With KISS recently in the news with the Kennedy Center Honors and the untimely death of original guitarist Ace Frehley, there have been a few conversations about them. On one recent video clip, someone asked the question: “Was KISS relevant in the 80s?” Of course, the answer was no, and they went on to say that KISS became irrelevant after Ace and Peter left the group. I understand that line of thinking and probably would agree to it if I had not been introduced to them in the 80s.

To start, I was aware of the band in the 70s. I had relatives who received records as gifts, and I watched the made-for-TV movie, Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park, back in 1978, which is where I was exposed to their music. I really paid no attention to them until 1983.

Growing up, I didn’t have cable, so I didn’t have MTV, but I did have family that played the station as background noise at family gatherings. “Lick It Up” was a video that was in rotation at the time and gave me a glimpse into the band sans the makeup. My first direct interaction with them was when Animalize was released. Every time I got into the car, I would hear an advertisement for the album with “Heaven’s on Fire” playing in the background. I liked it. I really didn’t link it to the group in the makeup from all those years ago, and I probably didn’t connect the dots to the “Lick It Up” video from the previous year. I was 13 and moving into a musical direction that was on the outskirts of Top 40 radio. From the cassette purchase at Gold Circle to the home video release of the Animalize concert, I was hooked. To me, the band was Paul, Gene, Eric, and Bruce. I copied the audio from the VHS to cassette and took it with me everywhere I could take my Walkman. “Cold Gin” became a top-three song, which it still remains to this day. KISS became the gold standard.

When Asylum was released, it was the first cassette I purchased with my own money. My cousins were in town, so we jumped into his van and took off for the local department store. The album remains my favorite of their catalog to this day; there is not a song I skip.

Crazy Nights and Hot in the Shade became favorites as well, and Revenge is a constant staple in my Apple Music playlists.

So, was KISS relevant in the 80s? The answer has to be yes. Anyone who was introduced to them in that decade and then discovered their past catalog would say so. I agree that there is a certain feeling when listening to those classic 70s albums, and as I collected them throughout the years, many of those tracks became favorites, with “Strutter” being a top-five track and the original “Cold Gin” hitting the top-three. But the 80s are my cornerstone when it comes to this band, and as their legacy continues to remain, they will stay that way.