On 3. February 1978, Peter Criss pranked Gene Simmons when playing a show at the Rhode Island Providence Civic Center, Providence, letting the tour manager Fritz Postlethwaite end the song “Black Diamond” on drums, wearing Gene Simmons’ makeup and his old costume.
Fritz Postlethwaite:
Peter asked me if I would play this trick on Gene, and I said sure. So Richard Monier, KISS’s wardrobe man, put me into one of Gene’s old costumes and makeup, which was kind of a stretch since I’m 5’7”. At the end of the last song, Peter stepped down, and I jumped up there, and the riser started to go up. Gene looked up at me to get his cue, and he sort of stopped and turned back to the audience and kept playing. A second later, he stopped playing and put his hands by his sides and stared at me. Meanwhile, bombs are going off, I’m 25 feet in the air and Gene is just standing there staring at me. Somehow, we got the song ended and Gene unhooked the strap of his bass and it just dropped on the stage. He started walking around the end of the amp rail and one of the security guards had to grab him because he was about to walk right off the stage which was about six feet high. They pushed him back and threw him into the limousine and got him out of the building. The other three guys were going to fly home, and we had a Lear Jet to take us out of there. Gene didn’t like to fly, so he was going to go back to Manhattan via limousine with Bill Aucoin. “Bill relayed this story to me later. Gene got in the car and just sort of sat there and stared, and he wouldn’t talk. And Bill said, ‘What’s the matter?’ He said, ‘Well, I looked back there, and I thought I saw myself playing drums.’ And Gene, who is a very straight guy, said ‘I think I’m losing my mind, Bill.’ Bill said: ‘That wasn’t you, that was Fritz.’ Gene was so angry that he wouldn’t speak to me for a week. Not because I had played a trick on him, but because Gene was a purist about the show. The show was paramount; everything had to be professional. I had messed up Gene’s show and he almost never forgave me for that. We laughed about it two weeks later, but he was very angry with me at first, and Peter, of course, just got a lot of delight out of that.
– “Kiss Alive Forever: The Complete Touring History” by Curt Gooch and Jess Suhs.
Fritz Postlethwaite on Anton Fig’s forum:
One of the posts asked if you had ever been asked to “put on the makeup” for KISS. I played with them often at sound checks, although it was more like time-keeping as my drumming was very rusty. However, I did go on in makeup one night in an arena in Connecticut to do the final number of the last show of a tour as a joke Peter was playing on Gene. I must tell you that getting that greasepaint off took days. It was awful stuff that permeated your pores, and I only wore it once. I know we discussed your joining them at the time but I’m not sure I mentioned how awful that greasepaint was.
Peter Criss:
Our all-time greatest prank was pulled on Gene. | came up with the idea and enlisted the whole band, even Bill. The idea was to have Fritz— who was then serving as my drum tech and whom Gene always tormented — get dressed up in one of Gene’s old costumes and makeup. Near the end of our last number, I was going to switch places with Fritz and I’d wait backstage as Fritz took up the drumming. It could work because Fritz was a good drummer and he knew all our songs. Plus Fritz would be sixty feet in the air, and through all the fireworks, Gene would never realize that it was Fritz in his costume.
So near the end of “Black Diamond,” we made the switch. Fritz threw in an extra beat and Gene looked up at the drums and just stared at Fritz with his mouth open. It was like he saw his doppelgänger. I was backstage, pissing my pants. Gene then looked away and shook his head as if to say, “Did I just see that?” Then he looked over to Paul and Ace, and they both looked noncommittal. When Gene looked back up at Fritz, I told Fritz to start giving him the tongue move. Now Gene was flipping out. Meanwhile, Ace and Paul were playing like there was nothing wrong. We ended the song and Gene looked up at Fritz one last time, dropped his bass, and almost fell off the stage. They had to catch him. Then I rushed up and put my arm around him.
“Great fucking show, man,” I smiled.
We took our bows and Gene was still in total shock.
“I think I’m losing my mind,” he said. “I saw myself on the drums.”
“How can that be?” I said innocently. “I was up there.”
“I have to talk to Gui about this,” he said, and got into the limo with Bill.
We were playing in Providence, so they had a long ride back to the city. About halfway home, Gene was so freaked out that Bill had to spill the beans and tell Gene about the prank. I don’t think Gene spoke to anybody for a week.
– “Makeup to Breakup: My Life In and Out of Kiss” by Peter Criss
