Glen Smith | The Post and Courier
John Downs wasn’t the fastest runner in Thursday’s annual Turkey Trot road race in Charleston. But to be fair, it’s not easy to make good time in a pair of metal-scaled demon boots with 6-inch platform heels.
It’s become a tradition for Downs to run the race each year slathered in makeup and sporting the spiked armor of his favorite musician, Gene Simmons, bassist for the rock band Kiss. His brother gets in on the act as well, taking on the starry-eyed persona of guitarist Paul Stanley.
These are middle-aged men, mind you. John Downs runs a successful auto glass company in Charleston. His brother, Jamie, is a regional medical examiner for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
They’re both in the early 50s. But just mention Kiss, and they suddenly revert to the same fist-pumping teens who borrowed dad’s car to cheer on the flamboyant band from a pair of nosebleed seats in Columbia in 1977
It was the brothers’ first concert, and they’ve been loyal members of the Kiss Army ever since, attending the group’s shows, fan conventions and cruises whenever they get a chance. There’s just something about that hard rock sound, the flash pots, fire-breathing and blood-spitting. They were hooked from the start.
“Everyone has hobbies,” John Downs said. “Mine just happens to be Kiss.”
Like a lot of Kiss fans, the Downs brothers bristle at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s failure to induct the costume-clad band into its ranks — an unforgivable snub to some. But this year, John Downs happened on an idea to get his hero some recognition from an even more distinguished forum — the Smithsonian Institution, the world’s largest museum.