Peter Criss Talks Makeup To Breakup

It’s not a stretch to say that KISS’s former singer/drummer Peter Criss used up more than a few of his nine Catman lives. He fought his way out of poverty and skyrocketed to mega fame. He made a fortune and then lost most of it. He fell in love, married, and was divorced a few times. He did a stint in rehab and contemplated suicide but then fought for his life to survive cancer.

In Makeup To Breakup, Criss tells his remarkable story in his own words with an assist from Larry “Ratso” Sloman, the author who collaborated on Howard Stern's bestselling books.

Makeup To Breakup isn't an average memoir.

Peter George John Criscoula might have grown up in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, but he wasn't built for it in his year years. The oldest of five children in an Italian (and part German) Catholic family, he was a scrawny, sickly child “with a big head and big baggy eyes and big ears.”

Like much of his life, it was a mixed bag. Criss fondly describes the closeness he felt with one grandmother and bitterly remembers the other as being physically abusive. She was more like the nuns at his Catholic school, who were equally physical in their approach.

With relatively few strengths and less self-confidence, Criss was fortunate to find music. He saw it as a way to get noticed and attract attention. It didn't take long for him to gravitate toward drums.

Without any other prospects, he dropped out of high school and played in a variety of local bands. A few had a limited degrees of success, but Criss believed he had a bigger destiny to fill. After running ads in the Village Voice, he decided to try a classified in a little publication called Rolling Stone.

“Exp. rock & roll drummer looking for orig. grp. doing soft & hard music.”

In April 1972, Gene Simmons gave Criss a call. After a few more conversations, Simmons and collaborator Paul Stanley went to see Criss play. He was immediately hired after that; his destiny set without ever knowing what might come next.

In the book, Criss describes what Simmons and Stanley were like in the early days, including their vision for fame and stardom, anti-drug lifestyle, and iron-clad work ethic. But that didn’t describe the fourth person to join the band — guitarist Ace Frehley.

Criss felt an instant kinship with the Spaceman, who believed he was from another planet. Frehley also loved to drink but didn’t like manual labor. From this start, Criss recalls how the band’s look and image evolved as a foursome. It wasn't until meeting with future manager Bill Aucoin and later label owner Neil Bogart that they would begin to shape their fame and fortune.

Along the way, Criss shares plenty of stories of excesses that accompanied rock and roll. Many of them are the by-product of eternal days on the road. What is especially interesting is that Criss shared a room with every member of the band at one time or another: the slovenly Simmons, the prima donna Stanley, and the inebriated Frehley.

Breakups weren't limited to band dynamics.

In the early KISS days, fans weren’t aware that Criss was married (to Lydia Criss) and the reason becomes obvious. It's something he conveniently forgot while on the road. He eventually left her for Playboy playmate Debra Jensen, who, at least in Criss’s telling, was an egomaniac hellbent on getting her hands on his money.

But whatever the reason, he was also head over heels in love with Jensen, even when she forgot she was married. After sleeping with a number of his friends and associates, it seems the only good thing that came out of it was his daughter Jenilee.

As Criss’s second marriage was in decline, so were the relations with his bandmates. After expressing grave concerns about the band’s musical direction and over-saturated merchandising, he finally quit.

In later years he would be asked to rejoin, but it came with a new awareness. He had unknowingly signed away his rights to his signature Catman makeup and persona, relegating him to hired hand status on reunion tours. He describes the hurt and betrayal that has haunted him to this day.

Eventually, Criss does seem to find a soulmate in third wife Gigi. She supported him during his bout with breast cancer while battling cancer herself. Initially, he had kept the news of his cancer private, but later made the right choice. He wanted to bring attention to male breast cancer so that other men might never have to go through what he did.

Makeup To Breakup By Peter Criss Rocks 8.4 On The Liquid Hip Richter Scale.

Today, Criss is clean and sober and seems to have found peace. And while he dishes on his KISS bandmates, especially Simmons and Stanley, he admits that he too was no angel. Among the band members, he acknowledges that he was a chronic complainer. And yet, he was also a critical component of KISS’s mystique and success from day one.

Anyone can put on the Catman greasepaint, but nobody else is Peter Criss. You can find Makeup to Breakup: My Life In and Out of Kiss by Peter Criss from Amazon or order the book from Barnes & Noble. Makeup To Breakup is also on iBooks.

Lydia Criss Comes Sealed With A KISS

There have been dozens of books written about KISS. Some of them were even written by associates or former associates of the band.

But Sealed With A Kiss paints a picture from the perspective of someone who was so much more. Lydia Criss was once married to drummer Peter Criss.

The book even has a story. The author decided to self-publish Sealed With a Kiss after being turned down by several big name publishing companies. It's their loss. Lydia Criss has an interesting story to tell and a unique way of doing so. It's especially true because her book reads more like a family photo album than a tell-all (which it is not).

This story — her story — starts with life prior to KISS, including her early relationship/marriage to Peter Criss. She follows this early glimpse by covering the band’s rise to stardom … and then megastardom … and the end of her marriage.

Love and heartbreak but no regret fill her triumphant story.

Lydia Di Leonardo could be best described as an outgoing New York teenager when she met aspiring drummer Peter Criscoula. He played in a variety of bands and as a fill-in drummer to earn a living.

The two married in 1970, and Lydia helped to support their household as her husband continued to struggle in the music industry. But all that was destined to change as Peter Criss formed a band with ambitious singer/rhythm guitarist Stanley Eisen (Paul Stanley) and uber ambitious bassist Gene Klein (Gene Simmons). They would be joined by lead guitarist Paul Frehley (Ace Frehley).

From Wicked Lester (clip below) to KISS, Lydia recounts the band’s lean years when virtually nobody showed up to hear them play except for Lydia herself and a few close friends. As hard as it is to imagine, the original KISS Army was nothing more than a family affair.


It was hard work that eventually paid off for KISS when their stage makeup and electrifying live performances attracted as much attention as their music. Something was happening and it was the right time for it to happen. And it wasn't very long before Criscoula, a.k.a. Peter Criss, was on a meteoric rise to super stardom.

Lydia attended most of their shows, helped to make their costumes, and even handcrafted what were probably the first KISS T-shirts to feature the band’s name in glitter. But amazingly enough, she doesn't plow through many dirty secrets.

Sealed With A Kiss is like owning Lydia's scrapbook.

She shares her experiences by showing thousands of never before seen unpublished photos (most she took herself) and scraps of memorabilia (plane tickets, show tickets, correspondence). Some of these items may never be seen again. But I did find a few KISS collector finds, mostly backstage passes and old tickets, at Wolfgang's Vault.

Highlights of the book also include some excellent photos of the band showing how their makeup and costumes evolved from primitive to polished as well as behind-the-scenes photos of the band at rest and at play. But in between some of it, you will get glimpses into Peter Criss’ nagging depression and insecurity. Lydia shares it all with class and only because it's part of her story — and it is her story — not a true KISS biography.

Most diehard KISS fans already know how her story turns out so it's hardly a spoiler. At the pinnacle of stardom, Peter Criss leaves Lydia for a Playboy model, who ends up dumping him for someone else anyway. Sadly, Lydia is left with a pile of bills and understandable anger before eventually rising above it to find success as a photographer. You can find out what she is doing on her Website at Lydia Criss.

Sealed With A Kiss by Lydia Criss Rocks In With An 8.1 On the Liquid Hip Richter Scale.

The book is pricy, with various resellers offering it up around $50 per copy. But this isn't your ordinary book. It measures 10”x12” in size and weighs in at just under 5 pounds. There are 360+ pages and the memorabilia tucked inside will feel like uncovering a lost treasure of the real KISS, at least seen through her eyes.

As a longtime KISS fan, it has quickly become one of the most fascinating reads I've ever stumbled across. There are only a few places to find Sealed With A Kiss, including Amazon. You don't even have to be a member of the KISS Army to appreciate it either. Lydia's story offers an intriguing look at the lifestyle that comes with being married to a rock star.