Editing Peter Criss (section)

== Music career ==

=== Chelsea ===
Criss was involved with several bands through the mid- to late 1960s, starting with the Barracudas from 1962 to 1966 and including [[Chelsea (American band)|Chelsea]], who had a two-album deal with [[Decca Records]]; the group released a self-titled album in 1970. They never recorded a second album, and in August 1971 became Lips (a trio consisting of Criss and his Chelsea bandmates Michael Benvenga and Stan Penridge). By the spring of 1972, Lips was reduced to just the duo of Criss and Penridge.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.kiss-related-recordings.nl/petercriss_lips.html|title=Kiss Related Recordings; Peter Criss ; Lips – demo's 1970–1972|website=Kiss-related-recordings.nl|access-date=August 21, 2021}}</ref>

In 1973, ex-Chelsea members Pete Shepley and Mike Brand recorded an unreleased album which included post-Chelsea Michael Benvenga, and pre-Kiss Peter Criss and Gene Simmons as session musicians. It was titled ''Captain Sanity''.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZSUfFgfen8| archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211117/QZSUfFgfen8| archive-date=November 17, 2021 | url-status=live|title=Captain Sanity (Full Album)|last=mike brand|date=December 8, 2015|publisher=YouTube}}{{cbignore}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://alex-room-service.podomatic.com/entry/2016-02-25T21_55_42-08_00|title=Och klockan slog ett extra slag|website=Alex-room-service.podomatic.com}}</ref>

Another early band featuring Criss was The Sounds of Soul, notable for also featuring future [[New York Dolls]] drummer [[Jerry Nolan]] and [[The Elegants]] guitarist Joe Lucenti whom Criss met in his previous band The Barracudas. The core of the band - Criss, Lucenti and keyboardist Peppi Genarelli - played together from 1966 to 1969, in the summer of 1968 as Brotherhood and from late 1968 under the name The Vintage. Criss and Genarelli then continued to the band Nautilus which existed until late 1970. In 1972-73 Criss and Lucenti were playing together again in Infinity.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Peter Criss |url=https://kissbandstree.com/artist.php?a=peter_criss |access-date=September 27, 2024 |website=kissbandstree.com |language=en}}</ref>

=== Kiss ===
[[File:KISS cat face.svg|thumb|left|The Catman]]<!-- do not remove w/o discussion on talk page, his former makeup is an integral part of who he is -->
After the demise of his band Lips, Criss placed an advertisement in the [[Eastern United States|East Coast]] edition of ''[[Rolling Stone]]'' ''Magazine'', which read:

{{blockquote|EXPD. ROCK & roll drummer looking for orig. grp. doing soft & hard music.  Peter, Brooklyn.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.kissarmysweden.net/38-ar-sedan|title=38 år sedan|website=Kissarmysweden.net|date=April 11, 2010}}</ref>}}

The advertisement was answered by [[Paul Stanley]] and [[Gene Simmons]], who were looking for new members for their band. [[Ace Frehley]] was added to the lineup in December 1972, and the band was named Kiss later that month. However, Simmons describes first meeting Criss in his book ''Kiss And Make-Up'' thusly:

{{blockquote|One afternoon I run across an ad in Rolling Stone Magazine that said "Drummer available – Will do anything." I called the guy on the telephone, and even though he was in the middle of a party, he took my call. I introduced myself and said we were starting a band and that the band was looking for a drummer, and was he willing to do anything to make it? He says that he was, right away.}}

Simmons later in the chapter describes going to a small Italian club in Brooklyn to meet the drummer: "The drummer started to sing, and this [[Wilson Pickett]]-style voice came out of him. Paul and I said, 'That's it, that's our drummer.' His name was Peter Criscuola."

Kiss released [[Kiss (Kiss album)|their self-titled debut]] in February 1974. Throughout the band's initial lineup, Paul and Gene would sing the majority of the songs on each studio album, with Peter, and later Ace, contributing vocals for one or two songs. Throughout his Kiss career, in his original tenure and on the Reunion-era album ''[[Psycho Circus]]'', Criss was the lead singer on several songs which turned out to be radio-hit and/or live favorites, including "[[Black Diamond (Kiss song)|Black Diamond]]", "[[Hard Luck Woman]]", and "[[Beth (song)|Beth]]".

Criss had collaborated on a demo originally titled "Beck", a song that was eventually reworked to become the ballad "[[Beth (song)|Beth]]", a Top 10 hit for Kiss on the U.S. ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart, peaking at No. 7 in 1976. The song remains the highest-charting song for Kiss in the United States and it earned them a [[People's Choice Awards|People's Choice Award]] for "Young People's Favorite New Song" in 1977, tied with "[[Disco Duck]]". The song was actually written before Criss had joined Kiss, while he was still a member of Chelsea. Criss came up with the melody for the song while on a train to New York City from [[New Jersey]] where the band practiced. He and Penridge wrote the song together.<ref name="behindthemask">David Leaf, Ken Sharp ''Kiss: Behind the Mask – Official Authorized Biography'' Warner Books, 2005; {{ISBN|978-0446695244}}, pg. 268</ref> A demo exists of the song from 1971.<ref>CD, KISStory, Demos and Rare Songs, Vol 3, songs 1 & 2, 2008</ref>

=== Departure from Kiss ===
On the 1979 release ''[[Dynasty (Kiss album)|Dynasty]]'', he played only on his own composition, "Dirty Livin'",<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.petercriss.net/homepage/sub/drumqa/default.htm|title=Criss Q and A|access-date=January 22, 2009|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090217221207/http://petercriss.net/homepage/sub/drumqa/default.htm|archive-date=February 17, 2009}}</ref> and did not play at all on ''[[Unmasked (Kiss album)|Unmasked]]'' (1980) but was seen on the album covers and music videos for songs from those albums. [[Anton Fig]], who also played on [[Ace Frehley (album)|Ace Frehley's 1978 solo album]], was hired as session drummer for  ''Dynasty'' and ''[[Unmasked (Kiss album)|Unmasked]]''<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.antonfig.com/discograpy/|title=Discography|website=Antonfig.com|date=November 27, 2019|access-date=August 21, 2021}}</ref> but did not tour; Criss performed on the Dynasty tour and [[Eric Carr]] on the tour for Unmasked. At the time, the reasons Criss was fired from Kiss were never made public, although it was obvious that his relationship with his bandmates Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley was not good at the time.{{citation needed|date=December 2023}}

[[Gene Simmons]] has said Criss was fired; Paul Stanley discussed Criss's departure in several interviews, including the commentary on ''[[Kissology Volume Two: 1978–1991|Kissology 2]]''. [[Ace Frehley]] in his 2011 book, ''No Regrets'', and he stated that Criss was fired during a band meeting in which Frehley, Simmons, Stanley and manager Bill Aucoin voted Criss out of the band. A spoken word CD released in 1999 titled ''13 Classic Kiss Stories'', features [[Bill Aucoin]] (Kiss's first manager) where he also discusses Criss being "let go". Criss, however, has maintained that he quit the band.

The video for "Shandi" (a song Criss did not play on; the only Kiss member featured on the studio recording was Stanley) was shot in one day, and Criss was out of the band at that time; Stanley said of the shoot, "We shot a video for the song 'Shandi' after the decision to let Peter go had been confirmed. He came to the video shoot knowing it was the last time he would appear with KISS. At the end of the day, he took his makeup case with him and left. It wasn't tearful, but it was a big moment. Peter was leaving. We had fired him, and this was the last time we were going to see him in the band".<ref>{{cite book|last1=Stanley|first1=Paul|title=Face the Music: A Life Exposed|date=2014|publisher=HarperOne|location=New York|isbn=978-0-06-211404-4|pages=242–43|edition=First|url=https://www.harpercollins.com/9780062114044/face-the-music}}</ref>

Criss officially left Kiss on May 18, 1980. As a result, Kiss postponed the European tour until the end of August, thus giving the band enough time to find a replacement drummer, who they found in Brooklyn-born [[Eric Carr]].

=== Beginning of solo career ===
In March 1980, Criss began recording his second solo album, ''[[Out of Control (Peter Criss album)|Out of Control]]''. Released later in the year, the album was a commercial failure, despite remaining a favorite with Criss fans. The follow-up album, 1982's ''[[Let Me Rock You]]'', which contained one song written by Gene Simmons, was a similar failure. The album cover featured Criss without his Kiss makeup, but was not released in the U.S. at the time.

For the rest of the 1980s and early 1990s, Criss was involved with a number of bands, each usually lasting less than a year. One of them was The Keep (1988-1990), which featured ex-Kiss guitarist [[Mark St. John]] and ex-[[Black Sabbath]] and [[White Tiger (band)|White Tiger]] frontman [[David Donato (singer)|David Donato]]. Criss also played with Los Angeles Balls of Fire from the spring of 1986 to December 1986, with Jane Booke on lead vocals, Bobby Raylove on bass, and JP (John Pakalenka) on guitar, who currently plays for Buckner Funken Jazz in Denver, Colorado. Balls of Fire played only seven shows before Criss left the band (reportedly to enjoy his daughter Jenilee growing up).<ref>{{cite web|website=Kiss-related-recordings.nl|title=Balls of Fire|url=http://www.kiss-related-recordings.nl/petercriss_ballsoffire.html|access-date=February 8, 2009}}</ref> Another relatively short-lived band was the Criss Penridge Alliance, essentially Peter Criss and Stan Penridge with the 1970s jazz rock fusion band Montage (Mike Hutchens – guitar,<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.mikehutchens.com/Bio.html |title=Stories |access-date=October 9, 2015 |archive-date=September 12, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150912021953/http://www.mikehutchens.com/Bio.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> [[Allen Woody]] – bass ([[Gov't Mule|Govt Mule]], [[The Allman Brothers Band|Allman Brothers Band]]), John Moss – drums and Tony Crow – keyboards) who rehearsed 39 songs including from the first 3 Peter Criss solo albums, and played around 10 shows in total.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://alex-room-service.podomatic.com/entry/2015-10-09T02_58_49-07_00|title=The Criss Penridge Alliance 1984|website=Alex-room-service.podomatic.com}}</ref>

While Kiss was promoting their upcoming release ''[[Crazy Nights]]'', Criss appeared on the syndicated radio program ''Metal Shop'' and discussed his time in Kiss from a more positive perspective than before; he promoted the book he was writing at the time, an autobiography to be titled ''A Face without a Kiss''. He also mentioned his dream of one day opening his own recording studio and starting a Catman Records label.

In the early 1990s, Criss assembled a band named "Criss", featuring among others future [[Queensrÿche]] guitarist [[Mike Stone (musician)|Mike Stone]]. This band went through frequent lineup changes, toured extensively and released the ''Criss'' [[extended play|EP]] in December 1993 and the ''[[Cat 1 (album)|Cat #1]]'' album in August 1994.<ref>{{cite web|title=Kiss related recordings-Criss EP|url=http://www.kiss-related-recordings.nl/petercriss_crissep.html|website=Kiss-related-recordings.nl|access-date=October 9, 2012}}</ref>

=== Christopher Dickinson ===
In 1991, a man named Christopher Dickinson began publicly impersonating Peter Criss. Dickinson did an interview as Criss with the tabloid ''[[Star (magazine)|Star]]'' magazine, in which he claimed that he was now a "homeless alcoholic panhandling for change". [[Phil Donahue]] had both men on [[The Phil Donahue Show|his show]] where the real Criss confronted the impostor.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nathanrabin.com/happy-place/2017/11/28/great-moments-in-western-civilization-1-kiss-drummer-peter-criss-confronts-his-impersonator-on-donahue|title=Exploiting our Archives: Great Moments in Western Civilization #1 Kiss Drummer Peter Criss Confronts His Homeless Imposter on Donahue|website=Nathan Rabin's Happy Place|access-date=November 5, 2019}}</ref>

=== Return to Kiss ===
[[File:Kiss - Peter Criss (1977).jpg|thumb|upright|Criss performing with Kiss in 1977]]
In 1995, Criss appeared at the official Kiss Konvention in Los Angeles that led to the Kiss [[Kiss Unplugged|live performance]] that was recorded for ''[[MTV Unplugged]]''. On February 28, 1996, the original members of Kiss made a surprise appearance at the [[38th Annual Grammy Awards]] in full makeup and costumes for the first time together since 1979 to present an award with [[Tupac Shakur]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.grammy.com/videos/2pac-introduces-kiss|publisher=[[Grammy Awards]]|access-date=January 17, 2025|title=2Pac Introduces Kiss At The 38th GRAMMYs}}</ref> Subsequently, in April 1996, Kiss held a press conference to announce a reunion tour with all four original members. The 1996–97 Alive/Worldwide Tour was an enormous success, and the reunited Kiss released a studio album, 1998's ''[[Psycho Circus]]''.

Criss played drums on only one track on the album ("Into the Void", Ace Frehley's one lead vocal track), although Criss did have one lead vocal (a track called "I Finally Found My Way", written by guitarist/vocalist Paul Stanley and Bob Ezrin) and a co-vocal taking turns in the verses with the rest of the band for the song "You Wanted the Best".

=== Second and third departures ===
Criss left over a contract dispute and was replaced by [[Eric Singer]] in 2001. He rejoined the band in late 2002 and appeared on the ''[[Kiss Symphony: Alive IV]]'' DVD and CD before departing from Kiss again in March 2004. The band had opted not to renew his contract following the Rocksimus Maximus Tour. He was once again replaced by Singer, who assumed the "Catman" persona. He said of Kiss performing with replacements for Ace Frehley and himself:{{blockquote|No matter who they get to put stuff on their face, it ain't us. You can take the mask off the Lone Ranger and put it on someone else, but it ain't the Lone Ranger.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.app.com/4074/august2008/features/petercriss.html|title=Interview by Mark Voger|website=App.com|access-date=January 16, 2009}}</ref>}}

=== After 2004 ===
Since 2004, Criss has kept his public appearances to a minimum. He now resides in [[Wall Township, New Jersey]].<ref>Parry, Wayne via the ''[[Associated Press]]''.[http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/104-12282007-1462870.html "2008 resolutions from Yogi, The Donald, a rock star and more"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081227160711/http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/104-12282007-1462870.html|date=December 27, 2008}}, ''[[Burlington County Times]]'', December 28, 2007; accessed September 1, 2008.<br />{{" '}}I have a big mouth for a lot of people, but I never take my own advice and do it myself,' said Criss, who lives in Wall Township and is best known for the ballad "Beth" and his Catman makeup."</ref> He released a solo album, titled ''[[One for All (Peter Criss album)|One for All]]'', in July 2007 on Silvercat Records, and performed his last solo show on June 17, 2017, in New York City at the Cutting Room.<ref>{{Cite web|title=PeterCriss.net – The Only Official Website of Drummer Peter Criss|url=http://www.petercriss.net/news-archive/2017.htm|access-date=January 31, 2021|website=Petercriss.net}}</ref>

In April 2025, it was announced that Criss would release a hard rock solo album produced by [[Barry Poynter|Barry Pointer]] and featuring performances by [[Billy Sheehan]], [[Piggy D.]], [[John 5]], Mike McLaughlin and [[Paul Shaffer]]. It is set to be released in the fall.<ref>{{Cite web |date=April 24, 2025 |title=Original KISS Drummer PETER CRISS Recruits BILLY SHEEHAN, JOHN 5 And PAUL SHAFFER For New Hard Rock Solo Album |url=https://blabbermouth.net/news/original-kiss-drummer-peter-criss-recruits-billy-sheehan-john-5-and-paul-shaffer-for-new-hard-rock-solo-album |access-date=April 25, 2025 |website=BLABBERMOUTH.NET |language=en}}</ref>