ʾˀCulture
60 NEWSWEEK.COM MARCH 06, 2020
The KISS backstage crew are cheerful, friendly
and professional and the band members them-
selves are attentive, joking easily with fans and
patiently posing for endless rounds of photos.
The days of dressing-room mayhem and hot-and-
cold running groupies and drug dealers are long
gone; but for the makeup, you could be backstage
at the Ice Capades.
Oddly for a band, brand identity is nicely encap-
sulated by lyrics like “No place for hidin’ baby, no
place to run/You pull the trigger of my/love gun”;
for much of their audience, a KISS concert these
days is a return to childhood.
Take John Bartos, president of a Houston and
Philadelphia machinery company, for instance.
While waiting backstage with his wife Marci and
younger sister Toni Shramko to meet Paul Stanley
privately, he beams when he says, “I’m the 55-year-
old president of a big company, and I’m a little kid,”
he says. The visit, which he says is mainly a treat
for his sister, a KISS fan since the age of 5, will cost
him $6,000 and includes a brand-new, black Ibanez
Paul Stanley Signature PS-120 electric guitar, which
he will ask Stanley to autograph. And then smash
on stage at the end of the show.
Stanley comes out of his dressing room in full
KISS regalia, dancing a little on his black platform
boots to make the chains hanging off them jangle.
He chats quietly with the Bartos for a few minutes.
“How are you?” he asks, solicitously. They tell him
they’ve met before at a show of his paintings at a
gallery at an upscale mall in New Jersey and ask if
he remembers. “Yes, yes, I do,” he says. They ask him
what kind of music he listens to at home when he’s
painting. “I listen to Motown and early soul,” he
says. Then he signs the guitar and the four prints of
KISS album artwork Bartos has also brought with
him, then withdraws to his dressing room before
a group meet-and-greet, followed by an extended
photo session with fans.
Bartos says he plans to have the pieces of the gui-
tar framed and displayed in his family room. Later
via email after the show, he writes, “The KISS back-
stage event was all we had hoped for—and more.
The efficient way that the session was organized,
and especially how much time Paul spent with us
were both pleasant surprises.” As for the cost, he
wrote, “You can’t put a price on a memory that will
last a lifetime. That’s the way I justified it.”
ALLENTOWN, ROCK CITY 1 KISS f an Joe Haberkorn with Gene Simmons
and Paul Stanley’s platform boots as part of the “Ultimate KISS Army
Experience.” 2 Stanley on stage amid the pyrotechnics. 3 Elevator shoes of
the stars. 4 Drummer Eric Singer. 5 Simmons operating rock music’s most
famous tongue. 6 A face in the crowd. 7 Rock star moves. 8 Lead guitarist
Tommy Thayer, sans makeup, autographing memorabilia backstage before
the show. 9 Fan Robert Haberkorn posing with one of Simmons’ bass
guitars during a backstage tour.1 0The next generation of KISS f andom.ʺ ʻʽʿʺ˂