Eric Carr

The Fox , Eric Carr's mask at Kiss

Eric Carr (real name Paul Charles Caravello ; born July 12, 1950 in Brooklyn , New York City , † November 24, 1991 ibid) was an American drummer .

Time before kiss

Paul Caravello was born in Brooklyn where he graduated from high school in 1969. Before he was successful as a musician, he worked like his father as a gas fitter.

Caravello played drums in various groups in his youth and managed to record with some of these bands. Usually it was singles , later albums were included. The first known recording was made in 1967 and contained the songs I cry at Night and Your Turn to cry written by Caravello by the group "The Cellarmen". The drummer later played with the groups "Salt and Pepper" (1970 to 1973), "Creation" (which later renamed themselves "Mother Nature / Father Time"; 1973 to 1977) and "Bionic Boogie" (1977). In 1979 Caravello recorded the album Lightning with the group "Lightning" , which was released in November on Casablanca Records - the company to which Kiss was also under contract.

In December Caravello switched to the group "Flasher". Their keyboardist , Paul Turino, left the group in March 1980. Caravello met him again by chance in early June 1980 and invited him to a gig, after which Turino advised him to leave the band as well - which Caravello had already considered. Turino told him that Kiss was looking for a new drummer, which Caravello initially thought was a joke, but Turino managed to convince him of the seriousness of his statement.

Drummer at KISS

Drummer Peter Criss had to leave Kiss in May 1980 after he was no longer able to play or to tour due to his addiction problems ; however, he retained his twenty-five percent stake in the band.

Immediately after his release, Kiss' management placed advertisements in relevant music magazines to find a new drummer for the group. The successor to Criss should be able to sing, be as free as possible and play “double kick” (with two bass drums ) - hundreds of applications were received. The application deadline was June 17, 1980. One week after the advertising campaign, Jayne Grodd was hired by Kiss manager Bill Aucoin to conduct the interviews that were to take place at Lady Astor's restaurant in New York .

Caravello had sent his application in a flashy orange folder that caught Grodd's attention: it was the first folder she pulled from the pile on her desk. She liked the photo he'd sent, so she also listened to the cassette that was sent, on which Caravello was singing. Since he could also play "double-kick", she had a conversation with him and then sent him for a second interview, this time with her boss, Bill Aucoin, which took place on June 19, 1980.

From June 23, 1980, Caravello had to compete in several practical performances in the rehearsal studio "Starr Sound" with applicants like Carmine Appice ; the last of these auditions took place on June 27, 1980. At the end of the audition series there was a head-to-head race between him and Bobby Rondinelli , who later became the drummer for Rainbow and Black Sabbath ; the band chose Caravello because he was more convincing vocally. On July 1, 1980, Caravello was hired. To avoid having two members with the name Paul in the group, Caravello chose the first name Eric and shortened his last name to Carr, which was his stage name .

The choice of mask and costume was not easy, it was just clear that the new drummer would be an animal, as Peter Criss had done. The use of Criss' cat make-up was out of the question as he had retained the rights to the design. Carr experimented with a bird of prey mask to represent a hawk , but failed to make the mask so that a beak could be seen from the front and side. Nevertheless, a costume was designed. It consisted of a jumpsuit , two vests , one of which was decorated with feathers, and a cloak - all yellow and orange.

The costume and mask for the figure of the fox were not made until July 24, 1980, one day before the new band member was officially presented to the public on July 25, 1980. A concert at the “Palladium” in New York was specially scheduled for this occasion . As a first gift, Carr received a Porsche 924 . Eric Carr was the first musician who was employed by Kiss, with the original line-up all four members had equal rights and all income was divided by four.

On August 24, 1980, Carr's first tour with Kiss, the Unmasked Tour, began in Rome . The European tour ended on October 16, 1980 and continued on November 8, 1980 in Australia and New Zealand , where the band had never played before. The final concert in Auckland on December 3rd was also Ace Frehley's last concert with Kiss. He left the group in June 1982.

Carr recorded seven albums with Kiss between 1980 and 1991: Music from the Elder , Creatures of the Night , Lick It Up , Animalize , Asylum , Crazy Nights and Hot in the Shade . At the concerts of the group he took over the vocals for the title Black Diamond . He made his first vocal contribution on a Kiss record with the title Beth on the 1988 best-of album Smashes, Trashes & Hits . For the re-recording of the ballad that Peter Criss had originally sung, only a new vocal track was recorded, while the music was taken from the original 1976 band. It wasn't until 1989 that Carr got the opportunity to sing a rock song that he had also written himself: Little Caesar appeared on the album Hot in the Shade .

In March 1991, a malignant was at Carr tumor in the right atrium observed: After the drummer already some time with a high fever , headaches and lasting cough had plagued, he went to a doctor who diagnosed an enlargement of the heart and him to a cardiologist than had . This diagnosed an inflammation-related accumulation of fluid in the pericardium ( pericarditis ), which was treated immediately. After the inflammation was resolved, the follow-up examination revealed the tumor, which was repeatedly pushed into the heart valve by the heart's action.

Carr immediately had an operation and on April 9, 1991 the tumor was removed from his heart. Shortly afterwards, he had recovered enough to work with Kiss on the recordings of God Gave Rock 'n' Roll to You II , a reworked cover version of a song by the group Argent , the Kiss to the soundtrack to Bill & Ted's crazy journey into the future contributed to being able to work. He couldn't play but was able to sing the backing vocals .

After further tumors were discovered in Carr's lungs at the beginning of the month, he began chemotherapy on June 9 and was discharged from hospital cancer-free six weeks later. That same week he flew to Los Angeles to take part in the recording of the video clip for God Gave Rock 'n' Roll to You II .

On September 5, 1991, the drummer attended the MTV Video Music Awards at the Universal Amphitheater in Los Angeles ; this was his last public appearance. On September 14, 1991, Carr suffered a brain hemorrhage and was hospitalized again. A few weeks later he suffered a second cerebral haemorrhage, which caused him to fall into a coma and died on November 24, 1991 at the age of 41.

The band members were initially reluctant to comment on the death of their drummer, and the impression arose that they continued their work unmoved. The American media (including CNN , MTV and numerous print media) reacted, however, and the death of Eric Carr received international attention. The Rolling Stone Magazine looked, however, does not cause even mentioning the death of drummer, which resulted in January 1992 that Kiss criticized the behavior of the sheet in a letter, which, however, only as an abbreviated letter was printed.

Eric Carr, who was not married, left behind his parents and two siblings. He was buried on November 30, 1991 in the Cedar Hill Cemetery and Mausoleum in Newburgh , New York .

Others

Carr was also active as a songwriter and wrote with other artists. While at Kiss, he worked with Bryan Adams and Jim Vallance in 1983 ; the jointly written track Don't Leave Me Lonely appeared on Adams' album Cuts Like a Knife in 1984 . The 1987 Frehley's Comet debut album included the song Breakout, written by him, Frehley and Richie Scarlett . The self-titled album by Faith Circus , released in 2008, contains the title Can you Feel it , written by Carr with Bruce Kulick and Adam Mitchell .

Carr also developed the Rockheads . These were comic characters that were supposed to serve as the basis for a cartoon series , which however did not materialize. Carr drew the characters and developed the story himself; with Bruce Kulick and Adam Mitchell he wrote pieces of music that should serve for the soundtrack. In 1998 an EP was released under the title The Rockheads with four titles that were created for The Rockheads .

In 1999 Bruce Kulick produced the CD Rockology , which contained pieces that Carr had written between 1986 and 1989, including the songs Eyes Of Love and Somebody's Waiting , which he wrote for the Kiss album Hot in the Shade .

Bruce Kulick wrote the song Dear Friend for his band Union's second studio album , The Blue Room , released in 2000 , which he dedicated to Eric Carr and in which he expressed what he felt after Carr's death.

Greg Prato, a journalist who writes for Rolling Stone and Allmusic , among others , published his book The Eric Carr Story in March 2011 .

After his death, Carr's family set up the Eric Carr Foundation with the support of Kiss, which aims to help in the fight against cancer.

Private life

Eric Carr was dating Carrie Stevens, who was Playboy magazine's playmate in June 1997 .

Tale of the Fox

In 2000 the DVD Inside the Tale of the Fox - The Eric Carr Story was released , which was produced by Jack Edward Sawyers, Loretta Caravello and Bruce Kulick. This DVD contains interviews with people who share their memories of Eric Carr with the audience and thus tell the story of the drummer.

Bands before kiss

• The Allures (ca.1965)
• The Cellarmen (1965 to 1968)
• Things that go bump in the night (1968 to 1969)
• Smack (1969)
• Salt 'n' Pepper (1970 to?)
• Creation (? Until 1975)
• Mother Nature / Father Time (1975 to 1979)
• Flasher (1979 to June 1980)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Information on kissfaq.com (English)
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Dale Sherman: Black Diamond - The Unauthorized Biography of Kiss. Collectors Guide Publishing Inc., 1997, ISBN 1-896522-35-1
3. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h} Curt Gooch, Jeff Suhs: Kiss Alive Forever - A Complete Touring History. Billboard Books 2002, first edition, ISBN 0-8230-8322-5
4. ↑ Julian Gill: The Kiss Album Focus - Hell Or High Water (1983-1996). kissfaq.com 2010, ISBN 978-0-9822537-0-0
5. ↑ Article Kiss - The Story. In: Rock Power. June 1992, p. 21

Web links

• Official Eric Carr Website
• Eric Carr in the Find a Grave database . Retrieved September 15, 2017.