KISS were inescapable in the late ‘70s.
Since the members hadn’t shown their faces yet, any of their recording sessions had to be done under top-secret circumstances.
And while Frank Bello saw them by chance, he wasn’t even allowed on the street near the studio.
When Bello was on talking about the later KISS, he had mentioned being in the same neighborhood where they were making their new record saying,
“For the record Unmasked, my friend and I hung out and stalked KISS outside of their rehearsal studios when they were writing the songs. I remember their security guard threw us off the street of Manhattan. We were in front of the studio trying to listen and a big guy comes and tells us to get off the street.”
Although KISS weren’t straight-ahead metal, Bello mentioned them as one of his biggest influences starting out saying,
“KISS for us as kids, they weren’t just an inspiration. That held me together. Because Charlie [Benante] grew up without a dad and I grew up without a dad. They were something to live up to.”
Despite their hard rock credentials, KISS was starting to flirt with disco territory that turned off the rest of Anthrax.
As Scott Ian discusses, the era of KISS Bello listened in on was the end of the line for him saying,
“I was already way into AC/DC at that point and my taste had kinda changed. I went to see them at Nassau Coliseum with Judas Priest opening and me and my friends left after Priest. But that first period of KISS still means as much to me today as it did back in the ‘70s.”
Since Priest was opening the show, the tides were already turning for hard rock.
While Priest was in their prime, KISS was getting used to singing “I Was Made For Lovin You.”
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