Peter Criss crashes his Camaro

On 21. February, 1977, Peter Criss crashed his Camaro in his garage after a long night partying and playing with Kiss at the Nassau Coliseum for 16500 fans. He rammed the car headfirst into the wall, put it in reverse and did the same to the back of the car. He repeated this until finally the car exploded and then caught on fire.

The garage attendant quickly called the fire department and the police. Criss was taken to Bellevue Hospital, where he was treated for two black eyes and a broken nose. His injuries were severe enough to force Kiss to postpone the following show in Hampton, Virginia, as Peter was unable to apply his makeup.

Top photo by Lydia Criss.

Lydia Criss:
“I think Peter was hanging out with Boz Scaggs that night so I felt comfortable and left him in the hands of Boz and the limo driver. We only lived about 15 blocks away, so I had the driver take me home and go back for Peter. When I arrived home I quickly got ready for bed, jumped in and fell asleep almost immediately. Before I knew it, the sun was coming up and the limousine driver, Lou was helping Peter up the steps to our top floor brownstone apartment. It was the first time Lou had ever left the car unattended and was practically carrying Peter up the stairs. I thanked Lou, said good night, locked the door and realized I was in for a morning of horror.
Being half asleep, I wanted to go back to bed, but of course Peter, being wired, wanted me to stay up with him and have sex. I declined his offer; having sex in his condition wasn’t my idea of a good time. Peter was, of course, pissed so he grabbed his keys and walked out of the apartment. I thought nothing of it and went back to sleep.
About 15 minutes later, I was awakened by a loud bang, but didn’t know where it had come from. I looked out the window, glanced up and down the street, but didn’t see anything and went back to sleep. About an hour later, the doorbell rang and it was the police. They asked me if I was Lydia Criss, Peter Criss’s wife and I said yes, fearing what they were going to tell me. They then said, “Your husband was in an accident, but don’t worry he’s okay.” They told me he crashed our car in the garage up the block, where we used to keep it, and that he was in Bellevue Hospital. I couldn’t understand how he could be so injured by just having an accident in a garage. Usually, those accidents are just fender benders.
I quickly got dressed and went over to the hospital. On the way, I stopped in the garage and asked the attendant what had happened. The attendant was all shaken up. He told me he never witnessed anything like this in all his years of working in garages. We used to park our car near the entrance of the garage where there was only enough room to park one car against one wall, another car against the other wall and room between for the other cars to drive in and out of the garage. At this particular time, there was only our car parked against one wall and the other wall was empty. The attendant told me Peter came into the garage, got into the car and started it up. Before he knew it, Peter slammed on the gas and rammed the car head on into the wall, put it in reverse and did the same to the back of the car. He repeated this until finally the car exploded and then caught on fire. The attendant quickly called the fire department and the police. The attendant saved Peter’s life, had he not done this Peter might have died. I saw the car and was sick to my stomach. I was afraid to see what Peter must look like. I ran over to Bellevue Hospital, just across the street and asked to see Peter. Now I was panicking. To make matters worse, they couldn’t find him, which just escalated my level of fear. After about a half-hour of being sent to the wrong places, I finally found Peter, in a hospital bed in the hallway; I was so relieved to see him. I had had all these horrible thoughts in my head that maybe he died before I got to the hospital and maybe they brought him down to the morgue and that was why I couldn’t find him. Believe it or not, he didn’t really look that bad. He had two black eyes and a broken nose. This was another excuse for him to get more drugs. I think this was when he was turned on to Percodan.
I eventually went back to the car, by his recommendation, to retrieve some of the things he said he put under the seat of the car before the police and ambulance arrived.
His injuries were severe enough to force KISS to postpone a show.
When I got to the car, I looked under the seat and found just what he told me would be there: beer bottles, valium, a switchblade knife and a gun. I quickly gathered everything, except the beer bottles, into my pocketbook and thanked my lucky stars as I walked down the block to our apartment.”
– “Sealed With a Kiss” by Lydia Criss.

Peter Criss:
“That night I went to Ashley’s to chill and I hung out with Boz Scaggs until closing time. I got home at daybreak, drunk and wired, and I wanted to have sex with Lydia but she refused. So I grabbed the keys and stormed out of the house and went to the garage down the street where I kept my Camaro. The attendant brought me my car and then turned around to take care of other business. I was so fucked up that I got into the car and accidentally floored it and smashed into the wall of the garage. Then I put it into reverse and floored it again and hit the rear wall. I kept repeating this until the car caught on fire. Lucky for me, one of my neighbors was getting his car and he pulled me out. By then the attendant had called the cops. I was sitting on a bench with my nose broken, bleeding profusely, and I hadn’t even left the garage yet. Somehow I was conscious enough to tell the attendant to call Bill and have him to rush over to the garage.
He looked into the car with his flashlight and he saw my .38, my drugs, and a switchblade. Just then Bill came. Bill took the cop to the side, but I could hear them talking. “There’s a gun in the car. Some drugs too. But since he didn’t hurt nobody but himself, get this stuff out of here in five minutes and I didn’t see anything. But you owe me,” the cop told Bill.
Bill promised him lifetime passes to any KISS show. I had to go to the hospital, so Bill called Lydia and asked her to clean out the car while we went to Bellevue. By the time Lydia arrived at the hospital, I was lying on a gurney in the hallway with two black eyes and a busted nose. They put a bandage on my broken nose and sent me home with a big bottle of Percodan. I had never taken Percodan before, but they were a revelation. A couple of them with champagne was a killer high. But I’m getting ahead of myself. It took Belushi to introduce me to the pleasures of Percodan.”
– “Makeup to Breakup: My Life in and out of Kiss” by Peter Criss.