My school mates and I all seemed to share this fascination with KISS. It would manifest itself in a bunch of unpredictable ways. A guy named Ricky would collect a handful of ketchup packets [maybe it was catsup in the public school system] from the school lunch. As we walked home from school, he would empty the contents of 6 or 8 packets into his mouth then “Spit Blood” like Gene Simmons. It was messy and not being a big ketchup [or catsup] fan, the notion of a mouthful of nothuing but ketchup [or catsup] makes me want to puke. Did it look like blood? Did Ricky conjure images of Gene Simmons? Not really, but we all stuck out tongues out as far as we could.
Another manifestation came courtesy of a guy named Kent. It is hard to find authentic KISS make up around the house and it may certainly be awkward to ask your mom to buy you some. Even if you could get past that awkward bit, KISS make up isn’t found in the cosmetic section of the local shop. Kent faced this challenge with a little ingenuity and even less foresight. Back in the 1970’s before the world was run by gym shoes, most families wore a type of casual dress shoe. These leather shoes required occasional maintenance in the form of shoe polish. I know my grandpa had several cans of Kiwi in various shades of black that he kept on that shelf above the basement stairs.
Well Kent’s parents must have hasd that same can of black shoe polish. Kent must have seen that deep black creamy paste and thought “that looks just like KISS make up”. We never actually saw the “make up” when it was on but we found out that it doesn’t come off. Kent came to school for a week with the stains of Gene Simmons make up around his eyes and mouth. A few years ago, I ran into Kent at an assembly at my kids’ middle school. He must have had a kid going there as well. I recognized him, not by the stains of Gene Simmons shoe polish, just did. I walked up and said “Hey Kent.” He turned away from me not unlike that Banjo kid from Deliverance. He seemed disturbed. I wonder if he abosrbed something in the polish.
I think every kid at that time was trying to do the KISS logo on the Lite-Brite. I know I tried and got pretty close but the K never quite came out like I wanted it to. It was about this time that the rumours of KISS being ion league with the devil started to rise. Religious folks, especially ones with TV shows took notice of the meteoric rise of KISS and figured that fame like that can’t be simply a product of reasonable music and extrordinary marketing. It has to have help from hell. The PTL club told my mom that KISS stood for Knights In Satan’s Service. I didn’t think it was true. I mean when I listened to KISS I felt energized and happy, not demonic. Of course, Gene Simmons wasn’t helping my case very much. Even though I was 12 I felt that I understood that it was a hype engine and that these guys were simply playing out characters to entertain us.
Mom, guided by PTL, was concerend and followed the talking points about how Hell was actually included in the title of the second album. Songs Like God Of Thunder and King Of The Night Time World were challenges to God. I felt that this campaign by the PTL club was an attemtp to cash in on the success of KISS. I was just enjoying the music and theatrics, I wasn’t turning my back on Chritianity. This went on for a while with the threat of losing my KISS records looming over me. It finally ended when I told mom that anybody take a few letters and invent meaning. I demonstrated by showing her that PTL stood for Power To Lucifer. It was close. Oddly enough, during my metal phase, one of mom’s favorites was Iron Maiden’s Run To The Hills. It makes me chuckle to myself as I recall her singing along to the chorus. I wonder if she knew that the album was called Number Of The Beast.