Joe Degraffenreid passed away on Wednesday July 31st in Noble Oklahoma. Joe D was born on October 16 1970. Joe was a very talented person who was a very talented musician who was very passionate about his music. Joe has played with many other fellow musicians throughout his life. Joe never met anyone he didn’t like. He was a fun-loving son, boyfriend, brother, and fellow musician as well as a great friend. Joe D. Spent the last 2 1/2 years playing in a band called 10BURN4. Joe’s passion and love was practicing and playing with 10BURN4. Joe was the lead guitar for 10BURN4 and was very talented and a awesome guitar player. Joe played his own unique style of guitar by plugging his guitar into his Marshall Amp and he would entertain many many people and they would stop what they were doing to listen to Joe amaze the crowd with his awesomeness. His guitar solos and his special way of adding uniqueness to his playing was nothing but amazing.

One of Joe’s hobbies was collecting KISS memorabilia. He has loved KISS since he was a child. He was known worldwide for his KISS HELL fanzine. Joe was a guitar player in the band called “Faux Kiss”. He was “Ace Frehley” and absolutely loved playing KISS songs as “Ace Frehley”. Joe was always amazing to watch play his guitar. He knew anything and everything about music.

Aside from his music his other love is his girlfriend of 3 years Jessica. Those two loved each other so much and Jessica loved going and watching Joe play his band gigs. Joe’s fellow band member of 10BURN4, Shawn, was Joe’s best friend as well as fellow musician and they loved being on stage together bringing Rock & Roll to the OKC area.

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Tim McPhate | KissFAQ

KissFAQ  has launched Back In The Solo Album Groove: The KISS Albums. 35 Years Later…, an ambitious multi-week retrospective dedicated to arguably the biggest milestone in KISStory: the 1978 KISS solo albums. Today, the site has published an exclusive interview with John Cavazos, a member of the Citrus College Singers who was participated on Gene Simmons’ 1978 solo album.

The following are excerpts from Cavazos’ interview with KissFAQ’s Tim McPhate:

On a nail-biting experience with Cher:

KF: Before we get to Gene’s album, let’s chat about Cher. In his 2001 autobiography, Gene Simmons recounts the story of how the ensemble sang for Cher on her birthday in May 1978. Can you tell us about this experience?

JC: Yeah, actually I was the guy that sang the solo to her. It was her 30th birthday and they obviously were dating at the time. And Gene invited us to come to [his] bungalow at the Beverly Hills Hotel. And he surprised her. I’m sure she wasn’t too happy about it at first because, you know, she didn’t have any makeup on or anything. But we sang a capella the song “If” by the group Bread. And it happened to be in the pop show that we did. It happened to be my solo with the group backing me up. So he brought her out and after a couple of seconds she warmed up and smiled, and we started singing. And I started walking toward her to sing the solo and, as I would normally do, I would take the lady by the hand. And so I took her [hand] and when I did she grabbed me and I was really nervous. You know, hello it’s Cher! And she took her hand and put it on my heart and I’m sure it was bumping a mile a minute. And as I was singing, “And one by one, the stars will all go out,” she looked at me and she goes, “Oh, you’re nervous. How sweet.” And I about pooped my pants because I thought, “Oh my gosh.” (laughs) She was actually very, very sweet about it and she knew we were just kids and we were in awe of who she was. And of course, KISS was very popular at the time and nobody had ever seen them without their makeup. It was really a super cool moment for all of us.

Recollections of the ensemble’s work at Cherokee Studios on Simmons’ album:

KF: John, what do you remember about heading out to Cherokee Studios in Los Angeles for Gene’s album?

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