Nicole Pitt | WKTV News

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 interview with vocalist/pianist Eric Troyer, who contributed background vocals and played piano on the tracks “Radioactive” and “Living In Sin.”

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

On other musicians around the studio:

KF: Do you recall any of the other musicians who were present while you were in the studio?

ET: Yeah, I was there when Skunk Baxter did some guitar work. Rick Nielsen — it’s funny because when Cheap Trick first burst out they came to New York and did a show at Max’s Kansas City and Gene and I went to see them. Gene said, “You’ve got to come along and see this band. They’re outrageous. We’re thinking about bringing them along on tour with us.” So we went and we sat right in front. Rick, of course, was throwing picks at us all night. And Gene was throwing hundred dollar bills at him (laughs). It was really cool. So I knew Rick from those days. And then he was there at the session and he did some guitar work and it was really nice to see him. I’ve see him a few years since too — he’s a great guy, a great guitar player. We were hanging around with Cher a lot because Gene and Cher were together at that time. So I was there [when] Cher did her vocal part on “Living In Sin at the Holiday Inn,” which reminded me of that whole thing. I was just listening to it just a few minutes ago and I was like, “Oh my God, that was so awesome!” And Bob Seger and I did some vocals. I think I did some vocals separately too. I played piano — there’s some banging piano that I put on both those tracks [“Living In Sin” and “Radioactive”]. I was also there when Helen Reddy did her vocal part — she was kind of a pain in the ass but..

CRD: Yes, but what we did is we took them and did lithographs of the posters and that’s what made them special and a limited edition as a collectible item. We sent them to special press people that had been very supportive of us, and to radio and to VIPs in the business. So it wasn’t going to be blanketed. Those lithographs were going to be a really special item, so anyone who got one, it wasn’t like a mass-produced thing.

Putting together the piano part for “Radioactive:

KF: You are credited as playing piano on a couple of tracks, one of which was “Radioactive,” the single from the album. What do you remember about the piano part on this track?

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