Kiss releases their seventh studio album “Dynasty”

On 23. May, 1979, Kiss released their seventh studio album “Dynasty”, produced by Vini Poncia and released by Casablanca Records. Kiss hired the South African-born studio drummer Anton Fig, who played on Ace Frehley’s solo album, to play on the Dynasty sessions. Peter Criss only played on the song Dirty Living”.

The album and the following tour were billed as the “Return of Kiss”, as the band had not released a studio album since “Love Gun” in 1977. Instead, the band released their second live album, “Alive II”, that same year, and each member had recorded eponymous solo albums, which were simultaneously released on September 18, 1978.

Paul Stanley:
“Magic Touch was a great song that unfortunately got mucked up when it was recorded, as did a lot of songs on Dynasty and Unmasked. Magic Touch was a song that was really powerful and really heavy and got kind of wimped out. Just the wrong vocal interpretation, wrong way of singing it. But I like the song a lot. Originally the chords to Magic Touch were much grander. It was ballsier. We were dealing with a more poppy approach to our songs in working with Vini. During Dynasty and Unmasked I was trying to find my voice as a singer. I certainly liked all the early stuff I did, but I wanted to go someplace else. I wanted to be able to sing what was in my head and I wasn’t there yet. To do that song today would be a gas. I would love to sing it. Back then I was on a bike with training wheels.”
– “Kiss Behind The Mask: The Official Authorized Biography” by Ken Sharp & David Leaf.

“It’s a good song and it was fun. Vini and I wrote that and it was just real easy to write. The song is on the unplugged album too. Sure Know Something, in particular was a perfect song to benefit from being stripped down. It’s not unusual for the essence of something to get lost in the trappings and Sure Know Something was always fairly simple. To play it acoustically was only to show it off that much more. I still like it very much.”
– “Kiss Behind The Mask: The Official Authorized Biography” by Ken Sharp & David Leaf.

Peter Criss:
“I hardly contributed to Dynasty at all. We recorded “Dirty Living,” a song that Stan and I wrote about the drug scene in New York in the seventies, and that was the only cut I played drums on. They got Anton Fig to play on the rest of the album, but I didn’t feel betrayed; I was happy they got him. I didn’t really want to play with them anymore.”
– “Makeup to breakup” by Peter Criss

Anton Fig
Anton Fig was first introduced to the KISS world when he became the drummer on Ace Frehley’s 1978 eponymous solo album and subsequently became a member of the then-former lead guitarist’s solo project entitled ‘Frehley’s Comet’ from 1984 to 1987. When the band needed a drummer in the absence of Peter Criss, their now member Frehley offered them to work with Fig.

As a result, Anton Fig first appeared on a KISS album on their seventh studio album entitled ‘Dynasty,’ released on May 23, 1979. The drummer played on every song on that album except ‘Dirty Livin’,’ but his tenure with the band wasn’t just about that record as he also recorded another album named ‘Unmasked,’ released on May 20, 1980. KISS management didn’t give credit to Fig for his work within the band until years later to cover up any personnel problems within the band.

Did Anton Fig Officially Replace Peter Criss?
After a successful tenure with the band, Anton Fig was offered to officially replace Peter Criss, who had a drug problem and allegedly deteriorated his skills. In a conversation with Loudwire, Ace Frehley looked back on when the band was looking for a drummer after Criss’ departure. After auditioning many drummers to fill the spot, he offered the band to work with Fig as he had a stint with him before that.

Both Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons agreed to work with Fig, and Frehley called the drummer to inform him that he’s officially a KISS member. After detailing Fig’s excitement over this news which caused him not to sleep all night, Frehley said that his bandmates informed him after a day that the drummer may not be the best choice after all. Therefore, Frehley had to give him a call to tell him that he wasn’t a KISS member anymore.

Talking about Fig’s stint with KISS, Frehley said:
“Talking about when Peter left the group, we were looking for a new drummer. Here’s a fact, and you can insert it into the next Wikipedia at the time you go in and add it that Anton Fig was a member of KISS for one day, the drummer from the David Letterman Show. This is how it transpired. We were looking to audition drummers, we auditioned a dozen of drummers, and Eric Paul was one of them.

Prior to that happening, I called up Paul and Gene because I’ve been working with Anton Fig on my solo record, and I said, ‘Why don’t we get Anton Fig to play the drums?’ They both agreed. So I called up Anton and said, ‘You’re in the band.’ He was thrilled; he couldn’t sleep all night. The next day, Paul and Gene call me and say, ‘You know what, we don’t think Anton’s a good choice.’ So, I had to do the dirty work, call back Anton and tell him, ‘Sorry Anton, you’re not in the band.’ For 24 hours, Anton was in KISS.“

Though this is Frehley’s side of the story, Anton Fig previously explained his tenure with KISS during an interview with Vinyl Writer Music. His recalling of the entire situation was slightly different from his ‘former bandmate.’ According to the drummer, he was excited to work with the band for their recordings together, but he wasn’t all star-struck by them as he wasn’t into rock music at the time. As for their offer to become an official member, Fig claimed that he rejected the offer as he was busy with his band named Spider.

About becoming an official member of KISS, Fig noted:
“I knew very little about KISS then. To me, they were a band that I saw advertised on the side of a bus in New York City. I had been so into jazz at that period of my life that I was not following a lot on the rock side. Through a mutual friend I was connected with Ace Frehley and I did his record.

The record came out great, and I was asked to do ‘Dynasty.’ At the time, Peter Criss had broken his arm, and they needed to get the record out on schedule. I was not star-struck, but I knew it was a big-time rock band, so that was exciting, and I was confident enough in my playing to just play the songs as I heard them.

They never asked me to play like Peter and pretty much let me do whatever I wanted to do. After both albums, Ace did ask me if I wanted to join. I had a band called Spider that had a song in the top 40 and wanted to pursue that. So I agonized for a bit but knew I could not do it. Later, Gene and Paul said they thought that Ace and I might be too much of a team and so not an ideal situation for them.”