The Catman part IV

Peter and Ace saw the opportunity of making good money with the Reunion tour. Ace was not doing much with his band “Frehley’s Comet” and jumped right in without hesitation. If you ever wondered how Gene and Paul got so rich, the “Reunion” tour is the answer.

The first show in Tiger stadium in Detroit sold out 40.000 tickets in 47 minutes. By this time, Gene and Paul owned Kiss, there was no middle man anymore. They took over and began to mold the franchise the way they always wanted. They collected the money and write the checks, for a couple of control freaks like themselves, it was like a dream come true.

It was surely not meant to run forever, but while the reunion tour lasted, they were again in vogue, filling stadiums at large. The world was ready for another Kiss invasion.

It didn’t last as long as the first time around as the same problems arose. It was predictable, but a lot of good came out of the Reunion tour. For the fans, it was an opportunity to see the original members on stage. For Paul and Gene, a chance to become multimillionaires with all the control they ever wanted.

With Tommy Thayer and Eric Singer taking the role of Space Ace and the Catman when the reunion lineup got to its bitter end. Gene reached a net worth of around half a billion dollars. Ace finally got around his Alcohol addiction that almost took his life, not once, but twice. He went playing straight rock and roll with his band. He still plays and records with moderate success. He does not have a lot of money, but he loves to gamble, another unforgiving vice.

For all accounts Peter made a good amount of money to solve his taxes debts. But I got to say that the best that came out of the reunion tour for Peter was to meet his third wife Gigi. They have been married for almost 25 years. I do believe that thanks to her, Peter now has money in the bank and a nice home to live in.

Peter admitted several times that he never knew how to handle all his money. When he moved out to the small apartment after Debra left, h had to ask his fellow bandmates for advise on how to take care of simple tasks as paying utilities.

Peter Criss is now 76 years old, he has been away from the public eye for quite some time, even though he has been seen in 2022 more often, who knows what they got in store for the next month. Some say that Peter’s book “Make up to breakup” is by far the best one among the four members. I only got Peter’s and took the chance to listen to Paul’s audiobook. Sure, among all of them, Peter was my favorite while being kid, when I grew up a little bit more, Gene’s persona and business mentality became more and more appalling.

Peter tells many stories, when he screws up he says so. Sure he attacks and put the blame of his bandmates from time to time, but if you’re aware of Kiss history, other did screw up big time also. Paul’s criticize a lot along his book, Peter does not, that tell me that he is being sincere with what happened and why it happened. There’re so many good stories on his book, I just named a few to put all this information in context.

When I was a young boy, I used to play Kiss covers, there’s something about their music that puts a smile on my face. I just can’t put a number on how many times I have listened to Kiss Alive II, that record simply make me go back to my teen days . Alive II was the first album of Kiss wearing makeup that I had the chance to own. When I was a kid, Kiss wearing makeup was something from the past. Without make up they were famous but not that famous. I was late to the party but that didn’t stop me to appreciate and enjoy what they did when I was not even born.