Chords for Paul Stanley on firing Peter Criss
Tempo:
137.95 bpm
Chords used:
Ab
Tuning:Standard Tuning (EADGBE)Capo:+0fret
Start Jamming...
[Ab] Peter was completely unmanageable.
Whatever we did was never right.
If we let him sleep late on a day off,
he would get angry and say he wanted to travel on the off day.
If we traveled on an off day, he would say he wanted to sleep.
If he said it was too hot backstage,
we turned up the air conditioning.
Then he complained it was too cold.
One time he punched a mirror and got a serious deep cut on his hand that needed micro surgery and stitches.
It wasn't unusual for Peter to throw his drumsticks at me or Gene or Ace if we stepped in front of his drum riser.
Never mind that he was up on a drum riser, meaning we didn't block the audience's view of Peter
even if we did pass in front of his kit.
If he wants to be at the front of the stage,
he should learn to play the damn guitar.
But then one night near the end of the tour in December in
1979, Peter had been binging on drugs and playing particularly erratically.
When I turned around during one song and let him know his tempo was too frantic,
his reaction was to start slowing songs down and then speeding them up again, apparently out of spite.
That crossed the line.
It's one thing to sabotage things [N] offstage and God knows he'd done plenty of that, but this was different.
This was in front of fans, people who had paid to see us.
Immediately after the show, Gene, Ace and I spoke about it.
We were all stunned by the betrayal.
The unspoken rule had always been that you left your shit in the dressing room.
No matter what was going on, when we went on stage, we were a band.
The stage was sacred.
Peter's purposeful sabotaging of the show was the ultimate treachery.
We decided we wanted Peter gone.
Ace can say whatever he wants now,
but he voted to fire Peter without any prodding or strong-arming.
It's a tribute to Ace that he did.
As far as my own vote,
I didn't think it was cold or calculated to dump Peter.
It was just survival.
Was I going to let his problems drag down the entire band and me with it?
No way.
Gene felt the same way.
We called Bill and told him we had to get rid of Peter.
We said we wanted to cancel the rest of the shows and go home.
How could we go on?
Bill smoothed things over enough to get us to delay taking action and continue the tour rather than fire Peter immediately.
We had just a few dates left.
Peter didn't see the train that was about to hit him, but that was par for the course.
Immediately after the end of the tour in mid-December 1979, Peter married his second wife, Deborah Jensen, a Playboy playmate.
The situation was weird.
I couldn't help but wonder, would she marry him if she realized she was marrying the former drummer of Kiss?
Early in 1980, Bill had to break the news to Peter that he was out.
But instead, Bill persuaded the other three of us that we should give Peter a second chance.
So we didn't finalize a decision and after a few months, a period when we were off the road anyway,
recording unmasked with Anton Fig on drums again and Vinny producing, we agreed to have Peter come back and try playing with us.
In the interim, Bill had arranged for Peter to take drum lessons from Jim Chapin, a famous jazz drummer.
The day of the audition or rehearsal or whatever you wanted to call it, Peter walked in carrying a music stand and sheet music.
The first thing he said was, I'll have to have all your songs on sheet music because I read music now.
I whispered to Gene, are we on candid camera?
Peter sat down, put his sheet music on the stand and studied it for a while.
Mind you, this was a rehearsal of old material, not the new stuff we had written and recorded for unmasked.
We wanted to see whether he could even play the songs he already knew.
The rehearsal did not go well.
It was over.
My philosophy had always been that if somebody was drowning, you tried to save the person.
But when they started to pull you under, you cut them loose.
That's what was happening.
All the talking and advice and trying to get him help got us nowhere.
We shot a video for the song Shandy 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.
Oddly enough, Peter didn't seem to care.
He was likely in his own drug haze and saw this as his big opportunity.
In his mind, he wrote the biggest song we ever had,
and now he was free to go out and become the big star he should be.
Wow, Peter's gone.
It's the end of something.
But the end of what?
It was difficult to envision the band not being the four of us.
Dysfunctional or not, we were the four musketeers.
It was a scenario we had never contemplated.
What if somebody no longer wanted to be there?
What if somebody was no longer doing his job?
Whatever tension there was inside the band, we had always remained a band.
Then all of a sudden, one person was no longer part of the band.
It shook all of us to the core.
What do we do?
Do we break up the band?
The rules had changed.
Kiss clearly wasn't going to continue as it had.
Whatever we did was never right.
If we let him sleep late on a day off,
he would get angry and say he wanted to travel on the off day.
If we traveled on an off day, he would say he wanted to sleep.
If he said it was too hot backstage,
we turned up the air conditioning.
Then he complained it was too cold.
One time he punched a mirror and got a serious deep cut on his hand that needed micro surgery and stitches.
It wasn't unusual for Peter to throw his drumsticks at me or Gene or Ace if we stepped in front of his drum riser.
Never mind that he was up on a drum riser, meaning we didn't block the audience's view of Peter
even if we did pass in front of his kit.
If he wants to be at the front of the stage,
he should learn to play the damn guitar.
But then one night near the end of the tour in December in
1979, Peter had been binging on drugs and playing particularly erratically.
When I turned around during one song and let him know his tempo was too frantic,
his reaction was to start slowing songs down and then speeding them up again, apparently out of spite.
That crossed the line.
It's one thing to sabotage things [N] offstage and God knows he'd done plenty of that, but this was different.
This was in front of fans, people who had paid to see us.
Immediately after the show, Gene, Ace and I spoke about it.
We were all stunned by the betrayal.
The unspoken rule had always been that you left your shit in the dressing room.
No matter what was going on, when we went on stage, we were a band.
The stage was sacred.
Peter's purposeful sabotaging of the show was the ultimate treachery.
We decided we wanted Peter gone.
Ace can say whatever he wants now,
but he voted to fire Peter without any prodding or strong-arming.
It's a tribute to Ace that he did.
As far as my own vote,
I didn't think it was cold or calculated to dump Peter.
It was just survival.
Was I going to let his problems drag down the entire band and me with it?
No way.
Gene felt the same way.
We called Bill and told him we had to get rid of Peter.
We said we wanted to cancel the rest of the shows and go home.
How could we go on?
Bill smoothed things over enough to get us to delay taking action and continue the tour rather than fire Peter immediately.
We had just a few dates left.
Peter didn't see the train that was about to hit him, but that was par for the course.
Immediately after the end of the tour in mid-December 1979, Peter married his second wife, Deborah Jensen, a Playboy playmate.
The situation was weird.
I couldn't help but wonder, would she marry him if she realized she was marrying the former drummer of Kiss?
Early in 1980, Bill had to break the news to Peter that he was out.
But instead, Bill persuaded the other three of us that we should give Peter a second chance.
So we didn't finalize a decision and after a few months, a period when we were off the road anyway,
recording unmasked with Anton Fig on drums again and Vinny producing, we agreed to have Peter come back and try playing with us.
In the interim, Bill had arranged for Peter to take drum lessons from Jim Chapin, a famous jazz drummer.
The day of the audition or rehearsal or whatever you wanted to call it, Peter walked in carrying a music stand and sheet music.
The first thing he said was, I'll have to have all your songs on sheet music because I read music now.
I whispered to Gene, are we on candid camera?
Peter sat down, put his sheet music on the stand and studied it for a while.
Mind you, this was a rehearsal of old material, not the new stuff we had written and recorded for unmasked.
We wanted to see whether he could even play the songs he already knew.
The rehearsal did not go well.
It was over.
My philosophy had always been that if somebody was drowning, you tried to save the person.
But when they started to pull you under, you cut them loose.
That's what was happening.
All the talking and advice and trying to get him help got us nowhere.
We shot a video for the song Shandy 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.
Oddly enough, Peter didn't seem to care.
He was likely in his own drug haze and saw this as his big opportunity.
In his mind, he wrote the biggest song we ever had,
and now he was free to go out and become the big star he should be.
Wow, Peter's gone.
It's the end of something.
But the end of what?
It was difficult to envision the band not being the four of us.
Dysfunctional or not, we were the four musketeers.
It was a scenario we had never contemplated.
What if somebody no longer wanted to be there?
What if somebody was no longer doing his job?
Whatever tension there was inside the band, we had always remained a band.
Then all of a sudden, one person was no longer part of the band.
It shook all of us to the core.
What do we do?
Do we break up the band?
The rules had changed.
Kiss clearly wasn't going to continue as it had.
Key:
Ab
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Ab
[Ab] Peter was completely unmanageable.
Whatever we did was never right.
If we let him sleep late on a day off,
he would get angry and say he wanted to travel on the off day.
If we traveled on an off day, he would say he wanted to sleep.
If he said it was too hot backstage,
we turned up the air conditioning.
Then he complained it was too cold.
One time he punched a mirror and got a serious deep cut on his hand that needed micro surgery and stitches.
_ _ _ It wasn't unusual for Peter to throw his drumsticks at me or Gene or Ace if we stepped in front of his drum riser.
_ Never mind that he was up on a drum riser, meaning we didn't block the audience's view of Peter
even if we did pass in front of his kit.
_ _ If he wants to be at the front of the stage,
he should learn to play the damn guitar. _ _
But then one night near the end of the tour in December in
1979, Peter had been binging on drugs and playing particularly erratically.
_ When I turned around during one song and let him know his tempo was too frantic,
his reaction was to start slowing songs down and then speeding them up again, apparently out of spite.
That crossed the line.
It's one thing to sabotage things [N] offstage and God knows he'd done plenty of that, but this was different.
This was in front of fans, people who had paid to see us.
_ _ Immediately after the show, Gene, Ace and I spoke about it.
We were all stunned by the betrayal.
The unspoken rule had always been that you left your shit in the dressing room.
No matter what was going on, when we went on stage, we were a band.
The stage was sacred. _
Peter's purposeful sabotaging of the show was the ultimate treachery.
We decided we wanted Peter gone.
_ _ Ace can say whatever he wants now,
but he voted to fire Peter without any prodding or strong-arming.
It's a tribute to Ace that he did.
As far as my own vote,
I didn't think it was cold or calculated to dump Peter.
It was just survival.
Was I going to let his problems drag down the entire band and me with it?
No way.
Gene felt the same way.
_ We called Bill and told him we had to get rid of Peter.
We said we wanted to cancel the rest of the shows and go home.
How could we go on?
Bill smoothed things over enough to get us to delay taking action and continue the tour rather than fire Peter immediately.
We had just a few dates left.
Peter didn't see the train that was about to hit him, but that was par for the course. _
_ _ Immediately after the end of the tour in mid-December 1979, Peter married his second wife, Deborah Jensen, a Playboy playmate.
The situation was weird.
I couldn't help but wonder, would she marry him if she realized she was marrying the former drummer of Kiss? _ _
_ Early in 1980, Bill had to break the news to Peter that he was out.
_ But instead, Bill persuaded the other three of us that we should give Peter a second chance.
So we didn't finalize a decision and after a few months, a period when we were off the road anyway,
recording unmasked with Anton Fig on drums again and Vinny producing, we agreed to have Peter come back and try playing with us.
In the interim, Bill had arranged for Peter to take drum lessons from Jim Chapin, a famous jazz drummer.
The day of the audition or rehearsal or whatever you wanted to call it, Peter walked in carrying a music stand and sheet music.
The first thing he said was, I'll have to have all your songs on sheet music because I read music now.
I whispered to Gene, are we on candid camera? _ _
Peter sat down, put his sheet music on the stand and studied it for a while.
Mind you, this was a rehearsal of old material, not the new stuff we had written and recorded for unmasked.
We wanted to see whether he could even play the songs he already knew.
The rehearsal did not go well.
It was over.
_ _ My philosophy had always been that if somebody was drowning, you tried to save the person.
But when they started to pull you under, you cut them loose.
That's what was happening.
_ All the talking and advice and trying to get him help got us nowhere.
_ _ We shot a video for the song Shandy 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.
_ _ _ Oddly enough, Peter didn't seem to care.
He was likely in his own drug haze and saw this as his big opportunity.
_ In his mind, he wrote the biggest song we ever had,
and now he was free to go out and become the big star he should be.
_ Wow, Peter's gone.
It's the end of something. _
But the end of what?
_ _ It was difficult to envision the band not being the four of us.
Dysfunctional or not, we were the four musketeers.
It was a scenario we had never contemplated.
What if somebody no longer wanted to be there?
What if somebody was no longer doing his job?
Whatever tension there was inside the band, we had always remained a band.
Then all of a sudden, one person was no longer part of the band.
It shook all of us to the core.
_ What do we do?
Do we break up the band?
_ The rules had changed.
Kiss clearly wasn't going to continue as it had. _ _
Whatever we did was never right.
If we let him sleep late on a day off,
he would get angry and say he wanted to travel on the off day.
If we traveled on an off day, he would say he wanted to sleep.
If he said it was too hot backstage,
we turned up the air conditioning.
Then he complained it was too cold.
One time he punched a mirror and got a serious deep cut on his hand that needed micro surgery and stitches.
_ _ _ It wasn't unusual for Peter to throw his drumsticks at me or Gene or Ace if we stepped in front of his drum riser.
_ Never mind that he was up on a drum riser, meaning we didn't block the audience's view of Peter
even if we did pass in front of his kit.
_ _ If he wants to be at the front of the stage,
he should learn to play the damn guitar. _ _
But then one night near the end of the tour in December in
1979, Peter had been binging on drugs and playing particularly erratically.
_ When I turned around during one song and let him know his tempo was too frantic,
his reaction was to start slowing songs down and then speeding them up again, apparently out of spite.
That crossed the line.
It's one thing to sabotage things [N] offstage and God knows he'd done plenty of that, but this was different.
This was in front of fans, people who had paid to see us.
_ _ Immediately after the show, Gene, Ace and I spoke about it.
We were all stunned by the betrayal.
The unspoken rule had always been that you left your shit in the dressing room.
No matter what was going on, when we went on stage, we were a band.
The stage was sacred. _
Peter's purposeful sabotaging of the show was the ultimate treachery.
We decided we wanted Peter gone.
_ _ Ace can say whatever he wants now,
but he voted to fire Peter without any prodding or strong-arming.
It's a tribute to Ace that he did.
As far as my own vote,
I didn't think it was cold or calculated to dump Peter.
It was just survival.
Was I going to let his problems drag down the entire band and me with it?
No way.
Gene felt the same way.
_ We called Bill and told him we had to get rid of Peter.
We said we wanted to cancel the rest of the shows and go home.
How could we go on?
Bill smoothed things over enough to get us to delay taking action and continue the tour rather than fire Peter immediately.
We had just a few dates left.
Peter didn't see the train that was about to hit him, but that was par for the course. _
_ _ Immediately after the end of the tour in mid-December 1979, Peter married his second wife, Deborah Jensen, a Playboy playmate.
The situation was weird.
I couldn't help but wonder, would she marry him if she realized she was marrying the former drummer of Kiss? _ _
_ Early in 1980, Bill had to break the news to Peter that he was out.
_ But instead, Bill persuaded the other three of us that we should give Peter a second chance.
So we didn't finalize a decision and after a few months, a period when we were off the road anyway,
recording unmasked with Anton Fig on drums again and Vinny producing, we agreed to have Peter come back and try playing with us.
In the interim, Bill had arranged for Peter to take drum lessons from Jim Chapin, a famous jazz drummer.
The day of the audition or rehearsal or whatever you wanted to call it, Peter walked in carrying a music stand and sheet music.
The first thing he said was, I'll have to have all your songs on sheet music because I read music now.
I whispered to Gene, are we on candid camera? _ _
Peter sat down, put his sheet music on the stand and studied it for a while.
Mind you, this was a rehearsal of old material, not the new stuff we had written and recorded for unmasked.
We wanted to see whether he could even play the songs he already knew.
The rehearsal did not go well.
It was over.
_ _ My philosophy had always been that if somebody was drowning, you tried to save the person.
But when they started to pull you under, you cut them loose.
That's what was happening.
_ All the talking and advice and trying to get him help got us nowhere.
_ _ We shot a video for the song Shandy 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.
_ _ _ Oddly enough, Peter didn't seem to care.
He was likely in his own drug haze and saw this as his big opportunity.
_ In his mind, he wrote the biggest song we ever had,
and now he was free to go out and become the big star he should be.
_ Wow, Peter's gone.
It's the end of something. _
But the end of what?
_ _ It was difficult to envision the band not being the four of us.
Dysfunctional or not, we were the four musketeers.
It was a scenario we had never contemplated.
What if somebody no longer wanted to be there?
What if somebody was no longer doing his job?
Whatever tension there was inside the band, we had always remained a band.
Then all of a sudden, one person was no longer part of the band.
It shook all of us to the core.
_ What do we do?
Do we break up the band?
_ The rules had changed.
Kiss clearly wasn't going to continue as it had. _ _