Kiss ended their incredible 50 year career last weekend in New York at Madison Square Garden. It was only a couple blocks from where they began, and it really was the perfect place for the final live show.
I was a fan as a little kid from the very beginning. The reason for that was my neighbor was Billy Starkey. His brother John Starkey and I and Billy were best friends. I grew up in Terre Haute, Indiana, and that was the birthplace of the biggest fan club in the world-The Kiss Army. Billy Starkey was the Commander In Chief, and Jay Evans was the Field Marshall. Billy’s brother and I were his first recruits and members, and he would go on to recruit his friends at school.
The story of the Kiss Army has been told many times, and Billy really has done a remarkable job for five decades representing the on-going legacy of it. He was, and is, the perfect person for this. We recently spoke for over 3 hours on the phone, and it was so great to catch up with him. I remember everything from those days, and it is a bit surreal to think how long ago that was.
I can remember playing basketball, and Billy coming out of the house to tell me it was my turn to call the radio station to play Kiss. I remember him showing me the first Kiss poster on the school bus and being dumbstruck. I remember the things Kiss would send to him in the mail, particularly the invitation for New Years Eve at the Excelsior Club in NYC. We were standing at the mailbox, and I was like WOW! I also remember Bill Aucoin had asked him that he wanted him up there with the band at the party when they cut the cake. I remember the first Kiss Army folders with everything in it arriving. I remember Billy getting a stack of posters of Dressed To Kill when it was released. I wish I still had mine! But as a kid…You took things like that everywhere, and they just got wrecked. I remember when they came to Terre Haute and their jet landed an pulled up 25 feet away from us. That day was the Official Beginning Of The Kiss Army. I remember Peter Criss laughing because I was so excited and was jumping up and down and knocking on the limo window. I could not wait for him to get out. I also remember it was absolutely freezing that day, but it didn’t matter. It is a day you remember for your entire life.
The picture of Bill, Jay and myself with that banner have popped up over the years in books, on VH1 when Billy was part of the show, in film clips in live shows, and it always make me smile. I remember when Jay drew the banner, he was a great artist. I saw it for the first time on the basement floor at Billy’s Headquarters for the Kiss Army, which of course was the basement. Lot’s of memories. I had a wonderful childhood growing up in Indiana, and this was part of it.
I will always play Kiss records, how could someone not who is a fan of Rock? I particularly love the first three records. Congratulations to the the band on one of the greatest careers and runs in Music History. Congratulations as well to you Billy on a job so well done…No one could have done it better….
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