On May 18, 1980, Peter Criss officially leaved Kiss, or as Kiss says “Was voted out of the band”.
Bob McAdams:
“Peter was getting so stoned he couldn’t play anymore. Peter’s final gig was near the end of 1979. In May of 1980 a meeting was called. I went with Ace but I wasn’t in the room when it happened. Peter was definitely fired. Peter came out and said it was a mutual understanding that he would no longer play in the band. Whatever! The truth was that they just didn’t want him around.”
– “Kiss & Tell” by Gordon G.G. Gebert & Bob McAdams
They had a very limited time to find a new drummer as the first show of the tour was booked for Kiss in two months time at the Palladium in New York on Friday, 25th July. The band had already postponed a European tour scheduled between May and August because of Peter’s departure. They couldn’t also miss their hometown show and “Unmasked” album launch gig. They had a month to find a drummer and a month to rehearse him in. After trying out “hundreds of drummers”, according to Gene Simmons, they hired Brooklyn-born Eric Carr.
Paul Stanley told Sounds magazine in 1980:
“Before you even got to play with us you had to be interviewed, because if we auditioned everybody who wanted to try out we’d still be auditioning people today”.
Peter Criss:
“A few weeks after I got back from my honeymoon, I got a call to come to the office because the guys had something important to discuss. I got to our conference room, which had a nice bar and a huge round table and all our gold records on the walls. There they were. ‘Where is everybody?’ I asked. ‘Ah, this is between us,’ one of them said. They cut to the chase. They didn’t want me in the band anymore. I was too out of control. I had lost my chops.”
