David Von Bader | New Times
Kiss, the band, garners fanatical, obsessive devotion more than almost any other musical act, maybe ever. Despite countless attempts to ruin the fun with bad glam albums, dramatic reality television, and the replacement of two original members with impostors wearing the same makeup, Kiss still manages to maintain a fan base large enough to be called an army without even a hint of irony.
To better understand the Kult of Kiss, we asked bona fide Kiss superfan, Miami ex-pat, and former Torche and current MonstrO guitarist Juan Montoya to describe his fixation. A high-ranking member of the Kiss Army, Montoya offers us his Kisstory.
New Times: How did you get into Kiss initially?
Juan Montoya: I actually saw a poster of them when I was living in Venezuela. We were in the downtown area shopping, and I walked by a store, and they had a giant Kiss poster, and it’s funny because I remember the image vividly. I usually don’t remember, like, two days back in my adult life, and I don’t even remember most of the ’90s, but I do remember this actual picture from when I was a kid!
So, I saw Kiss back then, but I didn’t hear them until I got back up to the United States. My mom had a friend with a 16-year-old son, and I was 7 years old. And I went through his record collection. Of course, the minute I saw a Kiss record, I was like, “Holy shit! Those are the people that I saw in that picture! Those are the freaks that I saw in that picture!”
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