On 21. November, 1975, Indiana natives Bill Starkey and Jay Evans founded the legendary Kiss Army after a local radio station refused to play Kiss. During Kiss’ 1975 show at Hulman Civic-University Center in Terre Haute, Starkey was brought on stage and honoured with a plaque from the band!
Jeff Suhs and Curt Gooch:
Although its origins were nearly a year old, the Kiss Army was more or less born in November, 1975. in January of that year, two teens, Jay Evans & William R. Starkey began pestering local radio station WVTS to play Kiss. After being ignored by WVTS program director Rich Dickerson, the two began calling them saying “We are the army, yeah, The Kiss Army.”
– “Kiss Alive Forever: The complete touring history” by Jeff Suhs and Curt Gooch
IndyStar:
“For me, Kiss is all about the music,” said Starkey, a 57-year-old Indianapolis Public Schools teacher. “It was never about the costumes. The whole idea behind the Kiss Army was to get them on the radio, because we liked the songs.”
The Kiss Army caught the attention of Kiss management, who made the band’s visit to Terre Haute an unforgettable experience for Starkey.
Starkey met the band at the airport, he appeared with Kiss during a visit to WVTS and he accepted a “Kiss Honorary Member” plaque onstage during the show. A gathering at a Chinese restaurant followed the show, and he ate breakfast with the band at its hotel the next morning.
Mid-1970s Starkey had an idea that he would run the national Kiss Army fan club from its home base of Terre Haute. Actually, a Nov. 10, 1975, letter from Rock Steady Management — the company representing Kiss at the time — to Starkey notes that the band looks forward to the organization of “national Kiss Army headquarters in Terre Haute.”
But Starkey’s leadership of the Kiss Army was short-lived.
In 1976, Starkey received a letter from Boutwell Enterprises of Woodland Hills, Calif., informing him that they would be running the Kiss Army. This for-profit version of the Kiss Army dissolved around 1980, but in the late ’70s, Kiss Army was as dedicated and influential a fanbase as the Grateful Dead’s Deadheads and Jimmy Buffett’s Parrotheads.
In 2003 book “Kiss: Behind the Mask,” Ron Boutwell is quoted as saying the Kiss Army grew to nearly 100,000 members after the release of 1976 album “Destroyer,” and the club collected $5,000 daily in membership dues.
Starkey received no financial compensation. He has been the band’s guest at some concerts in Indiana, and at other times he has fallen off the Kiss radar.
– Read more at IndyStar
Kiss manager Bill Aucoin arranged for the U.S. Army to meet Kiss and escort them to radio station WVTS – a sort of “Kiss Army meets the real Army.” Kiss Army co-founder Bill Starkey also met them at the airport, where Kiss arrived via private jet.
On 10. November, 1975, Alan Miller of Rock Steady Inc. sent a letter to Bill Starkey who wanted to start the Kiss Army.
Peter Criss:
“About a month after Cadillac, we presided over the official inauguration of the KISS Army which would become the greatest fan club in rock ‘n’ roll history. The whole concept for the KISS Army was formed at the beginning of 1975 when two teenagers from Terre Haute, Indiana, Bill Starkey and Jay Evans, began haranguing the program director of WVTS, a local radio station, to play KISS music. The program director blew them off again and again, telling them that KISS was a “fag band,” until the two kids started sending letters threatening to blow up the station and actually picketed the station, claiming to be representing the KISS Army By July, WVTS had added KISS to its playlist and kept referring to the KISS Army for requesting it. Somehow Alan Miller, whom we nicknamed “Little Bill” because he dressed identically to Bill Aucoin, got wind of this, and with his genius flair for publicity decided we should go to Terre Haute and give Starkey, who was the self-proclaimed General of the KISS Army a plaque onstage. He also coordinated preshow publicity, and Starkey and his pal Evans called into WVTS nightly to hype the show. And thanks to these two kids, we managed to sell out a new twenty-one-thousand-seat arena, something that even Aerosmith couldn’t do.
So when we got to Terre Haute, we were treated like visiting dignitaries. The local Army base provided a Jeep escort for us from the airport to downtown, where they had a huge parade: the KISS Army meets the U.S. army. Again, Aucoin was way ahead of us on this. “You’re the generals, and your army needs you,” he lectured us. “You have to go out there and show the kids that you really love them, that you believe in what they believe.”
From these humble origins, the KISS Army spread like wildfire. Which just goes to show the devotion of our fans. A KISS Army Who ever heard of a Led Zeppelin Army or a Rolling Stones Army? This was some serious adulation. And the timing was right. We had just given them a national anthem with “Rock and Roll All Nite.” We began to close with that song and drop thousands of pounds of confetti and balloons all over the audience. We had turned our show into a magnificently chaotic party.
Soon we couldn’t stay at a hotel without the KISS Army invading it. They would storm the hotel en masse in their homemade costumes and makeup and sit in the lobby and chant song names over and over again: “Firehouse! Firehouse!” “Black Diamond! Black Diamond!” Then they’d start chanting our individual names. Of course the hotel management didn’t take too kindly to this, and the police were called every night. After a few minutes, the cops would disperse the crowd and the staff would stick us with the cleanup bill.”
– “Makeup to Breakup: My Life in and out of Kiss” by Peter Criss.
Related Kiss posts:
Kiss is certified Gold for the first time
Kiss does a photo shoot at the Empire State Building
Kiss does the Music Life Magazine photo session
Kiss releases their third studio album “Dressed to Kill”
The Kiss photo session “White Room Session” takes place
Kiss does the Playboy building photo session
On 21. November, 1975, Indiana natives Bill Starkey and Jay Evans founded the legendary Kiss Army after a local radio station refused to play Kiss. During Kiss’ 1975 show at Hulman Civic-University Center in Terre Haute, Starkey was brought on stage and honoured with a plaque from the band!
Jeff Suhs and Curt Gooch:
Although its origins were nearly a year old, the Kiss Army was more or less born in November, 1975. in January of that year, two teens, Jay Evans & William R. Starkey began pestering local radio station WVTS to play Kiss. After being ignored by WVTS program director Rich Dickerson, the two began calling them saying “We are the army, yeah, The Kiss Army.”
– “Kiss Alive Forever: The complete touring history” by Jeff Suhs and Curt Gooch
IndyStar:
“For me, Kiss is all about the music,” said Starkey, a 57-year-old Indianapolis Public Schools teacher. “It was never about the costumes. The whole idea behind the Kiss Army was to get them on the radio, because we liked the songs.”
The Kiss Army caught the attention of Kiss management, who made the band’s visit to Terre Haute an unforgettable experience for Starkey.
Starkey met the band at the airport, he appeared with Kiss during a visit to WVTS and he accepted a “Kiss Honorary Member” plaque onstage during the show. A gathering at a Chinese restaurant followed the show, and he ate breakfast with the band at its hotel the next morning.
Mid-1970s Starkey had an idea that he would run the national Kiss Army fan club from its home base of Terre Haute. Actually, a Nov. 10, 1975, letter from Rock Steady Management — the company representing Kiss at the time — to Starkey notes that the band looks forward to the organization of “national Kiss Army headquarters in Terre Haute.”
But Starkey’s leadership of the Kiss Army was short-lived.
In 1976, Starkey received a letter from Boutwell Enterprises of Woodland Hills, Calif., informing him that they would be running the Kiss Army. This for-profit version of the Kiss Army dissolved around 1980, but in the late ’70s, Kiss Army was as dedicated and influential a fanbase as the Grateful Dead’s Deadheads and Jimmy Buffett’s Parrotheads.
In 2003 book “Kiss: Behind the Mask,” Ron Boutwell is quoted as saying the Kiss Army grew to nearly 100,000 members after the release of 1976 album “Destroyer,” and the club collected $5,000 daily in membership dues.
Starkey received no financial compensation. He has been the band’s guest at some concerts in Indiana, and at other times he has fallen off the Kiss radar.
– Read more at IndyStar
Kiss manager Bill Aucoin arranged for the U.S. Army to meet Kiss and escort them to radio station WVTS – a sort of “Kiss Army meets the real Army.” Kiss Army co-founder Bill Starkey also met them at the airport, where Kiss arrived via private jet.
On 10. November, 1975, Alan Miller of Rock Steady Inc. sent a letter to Bill Starkey who wanted to start the Kiss Army.
Peter Criss:
“About a month after Cadillac, we presided over the official inauguration of the KISS Army which would become the greatest fan club in rock ‘n’ roll history. The whole concept for the KISS Army was formed at the beginning of 1975 when two teenagers from Terre Haute, Indiana, Bill Starkey and Jay Evans, began haranguing the program director of WVTS, a local radio station, to play KISS music. The program director blew them off again and again, telling them that KISS was a “fag band,” until the two kids started sending letters threatening to blow up the station and actually picketed the station, claiming to be representing the KISS Army By July, WVTS had added KISS to its playlist and kept referring to the KISS Army for requesting it. Somehow Alan Miller, whom we nicknamed “Little Bill” because he dressed identically to Bill Aucoin, got wind of this, and with his genius flair for publicity decided we should go to Terre Haute and give Starkey, who was the self-proclaimed General of the KISS Army a plaque onstage. He also coordinated preshow publicity, and Starkey and his pal Evans called into WVTS nightly to hype the show. And thanks to these two kids, we managed to sell out a new twenty-one-thousand-seat arena, something that even Aerosmith couldn’t do.
So when we got to Terre Haute, we were treated like visiting dignitaries. The local Army base provided a Jeep escort for us from the airport to downtown, where they had a huge parade: the KISS Army meets the U.S. army. Again, Aucoin was way ahead of us on this. “You’re the generals, and your army needs you,” he lectured us. “You have to go out there and show the kids that you really love them, that you believe in what they believe.”
From these humble origins, the KISS Army spread like wildfire. Which just goes to show the devotion of our fans. A KISS Army Who ever heard of a Led Zeppelin Army or a Rolling Stones Army? This was some serious adulation. And the timing was right. We had just given them a national anthem with “Rock and Roll All Nite.” We began to close with that song and drop thousands of pounds of confetti and balloons all over the audience. We had turned our show into a magnificently chaotic party.
Soon we couldn’t stay at a hotel without the KISS Army invading it. They would storm the hotel en masse in their homemade costumes and makeup and sit in the lobby and chant song names over and over again: “Firehouse! Firehouse!” “Black Diamond! Black Diamond!” Then they’d start chanting our individual names. Of course the hotel management didn’t take too kindly to this, and the police were called every night. After a few minutes, the cops would disperse the crowd and the staff would stick us with the cleanup bill.”
– “Makeup to Breakup: My Life in and out of Kiss” by Peter Criss.
Related Kiss posts:
Kiss is certified Gold for the first time
Kiss does a photo shoot at the Empire State Building
Kiss does the Music Life Magazine photo session
Kiss releases their third studio album “Dressed to Kill”
The Kiss photo session “White Room Session” takes place
Kiss does the Playboy building photo session