Our Top 6 Favourite Things We Found Out About KISS

KISS has announced their FINAL tour! KISS’ End Of The Road World Tour will celebrate the band’s 45-year storied history and will kick off right here in Vancouver on January 31st, 2019.

Whether you’ve been a lifelong member of the KISS Army like members of our staff here (and we all have membership cards to prove it!), or have heard about the spectacle that is KISS and thinking you’d like to finally check them out, we’ve been promised the “greatest show ever” with extra pyro and iconic songs that will make each stop the “biggest party of all time.”

Check out all of the info on their upcoming Vancouver date HERE.

To get you ready for one last KISS, we wanted to give you some conversation starters while you’re waiting in line for merch at the show. Here are the top 6 things we found out about KISS.

KISS ADDED THEIR OWN BLOOD INTO THE INK FOR THE FIRST COMIC

In 1977, KISS were the biggest band on the planet. The band quickly became bigger than the characters they portrayed, the abundance of toys, merchandise and albums – they became superheroes in their very own comic produced by Marvel. To make this occasion even more special, especially for Gene who fell in love with comics form an early age and learned to speak English from reading comics, KISS decided to add their own blood into red ink used in the comic. Each member had a vial of blood drawn which they brought to the processing plant and was added into the red dye that was used to print the comic.

KISS & SCOOBY-DOO?

Not many bands can say they have solved a mystery with Scooby-Doo, but KISS can. In 2015, a full-length feature was released that was set at KISS World, a KISS themed amusement park with an unwanted spirit. The film saw KISS team up with the gang from the Mystery Machine to help save the park. We won’t spoil the ending for you, but definitely check out the teaser above and tell us you’re not sold on this!

KISS REJECTED THE BEATLES?

More accurately, KISS rejected an opportunity to appear as the Future Villain Band in the 1978 Beatles musical Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. They were worried about how playing the bad guys might affect their image. The Future Villain Band role ended up going to Aerosmith.

KISS WORKED WITH BRYAN ADAMS

Yes, our Bryan Adams! In 1982, before he had written hits like “Summer of ’69” and “(Everything I Do) I Do It for You,” Bryan Adams was still an up and coming artist. He and a song writing partner named Jim Vallance were approached by “Creatures Of The Night” producer, Michael James Jackson and asked if they had any songs that would work for KISS.

Bryan Adams co-wrote 2 songs that ended up making the album — “War Machine” and “Rock and Roll Hell”, which was a revamped version of a song that appeared by Bachman-Turner Overdrive on their album, Rock n’ Roll Nights.

KISS IS A MERCHANDISE MACHINE

It’s no secret that KISS love their merchandise. The band has over 3,000 licensed products, from pinball machines, caskets, toilet paper, action figures, Hello Kitty, perfume, wine, VISA (yes they have their own VISA card) to even Arena Football – LA KISS were a team for 4 years. They’ve had their own KISS Coffeehouse! Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley currently own a restaurant chain in the United States called Rock ‘N’ Brews.

KISS IS A GOLD RECORD CHAMPION

KISS has earned more Gold Album Record Awards than any American band in the history of The Recording Industry Association of America’s (RIAA’s) Gold & Platinum Awards certifications. To date, KISS has earned 30 Gold albums (this number includes  the band members 4 Solo Albums that were all released on the same day in 1978 which had never been done before or since) KISS has had 14 albums go Platinum, three of those have earned multi-platinum status.

And there you go! Now you’re loaded up with some fun KISStory facts you can bring up to sound like the biggest KISS Army member of all. Load up your playlist with “Shout It Out Loud”, “Detroit Rock City”, “Rock ‘N’ Roll All Nite”, “Beth”, “Love Gun”, “I Was Made For Loving You” and “Strutter” and we’ll see you at the End Of The Road World Tour!

What is your favourite KISS song or fact? Tell us on Twitter @jack969van.