Monday, December 3, 2012

Book Review: Peter Criss: Makeup to Breakup

Okay, I am a pretty huge Kiss fan. They were the first band I got into as a young kid of 11 years-old. I discovered the band in 1977 right around the time Kiss Alive II was released, and I heard it at a friend's house. I promptly went out and purchased their latest studio album Love Gun, and became an instant fan. Prior to that, it was music like the Grease soundtrack, and the Bee Gees, and other poppy disco stuff of the time. So, Kiss was my first taste of hard rock, and I consumed all they had.

They were my first concert experience, seeing the Dynasty tour in 1979 and many times after that. The only thing I really knew about the band was what I saw. Not an avid reader, nor a real follower of the latest tabloid/magazine world, I did not spend much time following the behind the scenes publicized dirt. They were super heroes to me - amazing musicians who put on a great show.

Now, 35 years later, I am still a big fan. I have all of their albums, I have a bunch of merchandise too. I follow them religiously to a degree. Obviously I like hundreds of other bands now, but still Kiss ranks up their as a key player in my eye. I have followed the solo stuff, I have followed the former members (Ace & Peter), but still, only paid a small amount of attention to the publicized dirt.


I bought Gene's biography, but never read it. I did read his other book, Sex, Money, Kiss, which I laughed off as just a bunch of his egotistical self-centered money-hungry crap that it was. I read Ace's biography a few months back, and it really focused a lot more on his own personal struggle. The early formative years of Kiss were brought to life as seen through his eyes, but overall, the book seemed more centered around his own personal dark struggles, with not quite as much bad-mouthing as we find in this book by Peter.

After finishing Peter's book, I have to say, my opinion on the band is drastically twisted. I am torn between two opinions. First, on one side, Peter was self-destructing and a real arrogant jerk who seemed to care less about others or even himself. With the amount of drugs and trash that he got into, just like I felt with Ace's book, it is surprising these two are still alive. Peter made so many bad decisions, he acted so ignorantly, impulsively, and abusively that it makes me despise him for the most part, and I often feel like he got what he deserved. Before, during and after Kiss, he just always seemed like a jerk.

On the other hand though, after hearing the horrible stuff that Gene and Paul put him through, I can almost feel sorry for him, and that stuff makes me lose all respect for and despise them. But still, I see two sides fighting head-to-head, with Peter being a jerk, and Paul/Gene also being major jerks continually. It is hard to tell if this was cause and effect or not. As a musician myself, I can relate to some of the behind the scenes aspects of it. If I were like Gene, a sober, serious musicians looking at the business aspect of all that gets done (which I do tend to be), would I react the same way if a member of my band was a drugged out jerk-wad always getting in trouble and soiling the band's name and image? Probably so.

Were Gene and Paul reacting to the horrible lifestyles of Peter and Ace, and that pressure caused more tension backlash from Peter and Ace? That seems to be the story we hear from one side. But Peter's story at times makes you feel Gene and Paul were abusive from the start, regardless of the drugs, etc. My real question is, with the amount of drugs and alcohol that Peter and Ace claim to have been constantly consuming all those years, how could they really remember very much about all of these details as they claim to in their books? Maybe their perspective is greatly clouded by their activity, and so they think things were worse than they were. It is tough to really say, since it becomes just his word against his word against his word. Now Paul is working on his biography, so we can soon add a fourth version. Paul and Gene were sober, so could their telling be more accurate? Or are they just twisting it to make their selves look good. Were they taking advantage of the always drugged up guys all along?

Peter seemed fairly clean and sober during the reunion tour, so for sure it seems they really screwed him and Ace during that time period, making Gene and Paul out as simply appalling people, which seems to be not just coming from Peter's words only. The trail of disgruntled former Kiss members can attest to there being some kind of real issue with the Gene/Paul team. I will chime in on the current replacement members wearing the Cat and Spaceman makeup - it is despicable and reprehensible. I have seen the band live twice with the new guys (I know, somewhat hypocritical to do that), and the band as a unit is amazing, and the new music they make is great. But there would have been no sense of fun lost at ALL if Tommy and Eric had their own characters, just like Eric Carr and Vinnie had. I believe it would have been a much more professional and honorable thing for them to have done, rather than allowing new people to wear the characters of the original members. After reading this book, I see this action as purposely being a personal attack against Peter and Ace - again, showing Gene and Paul to be truly horrible people.

I have followed all of the seasons of Gene's Family Jewels show, and have gotten to somewhat know the man more than I have from just years of listening to his music. I found him to be quite human and loveable, and at times felt sorry for him on the show. Occasionally you get a peak at the hard-edged business man on the show, but these books show more of that side than the show ever does. The show gives us some of the silliness and family side of things, but at times I feel it might be scripted and set to be more entertainment than true reality. Peter's book takes away all of that love-ability that I built up from his show, and flushes it down the toilet. Gene comes out as a truly scumbag, bottom-feeding, womanizing, self-gratifying despicable character.

In the end, Peter is/was a self-destructive, horrible person who made a lot of bad mistakes, abused himself and others frequently, and did a lot of wrong to a lot of people for a lot of years. It sounds like now he is on the road to settling down from that lifestyle, and the last section of the book discussing his relationship with God is a promising step forward, but the damage done in his wake is a long way from being rectified, and he still comes out looking like a bad guy through this all. So, he has opened the door to really reveal the filth that was his own life, and in the process whines incessantly about how he was treated.


The fantasy is gone - the band Kiss will now forever be tainted in my mind. No longer are they just this cool, mysterious band of larger-than-life more-than-human excitement on stage, but they are now a bunch of low-life self-pleasing jerks who only look out for their own best interests regardless of who they have to plow over to get what they want. Maybe this is nothing new for a rock band or humankind in general, but I guess it really just destroys the fantasy view of my first-loved rock band. Will I still listen to them? Yes, absolutely - the fantasy lives on in the music, tainted as my mind may be now.

Oh, and one last comment. After reading this book, Peter last album, 2007's Once For All, which I admit I frowned on from the start and did not consider it to be much at all, takes on an entirely new life to me, and now I truly enjoy it much more, understanding the background that led to it. Give it a spin if you haven't in a while.

No comments:

Post a Comment