We often talk about rock bands doing everything in excess until they can no longer function, but when it comes to KISS, it’s more a case of this always having been the case. You’d suspect that they’ll never cease to do things this way either.
Now, I’m not necessarily talking about the usual escapades of sex and drugs, although they were pretty good at fitting both of those into their hectic schedules, but they have always been over the top in every aspect of their identity as a group. From the face paints and elaborate stage costumes to their overblown brand of hard pop rock, if you choose to call it that, they’ve never underdone things as a group, and I’d be pretty concerned for them if they chose to retire their excessiveness in favour of being ordinary.
They were certainly part of a wider movement within rock to make things far more accessible and viable for mainstream audiences to enjoy, and their showmanship and antics certainly helped people connect with them in ways that self-serious acts of the same ilk failed to do. Rock, metal and glam all appeared to be merging when the band were at the height of their popularity, and while this combination might seem like it’s intrinsically at odds with itself, Kiss managed to make it work for them with relative ease.
Another act who appeared to ramp up the bravado and posturing in their stage presence, and beefed up their pop rock sound to the max, were Aerosmith. They’d been ploughing along as a mid-level band in the 1970s, but hadn’t quite been fortunate enough to break through into the mainstream until the latter half of the decade and into the 1980s, and when they finally found the formula to success, they would eventually become a band that could challenge Kiss for their spot at the top.
The trouble is, Kiss and Aerosmith really didn’t like each other, and this made the contest even more heated. It wasn’t because of any perceived overlap in styles, or because one band thought the other was ripping them off, but rather because their respective crews got into a near-fatal fight once; an event that Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler will never forget or let go of.
According to Tyler, the two bands shared a bill in the mid-1970s, and during a 2012 episode of The Cowhead Show, he claimed that a skirmish broke out between the two parties. “I remember when we went out with KISS in ’76 or something,” Tyler claimed, before adding: “One of our roadies got into a knife fight with their guys, so I hated them ever since.” Later on in the interview, he would seize a further opporunity to have a dig at Kiss, dismissing them as a “comic book rock band [with] spackled faces [and] a couple of hits.”