George Peter John Criscuola (born December 20, 1945), better known by his stage name Peter Criss, is a retired American musician, best known as a co-founder, original drummer, and an occasional vocalist of the hard rock band Kiss. Criss established the Catman character for his Kiss persona. In 2014, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Kiss.[1]
Criss was born in Brooklyn, New York,[2] to Loretta and Joseph Criscuola, who raised their five children (of whom Peter was the eldest) as Roman Catholics.[3] Joseph Criscuola's family came from Scafati, Salerno, Italy. Criss grew up in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn[4][5] and was a childhood friend of Jerry Nolan, who would later find success as the drummer of the New York Dolls.[6] He was an avid art student and a swing aficionado.[7] While playing with bandleader Joey Greco, Criss ended up studying under his idol, Gene Krupa, at the Metropole Club in New York.[8]
Music career
Chelsea
Criss was involved with several bands through the mid- to late 1960s, starting with the Barracudas from 1962 to 1966 and including Chelsea, who had a two-album deal with Decca Records; the group released a self-titled album in 1970. They never recorded a second album, and in August 1971 became Lips (a trio consisting of Criss and his Chelsea bandmates Michael Benvenga and Stan Penridge). By the spring of 1972, Lips was reduced to just the duo of Criss and Penridge.[9]
In 1973, ex-Chelsea members Pete Shepley and Mike Brand recorded an unreleased album which included post-Chelsea Michael Benvenga, and pre-Kiss Peter Criss and Gene Simmons as session musicians. It was titled Captain Sanity.[10][11]
Another early band featuring Criss was The Sounds of Soul, notable for also featuring future New York Dolls drummer Jerry Nolan and The Elegants guitarist Joe Lucenti whom Criss met in his previous band The Barracudas. The core of the band - Criss, Lucenti and keyboardist Peppi Genarelli - played together from 1966 to 1969, in the summer of 1968 as Brotherhood and from late 1968 under the name The Vintage. Criss and Genarelli then continued to the band Nautilus which existed until late 1970. In 1972-73 Criss and Lucenti were playing together again in Infinity.[12]
Kiss
Criss in 1995
After the demise of his band Lips, Criss placed an advertisement in the East Coast edition of Rolling StoneMagazine, which read:
EXPD. ROCK & roll drummer looking for orig. grp. doing soft & hard music. Peter, Brooklyn.[13]
The Catman
The advertisement was answered by Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons, who were looking for new members for their band. Ace Frehley was added to the lineup in December 1972, and the band was named Kiss later that month. However, Simmons describes first meeting Criss in his book Kiss And Make-Up thusly:
One afternoon I run across an ad in Rolling Stone Magazine that said "Drummer available – Will do anything." I called the guy on the telephone, and even though he was in the middle of a party, he took my call. I introduced myself and said we were starting a band and that the band was looking for a drummer, and was he willing to do anything to make it? He says that he was, right away.
Simmons later in the chapter describes going to a small Italian club in Brooklyn to meet the drummer: "The drummer started to sing, and this Wilson Pickett-style voice came out of him. Paul and I said, 'That's it, that's our drummer.' His name was Peter Criscuola."
Kiss released their self-titled debut in February 1974. Throughout the band's initial lineup, Paul and Gene would sing the majority of the songs on each studio album, with Peter, and later Ace, contributing vocals for one or two songs. Throughout his Kiss career, in his original tenure and on the Reunion-era album Psycho Circus, Criss was the lead singer on several songs which turned out to be radio-hit and/or live favorites, including "Black Diamond", "Hard Luck Woman", and "Beth".
Criss had collaborated on a demo originally titled "Beck", a song that was eventually reworked to become the ballad "Beth", a Top 10 hit for Kiss on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart, peaking at No. 7 in 1976. The song remains the highest-charting song for Kiss in the United States and it earned them a People's Choice Award for "Young People's Favorite New Song" in 1977, tied with "Disco Duck". The song was actually written before Criss had joined Kiss, while he was still a member of Chelsea. Criss came up with the melody for the song while on a train to New York City from New Jersey where the band practiced. He and Penridge wrote the song together.[14] A demo exists of the song from 1971.[15]
Departure from Kiss
On the 1979 release Dynasty, he played only on his own composition, "Dirty Livin'",[16] and did not play at all on Unmasked (1980) but was seen on the album covers and music videos for songs from those albums. Anton Fig, who also played on Ace Frehley's 1978 solo album, was hired as session drummer for Dynasty and Unmasked[17] but did not tour; Criss performed on the Dynasty tour and Eric Carr on the tour for Unmasked. At the time, the reasons Criss was fired from Kiss were never made public, although it was obvious that his relationship with his bandmates Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley was not good at the time.[citation needed]
Gene Simmons has said Criss was fired; Paul Stanley discussed Criss's departure in several interviews, including the commentary on Kissology 2. Ace Frehley in his 2011 book, No Regrets, and he stated that Criss was fired during a band meeting in which Frehley, Simmons, Stanley and manager Bill Aucoin voted Criss out of the band. A spoken word CD released in 1999 titled 13 Classic Kiss Stories, features Bill Aucoin (Kiss's first manager) where he also discusses Criss being "let go". Criss, however, has maintained that he quit the band.
The video for "Shandi" (a song Criss did not play on; the only Kiss member featured on the studio recording was Stanley) was shot in one day, and Criss was out of the band at that time; Stanley said of the shoot, "We shot a video for the song 'Shandi' after the decision to let Peter go had been confirmed. He came to the video shoot knowing it was the last time he would appear with KISS. At the end of the day, he took his makeup case with him and left. It wasn't tearful, but it was a big moment. Peter was leaving. We had fired him, and this was the last time we were going to see him in the band".[18]
Criss officially left Kiss on May 18, 1980. As a result, Kiss postponed the European tour until the end of August, thus giving the band enough time to find a replacement drummer, who they found in Brooklyn-born Eric Carr.
Beginning of solo career
In March 1980, Criss began recording his second solo album, Out of Control. Released later in the year, the album was a commercial failure, despite remaining a favorite with Criss fans. The follow-up album, 1982's Let Me Rock You, which contained one song written by Gene Simmons, was a similar failure. The album cover featured Criss without his Kiss makeup, but was not released in the U.S. at the time.
For the rest of the 1980s and early 1990s, Criss was involved with a number of bands, each usually lasting less than a year. One of them was The Keep (1988-1990), which featured ex-Kiss guitarist Mark St. John and ex-Black Sabbath and White Tiger frontman David Donato. Criss also played with Los Angeles Balls of Fire from the spring of 1986 to December 1986, with Jane Booke on lead vocals, Bobby Raylove on bass, and JP (John Pakalenka) on guitar, who currently plays for Buckner Funken Jazz in Denver, Colorado. Balls of Fire played only seven shows before Criss left the band (reportedly to enjoy his daughter Jenilee growing up).[19] Another relatively short-lived band was the Criss Penridge Alliance, essentially Peter Criss and Stan Penridge with the 1970s jazz rock fusion band Montage (Mike Hutchens – guitar,[20]Allen Woody – bass (Govt Mule, Allman Brothers Band), John Moss – drums and Tony Crow – keyboards) who rehearsed 39 songs including from the first 3 Peter Criss solo albums, and played around 10 shows in total.[21]
While Kiss was promoting their upcoming release Crazy Nights, Criss appeared on the syndicated radio program Metal Shop and discussed his time in Kiss from a more positive perspective than before; he promoted the book he was writing at the time, an autobiography to be titled A Face without a Kiss. He also mentioned his dream of one day opening his own recording studio and starting a Catman Records label.
In the early 1990s, Criss assembled a band named "Criss", featuring among others future Queensrÿche guitarist Mike Stone. This band went through frequent line-up changes, toured extensively and released the CrissEP in December 1993 and the Cat #1 album in August 1994.[22]
Christopher Dickinson
In 1991, a man named Christopher Dickinson began publicly impersonating Peter Criss. Dickinson did an interview as Criss with the tabloid Star magazine, in which he claimed that he was now a "homeless alcoholic panhandling for change". Phil Donahue had both men on his show where the real Criss confronted the impostor.[23]
Return to Kiss
In 1995, Criss appeared at the official Kiss Konvention in Los Angeles that led to the Kiss live performance that was recorded for MTV Unplugged. In April 1996, Kiss held a press conference to announce a reunion tour with all four original members. The 1996–97 Alive/Worldwide Tour was an enormous success, and the reunited Kiss released a studio album, 1998's Psycho Circus.
Criss played drums on only one track on the album ("Into the Void", Ace Frehley's one lead vocal track), although Criss did have one lead vocal (a track called "I Finally Found My Way", written by guitarist/vocalist Paul Stanley and Bob Ezrin) and a co-vocal taking turns in the verses with the rest of the band for the song "You Wanted the Best".
Second and third departures
Criss left over a contract dispute and was replaced by Eric Singer in 2001. He rejoined the band in late 2002 and appeared on the Kiss Symphony: Alive IV DVD and CD before departing from Kiss again in March 2004. The band had opted not to renew his contract following the Rocksimus Maximus Tour. He was once again replaced by Singer, who assumed the "Catman" persona. He said of Kiss performing with replacements for Ace Frehley and himself:
No matter who they get to put stuff on their face, it ain't us. You can take the mask off the Lone Ranger and put it on someone else, but it ain't the Lone Ranger.[24]
After 2004
Since 2004, Criss has kept his public appearances to a minimum. He now resides in Wall Township, New Jersey.[25] He released a solo album, titled One for All, in July 2007 on Silvercat Records. Criss performed his last solo show on June 17, 2017, in New York City at the Cutting Room.[26]
Personal life
As of November 2008, Criss has been married three times: Lydia Di Leonardo (1970–79); fashion model Debra Jensen (1979–94); and Gigi Criss (since May 1998).[27] Criss has a daughter, Jenilee, born in 1981.[27]
Criss was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2008.[28] While working out, he noticed a lump on his chest that prompted him to visit a doctor. He was successfully treated with a lumpectomy.[29]
Criss released his autobiography, Makeup to Breakup: My Life In and Out of Kiss, co-written with author Larry Sloman, in late 2012. In 2017, Criss made the decision to retire from touring at the age of 71.[30]
In 2002, he appeared in two episodes of the HBO prison drama Oz as inmate Martin Montgomery. He played the role of Mike in the motion picture about the JFK assassination, Frame of Mind.[31]
Criss played himself, as well as the cameo role of "Nice Cop", in "...Thirteen Years Later", the 1998 third-season Halloween episode of Millennium.[32]
Kiss was an American rock band formed in New York City in 1973 by Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons, Ace Frehley and Peter Criss. Known for their face paint and stage outfits, the group rose to prominence in the mid-1970s with shock rock–style live performances which featured fire-breathing, blood-spitting, smoking guitars, shooting rockets, levitating drum kits and pyrotechnics. The band went through several lineup changes, with Stanley and Simmons remaining the only consistent members. The final lineup consisted of them, Tommy Thayer and Eric Singer.
Paul Daniel "Ace" Frehley is an American musician who was the original lead guitarist, occasional lead vocalist and founding member of the rock band Kiss. He invented the persona of The Spaceman and played with the group from its inception in 1973 until his departure in 1982. After leaving Kiss, Frehley formed his own band named Frehley's Comet and released two albums with the group. He subsequently embarked on a solo career, which was put on hold when he rejoined Kiss in 1996 for a highly successful reunion tour.
Paul Charles Caravello, better known as Eric Carr, was an American musician. He was the drummer for the rock band Kiss from 1980 until his death in 1991. Caravello was selected as the new Kiss drummer after Peter Criss departed. He created the stage name "Eric Carr" and designed his on-stage Fox persona. He remained a member of Kiss until his death from heart cancer in 1991.
Wicked Lester was a rock band based in New York City. Two notable members were bassist Chaim Witz and rhythm guitarist Stanley Eisen. Originally formed in 1970 as Rainbow, the band changed its name to Wicked Lester in 1971 to avoid confusion with another local band named "Rainbow". Although it secured a record deal with Epic Records and recorded an album, the deal fell through and the band fell apart during 1972. Witz and Eisen, feeling that the band's failure was a result of its lack of vision and direction, decided to found a new band from its remnants. They changed their stage names to Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley, respectively, auditioned a new drummer and lead guitarist, and formed the band Kiss by the end of January 1973.
Eric Singer is an American drummer. Associated with the hard rock band Kiss on and off from 1991 until the band's retirement in 2023, he has also performed with artists such as Black Sabbath, Alice Cooper, Lita Ford, Badlands, Brian May and Gary Moore as well as his own band ESP. In his career, Singer has appeared on over 75 albums and 11 EPs.
Kiss is the debut studio album by American rock band Kiss, released on February 18, 1974, by Casablanca Records. Much of the material on the album was written by Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley, as members of their pre-Kiss band Wicked Lester. Simmons estimated that the entire process of recording and mixing took three weeks, while co-producer Richie Wise has stated it took just 13 days.
Dynasty is the seventh studio album by American rock band Kiss, produced by Vini Poncia and released on May 23, 1979, by Casablanca Records.
"Beth" is a song by American rock band Kiss, originally released on their fourth studio album Destroyer (1976). Composed by drummer Peter Criss, his friend Stan Penridge and producer Bob Ezrin, the song was published as a single by Casablanca Records in August 1976, after releasing it as the B-side of "Detroit Rock City". "Beth" is Kiss's biggest commercial hit in the United States, reaching #7 on the Billboard Hot 100, receiving a Gold Record certification from the RIAA, and winning the 1977 People's Choice Award for "Favorite Song".
Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park is a 1978 American television film starring American hard rock band Kiss and produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions. The movie's plot revolves around Kiss, who use their superpowers to battle an evil inventor and to save a California amusement park from destruction.
Psycho Circus is the eighteenth studio album by American rock band Kiss and the first and only album to involve all four original members since 1979's Dynasty. While touted as a band effort, Peter Criss only played drums on the Ace Frehley-penned track, "Into the Void", and guitarist Frehley only played on two regular album tracks, the one he wrote plus "You Wanted the Best". He also played on a bonus track called "In Your Face", penned by Simmons. All four band members, however, sang lead vocals on the album.
"Detroit Rock City" is a song by the American hard rock group Kiss, released on their 1976 album Destroyer. The song was written by Paul Stanley and producer Bob Ezrin.
"Deuce" is a song by the American hard rock band Kiss, written by bassist and vocalist Gene Simmons. The song appeared on Kiss' eponymous 1974 debut album. In addition to being one of the band's most popular and most-covered songs, "Deuce" is a traditional concert opener. The song has appeared on many Kiss live and compilation albums.
Action figures have been an important and integral staple of the vast merchandising empire created around popular American rock band, Kiss. Kiss merchandising currently includes more than 2,000 product categories, and the limited availability of many products means that is a popular area of interest with collectors.
The Dynasty Tour was a concert tour by the rock band Kiss. It was also the final tour with original member Peter Criss until the Alive/Worldwide Tour in 1996.
The Love Gun Tour was a concert tour by Kiss, in support of Love Gun.
Prentice John Delaney Jr., better known as Sean Delaney, was an American musician, producer, road manager and songwriter, best known for his work with the rock band KISS from the early 1970s until the early 1980s. He is largely credited with developing their choreography onstage, and co-wrote many songs with Paul Stanley, including "Mr. Speed", "Makin' Love", and "Take Me" from the 1976 album Rock and Roll Over, and "All American Man" from the studio side of the 1977 album Alive II.
"Parasite" is a song by American hard rock band Kiss, released in 1974 on their second studio album, Hotter Than Hell. The song is one of three songs featured on the album written by lead guitarist Ace Frehley. As one of the album's heaviest songs, "Parasite" was performed on the following tour, but Kiss dropped it from the setlist for the Destroyer Tour and did not play it again until the Revenge Tour in 1992. As Frehley was insecure about his singing ability, he passed that duty to Gene Simmons. In 2016, Frehley re-recorded the track with John 5 for Frehley's solo album Origins Vol. 1.
"You Wanted the Best" is a song by the American hard rock band Kiss, released on their eighteenth studio album Psycho Circus in 1998. The song was written by the band's bassist Gene Simmons, and was released as the fourth single off the album on November 23, 1998. The song only charted on Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks, reaching number 22. The band never performed the song live. It was the final recording to feature the original lineup and the only one to feature lead vocals from all four of them.
The Rock and Roll Over Tour was a concert tour by the American heavy metal group Kiss. It began November 24, 1976 and ended April 4, 1977.
References
↑ "KISS". Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Retrieved April 16, 2018.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
