Ultimate Guitar
Kiss have revealed some of the techniques they employed early in their career that helped them become one of the most recognizable rock acts of all time.
One trick involved tricking fans into thinking they were a busy touring band, as Paul Stanley explains:
“We had a rule that we wouldn’t play more than once every eight or 12 weeks because we wanted people to think we were busy. We were literally sitting in our loft starving and rehearsing,” Stanley told the Guardian
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An obvious distinction between Kiss and other bands was their striking makeup — but don’t call it that in front of Gene Simmons.
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“[The makeup] was warpaint … makeup does not give it enough respect,” he said. “I remember seeing the Beatles as a kid and thinking there must have been a Beatle mother cos they all looked like they were connected. There’s no question that our outfits and our boot-heels and our makeup was a unique definition of who we were.”
A notable low point for the band was when they released a disastrous dance album, “The Elder“, which lost them support from critics and fans alike.
“We lost the plot. We forgot why we did this. We forgot why we got into it. And I don’t think we’ve ever forgotten that since,” said Stanley, who says it took years for the band to recover. “People abandoned us in droves, and rightfully so, because we betrayed them and we betrayed ourselves.”
The lesson? Be distinctive, fake it till you make it, and stick to your morals. Even if that happens to include putting your band on every piece of merchandise imaginable.