Chris Jericho prefers KISS’ non-makeup era to makeup era with the original lineup.
“I appreciate KISS with makeup but this non-makeup stuff is a million times better,” the Fozzy frontman said. “And I don’t know if it’s a million times better but for me, I still love that era of KISS.”
Jericho further explained, “I still think Bruce Kulick is is the greatest KISS guitar player in history. To me, this era was so much fun with all this great material that when KISS reunited in 96 with Peter and Ace and put the makeup back on, all of that material got forgotten and would play a song here or there. Like ‘Heaven’s On Fire,’ ‘Lick It Up’ or ‘Hide Your Heart’ once in a while but that wasn’t enough.”
The singer has a KISS cover band named Kuarantine. He talked about it earlier this year, “The mission of Kuarantine has always been to pull the forgotten gems from the non-makeup, ’80s KISS catalog, give them a modern polish, and unleash them on current mainstream rock radio, so they can get the respect they deserve.”
He added, “With that mindset, we feel we’ve hit another home run with the 1987-released underrated Gene Simmons classic ‘Good Girl Gone Bad’. It’s got more hooks than a tackle box, with a great chorus and brain-melting solos. This song is the perfect springtime tune to crank in your car and rock out with your unmentionables out! And with two Top 20 singles in our repertoire, we’re stoked to get to the Top 10 and beyond. It’s time to get krazy with Kuarantine!”
“That’s when I discovered KISS,” Jericho said in a separate chat. “The first KISS song that I ever really heard, besides whatever you heard in the background growing up, the first one I ever paid attention to was ‘Heaven’s on Fire’ from 1984 from ‘Animalize.’ I went back and discovered KISS with make-up afterward, but to me, the ’80s version was great!”
KISS performed their first show without makeup on October 11, 1983, in Lisbon. Still, the group returned to their iconic makeup in 1996 for a reunion tour.
