"BEING THE DEMON, THE STARCHILD, THE SPACE CADET, AND THE CAT SORT OF TURNED US INTO SUPERHEROES IN FRONT OF THE AUDIENCE."

January 30, 2026

The Catman Peter Criss spoke exclusively and at length to Rock Candy Magazine about life before, with and after KISS. During a wide-ranging and revealing interview the impressive musician unwrapped a large amount of subjects. Including how he joined the band that would become 'The Hottest Band In The World'.

"I put an ad in a local paper [after his previous bands Chelsea and Lips were over] and that's when Gene Simmons called. He asked me... 'Are you tall?, 'Are you good-looking?', 'Do you have long hair?', 'Are you willing to wear a dress and high heels?', 'Are you willing to wear lipstick?' I couldn't believe what he was asking me, but those questions fascinated me. I said to my wife at the time, 'I've got to meet this guy'. We had been to London for our honeymoon not that long before and I'd found some really cool clothes there. So when I went down to Electric Lady Studios in New York to meet Gene and Paul for the first time I was really dolled up... Gene told me later that day he thought I was a rock star going into the studio to make an album."

When Criss joined Simmons and Stanley the band played together for a little while as a three-piece, but the man who would become a close friend soon entered the picture.

"We put an ad in a local paper looking for a lead guitarist. We auditioned quite a few players before Ace, but he really made an entrance wearing a motorcycle jacket and different coloured sneakers. There was some other guy already playing, but Ace didn't care. He walked right by the guy, plugged in, and started playing himself. And we all turned around, looked at one another, and went 'Holy sh*t!'. He was in straight away."

KISS deciding to wear make-up was influenced by glam rock and shock rocker Alice Cooper but The Beatles were also part of the thought process they had.

"John, Paul, George and Ringo all had their own fans, as well as people who loved the whole band. We wanted the same thing... so we took the concept they developed and made it more theatrical. We said, 'Let's start trying to apply make-up and see what's going on.' So we bought this really cheap clown-white make-up - even shoe polish at first, I think - and started putting it on for rehearsals in this real sh*tty loft with no heating. It was so cold we had to wear coats all the time, but that's were we experimented with our different looks."

But once the band became famous the make-up had a frustrating by-product when the general public didn't know what they actually looked like.

"Once we started to make it big, we started wanting to be recognised, sign autographs and have kids outside hotels screaming for us. I'd go to clubs in New York and would tell the guy on the door that I was Peter Criss from KISS. They'd go, 'Yeah, right'. In the end I started taking my driving license and other ID out with me to prove that I really was Peter Criss. It was pretty funny how the make-up thing kind of backfired."

The recent Kennedy Center honors ceremony for KISS, last December, was a chance for the original band to be together again but sadly Ace Frehley passed away just a few weeks earlier, on October 16th, something Peter found very hard to cope with.

"It was tough for me because Ace wasn't there. He'd been very excited about going there. He said, 'Pete, I'm really looking forward to this.' So not having him next to me was really hard... I cried a lot of times that day, broke down actually. I missed Ace and it wasn't the same... It was great to get the award, But I was grieving so much that my heart hurt a lot."

Peter released a new solo album a few weeks ago and he feels motivated and keen to show the world he's a fit, healthy and productive musician.

"I haven't done drugs for 42 years, and I gave up drinking 30 years ago, I'm too old for that sh*t! So what you see now is the real Peter Criss. And you know what? I'm definitely not a drug addict. I'm a drum addict!"

Read the rest of the exclusive mega interview with Peter Criss, as well as features on Megadeth, Paul Gilbert, Alex Skolnick of Testament, Francis Rossi of Status Quo, Phil Collen of Def Leppard talking about his previous band Girl, a reappraisal of Aerosmith's 'Pump' album and Ian Anderson talking about the classic Jethro Tull 'Aqualung' album, Jason McMaster of Dangerous Toys... and much more fascinating content in Issue 54 of Rock Candy Magazine.

Black Sabbath members Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, and Bill Ward talk exclusively to Rock Candy Mag for a 50th anniversary celebration of the ‘Sabotage’ album.

March 29, 2025

Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi, bassist Geezer Butler, and drummer Bill Ward have opened up to Rock Candy for the magazine’s latest expansive cover story marking 50 years since the release of the band’s seminal sixth studio album,‘Sabotage’, in 1975.

The three musicians recall the stresses and strains of going though litigation with their former manager, while at the same time trying to create new music that was designed to push the boundaries of what the Birmingham group had previously deemed possible.

“We were obviously immensely p*ssed off because we had hardly anything to show for five years of constantly touring, writing, and recording,” Butler explained to Rock Candy Mag editor Howard Johnson. “It was difficult dividing time between creating music and time spent in lawyers’ offices, with QCs, and in law courts. But with our backs against the wall I think some of the songs on ‘Sabotage’ were the angriest that we’d ever written.”

“It wasn’t easy, because as it turned out the court case happened smack bang in the middle of recording ‘Sabotage’,” says Iommi. “One minute you’d be worrying about whether a riff was right for a song, the next you’d be sat in court.”

Yet despite such immense outside stresses, Sabbath were absolutely determined to forge ahead on their musical journey.

“We were in an experimental phase at the time,” says Butler.“We’d introduced different instruments on the [previous] ‘Sabbath Bloody Sabbath’ album, and once again were looking for new directions. Synths were relatively new at that time, so we had a go at introducing them on some songs. It was fun playing around.”

With their backs against the wall, Sabbath dug deep to produce some of the most exciting rock music of the ’70s – or any other decade.

“‘Hole In The Sky’ and ‘Symptom Of The Universe’ are two of my all-time favourite Black Sabbath songs,” confirms Geezer. “I still love playing them, and they really come alive when we perform them live.”

“I was really, really happy with the writing,” says Bill Ward. “I think we were expanding, allowing ourselves to expand. We’d come a really long way from the song ‘Black Sabbath’, as great as that song is. I thought the richness of what we were doing on ‘Sabotage’ was brilliant.”

You can read the exclusive Black Sabbath ‘Sabotage’ story in issue 49 of Rock Candy Mag, together with in-depth stories and interviews with Billy Squier, Angel, Machine Head, Don Airey, L.A. Guns, Jethro Tull, and more. For more details visit www.rockcandymag.com.

ABOUT ROCK CANDY MAG
Rock Candy Mag is a 100-page, full-colour bi-monthly rock mag, created in the UK. It covers the sights, sounds and smells from the greatest era in hard rock music, the ’70s and ’80s. The brainchild of: respected UK rock journalists Derek Oliver, Howard Johnson and Malcolm Dome – all frontline writers for the legendary Kerrang! magazine in the golden era.

https://www.facebook.com/rockcandymag/
https://m.facebook.com/groups/139634569939476/
https://x.com/RockCandyMag
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBjkpEXB53nRCs_yhEClGhg

MIKE PORTNOY: "IT WAS LIKE SEEING YOUR WIFE WITH HER NEW HUSBAND."

January 30, 2025

The returning drumming legend with prog metal titans Dream Theater tells Rock Candy Magazine about his time away from the band and why it feels right to be back in the fold.

“It was a longing to come home, to be with family. The two Johns [Petrucci and Myung] and I started together when we were teenagers, and now here we are creeping up on 60. It goes way deeper than coming back to a band.”

The release of the band's sixteenth studio album, ‘Parasomnia’, finds the friends out on the road and taking their peerless brand of razor-sharp melodic metal to their expectant fans. The band had much success with previous drummer Mike Mangini behind the kit, but Mike Portnoy's reappearance has scratched an itch for many die-hard followers. Mike is very aware of the fans and feels the weight of trying to live up to expectations.

“We just have to write for ourselves and make ourselves happy. Dream Theater fans are so rabid, and so opinionated, and so passionate that there's no way we can please everybody... I really care about our fans. I've spent my whole career trying to model everything I do for them because I relate to them as much as anybody. The hardest thing for me is to keep an eye on that, but also look away from it and please ourselves first and foremost. There's a balance somewhere, though, and hopefully we're striking it.”

You can read our exclusive Mike Portnoy interview, as well as the interviews with all the members of Dream Theater in issue 48 of Rock Candy Magazine, together with in-depth stories and interviews with Ian Gillan, Steve Vai, Pantera and Anthrax's Charlie Benante,Teaze, TKO and more. For more details visit: www.rockcandymag.com