July 12th would have been the 63rd birthday of the late Mr. Eric Carr. As a Kiss fan growing up Eric had a huge impact on me, my first two records were LICK IT UP and the unmatchable CREATURES OF THE NIGHT. From the intro of the title track to the last ringing chord of “War Machine” Eric’s thunder is absolutely undeniable. That record is the record that defined Kiss to me, and much of that was because of Eric’s incredible playing. I finally got to see Kiss live in 1990 on the Hot In The Shade tour, Eric’s last tour with the band. The setlist was incredible, they played for over 2 hours, and touched on every era of the band, we even got to listen in while they did “I Was Made For Loving You” during soundcheck, which they hadn’t yet added to the set, it was much like the rocked up version which later appeared on ALIVE III.
Eric’s memory lives on in his music, and the millions of Kiss fans that cherish everything he brought to the band, including all the time that he spent with his fans. I recently added a special piece of Eric memorabilia to my personal collection, one of his RIAA gold records for CREATURES OF THE NIGHT.
Here is a clip of Eric on stage with Kiss performing “Young And Wasted” from Animalize Uncensored in 1984.
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