Rain

Yup. Him and Paul Stanley are both Jewish. Simmons and his mother immigrated from Israel when he was very young. In one of his books he speaks of the moment when he discovered public libraries in the US. “For the first time in my life, I was in a place where the poorest of the poor and the richest of the rich have the same access to all information for free, on a level playing field. Without censorship. Without book burnings by the Nazis. Without being burned at the stake by those with different religious beliefs. Complete freedom and access to all information, art and culture from around the world. I promised myself that I would educate myself and that I would never stop educating myself. It was my responsibility to keep learning." As an immigrant and autodidact, I can appreciate that. Yeah, they still tour - thy're actually on their (allegedly) last tour ever. Although they do rely on playback quite extensively, and Stanley's voice has been busted for over a decade. But they still put on quite an impressive show.

Simmons gets a lot of hate, but I have come to appreciate the man on some level (although he can be a complete ***** too). Who else would close their solo album with such a heartfelt rendition of "When You Wish Upon a Star" when they're supposed to be "evil incarnate", who but a most defiantly self-affirming and ferociously individualist misfit? Who would take the most uncool stance of openly condemning drugs and alcohol and make no fuss about their own capitalistic ambitions? Even in the world of (manufactured) outsiders and rebels, Simmons is an outcast. He gives no F about what a rock star should say or do. As far as I'm concerned, that's the spirit.

Anthrax with John Bush (Armored Saint). Call me heretic, but I actually prefer him as a singer. Granted the band was not as popular during those years, but that goes for metal altogether in the mid 90's.

Faith No More. No direspect to the late Chuck Mosley, but Mike Patton helped take the band to a whole new level.

Judas Priest - Heading out to the Highway. First song I played live when I returned to the stage after 15 years. Lots of fun.

Soundgarden - Head Down

Dokken - Tooth and Nail

Nine Inch Nails - Dead Souls

Yeah, it was called Beck. Seems that Bob Ezrin helped "polish" the song and suggested changing the title. I am inclined to believe that he did more than a little polishing - even without taking into account the orchestration. Especially on that song. I have a feeling it must have been very rudimentary. Anyone who's listened to those Alice Cooper albums he produced and to The Wall can detect just how much Ezrin contributed to Destroyer. And the band admitted that squarely - like the solo for Detroit Rock City is an example. According to Paul Stanley, that's all Ezrin. Another that strikes me a Ezrin-esque is Flaming Youth - it really isn't hard to imagine Alice singing that one...

Hi first wife, yes, and they'd been together since the mid 60's. So many never seen before pics and cool stuff, it's incredible.

Jane Siberry - It Can't Rain All The Time

Canadian Trio galore Rush - Tears

Triumph - Tears in the Rain

Covenant - Like Tears in the Rain

Thanks to this thread, I've been going through one of my KISS phases, and I just remembered that I had a signed copy of this one on the shelf that I got when I played KISS Night in 2016 and some friends introduced us to Lydia. I'm just getting around to reading it. Phenomenal collection of pictures and souvenirs of all kinds. Warmly recommended to anyone interested in the band, especially the early days. (Full disclaimer, I'm really no fan of Peter Criss - I actually have very little respect for him as a person - but this book is still worth it).

Faith No More - Falling to Pieces

Imperative Reaction - As We Fall

Elvis Presley - Bitter They Are, Harder They Fall

One of my favorites is Parasite - always wanted to play it live and never had the opportunity until the first KISS Night I was invited to. Unfortunately, the cab I had booked 24h in advance to go to the venue never showed up, so I arrived late an missed that one. I guess I invonluntarily pulled an Ace Frehley. But I did get to play a bunch of more recent favorites, including I Still Love You, which the guys went on to record as a promo and shoot a video for with my ex, Danger, and Unholy.

Alice Cooper - The Awakening

Assemblage 23 - Awake

The Tea Party - Sister Awake. One of my favorites. Tried it live once. Not easy to render, especially since we didn't have much to work with in terms on instruments.

I'd forgotten about HitS. Agreed about that one. What I remember mostly about it is the show from that tour on KISSology, which I thought was one of the best from that era. That being said, I don't listen to those albums all that often, but for some reason, Crazy Nights works for me - although I do get what you mean. All the rest between Creatures and Revenge, not so much, although I like a few songs off of each record. Hotter Than Hell has always been one of those"what went wrong" albums that I wish we could have access to the the raw tracks, as they were fed into the board. I'm just so curious as to how did it end up sounding like this, with all the specifics - it's almost as if the stereo mix had been fed into a 4 inch speaker in the control room and recorded back, and they'd printed that as the master. Although part of me has been living with that album for so long - and thre's so many awesome songs on it - that it'd feel weird to hear a cleaner mix. Same for Sabbath's Born Again.

It's funny that he mentions the vocal performance on I'll Fight Hell to Hold You - Crazy Nights is one of my guilty pleasures (I love Ron Nevison's work on it) and Stanley's vocals on I'll Fight Hell are incredible - even though you also get the feeling that he's just pushing himself to see how far up he can go. He himself mentions something along those lines in his biography when talking about that era. I've always felt that that song could have been usd in a training montage for Rocky 4 or something, it has that vibe. One more reason for me to enjoy it. It's also one of the songs I always wanted to play live with my ex but we never got to it. I did get her to sing plenty of other KISS songs though...

Queen - Sleeping on the Sidewalk