Artists On Record Starring ADIKA Live! caught up with former KISS manager Larry Mazer to discuss his tenure with the band. Mazer was brought on board in 1989, six years into the band’s unmasked era and just as the Hot In The Shade album was being finished. Check out the interview below.
Mazer: “From the day I got involved in 1989, promoters would call every day, ‘When are they putting the makeup on?’ So there was a track on the record called ‘Rise to It’, and I came up with an idea for a video, I said, ‘You know what? Let’s shut these people up.’ And I got them to put the makeup on in the video.
Bruce Kulick (guitar) and Eric Carr (drums) – obviously not being original members – they were in the outfits but they sat with their back to the cameras. You didn’t see their faces, but it was Gene and Paul in full makeup. We did the video, and it was not a successful video. It sort of said to me, ‘There you go. That was yesterday. Let’s move forward, creatively with new music.’ Ironically, five years later they did put the makeup back on, but that video for ‘Rise To It’ was sort of an homage to the makeup years. That’s not what I wanted to do. I wanted to keep making great music, which I think we did on the Revenge record (1992), of making a great KISS album.”
