Peter Criss (musician): photo, biography, popular albums

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Half Italian and half Spaniard, Peter Criss has long won the hearts of many rock and roll fans. For a long time he performed as a drummer in the band Kiss. After creating solo albums. On October 23, 2012, according to the English Wikipedia, he released his own autobiography. Its co-author was none other than Larry Sloman, famous in Russia thanks to Mike Tyson's book "The Merciless Truth".

Come from childhood

Peter Criss was born on December 20, 1945 in Brooklyn to Joseph and Loretta Crisskaul. He was the oldest of 5 children in the family. He grew up a Catholic, went to the appropriate school. From an early age, I felt all the rigidity of the church system, which in those years broke everyone and everyone, without exception. The religion of that time left a strong imprint on Peter. Subsequently, he complained of a bad emotional state. But it was not possible to normalize this, since in the 50–70s. last centurythere were no good psychologists yet.

School also did not attract the boy. He was among his peers the "black sheep" and wherever he appeared, he was in danger. As Peter later wrote, it became a habit among his peers to lock him in the school bathroom for several hours. That is, until some adult intervened in the matter. All this time the boy had to sit on the trash can.

Interestingly, Peter Criss was once kicked out of even the church choir. As the future musician explained to one Canadian disc jockey, this happened because he, when standing near the altar, poured out all the wine. It is clear that the ministers of the Catholic Church did not understand such behavior.

Career start

As a teenager, Peter Criss, whose photo is posted here, became interested in playing the drums. Once he took and created his musical group Chelsea, which included local guys. A year later, the young man was already a recognized musician, played in several bands and practiced many styles of performance at once. Together with his group, he recorded an album, though he did not become popular and was quickly forgotten.

When Chelsea broke up, Criss hung around for a long time. He kept looking for new musicians among his entourage. And one day he came across the Kiss group, the guys from which offered him to perform with them. At this time he was already married, but did not miss the opportunity. He offered his wife either to endure what is happening, or to disperse. She chose the latter.

The role of a musician on stage

Peter Criss chose the Cat as a symbol of self-expression to perform on stage. Although such animals were associated with supernature at that time, the undesirable side of the image was finally softened by the Morris company, which specializes in commercials for cat food on television. Interestingly, when Peter Criss put on the cat costume, his appearance was, although a little silly, but quite cute. As the musician himself explained his choice, his image seemed to “flow out” of his disposition: curious and independent. This is what he said:

One day I was lying on my bed listening to music and my cat sat across from me and stared straight into my eyes. And then I thought about how it would look if his head was attached to my body. And so I had an idea.

Remarkably, the idea worked! Criss has grown into one of the cutest and cutest members of Kiss. When he wrote such a romantic song as Beth, he completely got the image of a soft musician.

Private life

Peter Cross has been married three times in his life. For the first time on Lydia Di Leonardo, with whom he lived for 9 years. In another, model Deborah Jensen, their marriage lasted from 1979 to 1994. In the third - on Gigi Kriss, he lives with her to the present.

It is worth noting that he currently lives in Wall Township, New Jersey. It was from here that he was taken to the hospital in 2008, where he was diagnosed with breast cancer. This terrible disease to defeat himsucceeded, fortunately.

According to friends, Criss is a big fan of pistols. His house contains a whole collection of firearms. He sometimes shoots from them, but never hunts. The musician stated this to Tom Snyder during an interview "Kiss at the Exhibition of Tomorrow", published on 1979-31-10.

Peter Criss Popular Albums

Peter performed for a long time as part of the Kiss group, then left and began to give solo concerts. Then he returned to the team. On October 7, 2000, right on stage in North Charleston (South Carolina), he broke the studio drum set. And although the audience thought that this was part of the show, for the guys it meant one thing: Criss would not be able to perform with them further. There was a big quarrel, after which Peter left the group again. For all the time of his stage activity, he recorded 5 albums:

1. Peter Criss (September 18, 1978).
2. Out of Control (September 1980).
3. Let Me Rock You (May 1982).
4. Cat 1 (August 16, 1994).
5. One For All (July 24, 2007).

Peter Criss's "Drum Solo" is best known to Russian listeners, which he recorded while still in Kiss.