dock when a red van came in with Gene, Peter, Ace and Doc McGee. I was standing right there as they all went down this hallway that had black curtains. Just as I realized how close I was to them, a white Tarus pulled up right in front of me. I looked in the windows and saw a small boy about five years old in the back seat with Tommy Thayer and Paul Stanley. I could have opened the car door for Paul, that's how close I was, but before I could the door opened and Paul stood up out of the car. He was wearing black glasses with light blue lenses, a black leather blazer, black leather pants and black leather loafers. Wow, he looked very cool! He looked like a million bucks or like one of the Sopranos. Very Cool!

I remember thinking this is something I'll remember for the rest of my life! Suddenly Bill came up and asked if I had eaten yet. I said no and he told me to go down the hall to the right get a bite to eat.

I found the meeting room that he was talking about. The room had about 10 tables with white table cloths and most of the crew was already eating. There was a buffett table set up at one end of the room that had turkey and all of the fixin's to choose from and at the end of the buffett was a chef cutting slabs of fresh roast beef. I grabbed a plate (real china) and some silverware and loaded up on the turkey.

Gene and Paul were sitting a table away from where I was eating. I thought this is so cool that they are with us while we ate. It was like a family. I couldn't wait to tell everyone I had dinner with KISS!! Gene was wearing a KISS baseball cap and his usual blue denim shirt and black leather pants. He was messing with his ear-piece to a cell phone and Paul was laughing at the TV. We were all watching "Who wants to be a Millionare". I was eating with a huge grin on my face.

When I was finished eating, I remembered that I had to meet my brother so we could hang our banner. I got a green "WORKING" pass from Bill and went out to my car and got the banner. I met my brother at his seat and told him all about it. We unfolded our banner and noticed that we had the biggest one in the 15,000 seat arena.

The lights went out and KISS took the stage. They played for two hours straight! We had a blast and I was part of KISSTORY!!

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