KISS fan? You’re getting your ass kicked!

wise · Post by **wise** » Tue Jan 15, 2019 6:29 pm

I’ve heard lots of stories of KISS fans getting into fights. Was this mainly because KISS changed their style from 1978 through 1981 or were KISS fans still threatened by bullies during the 1974-1977 era?

Who exactly were these bullies who wanted to kick KISS fans asses? We’re they disco dancing posers? Were they hard rock fans of Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple or Aerosmith?

Signed,

Just looking for answers

metaldad · Post by **metaldad** » Tue Jan 15, 2019 6:35 pm

In 77-78-79 I heard all sorts of shit
Fuck you they suck
You like Fags , only girls wear makeup
Take the shirt off etc
You don’t know real music ( Zep , Stones etc)
Nobody ever touched me
But it was rough for sure

Rockandrolloverman · Post by **Rockandrolloverman** » Tue Jan 15, 2019 6:52 pm

I do believe that he is the cheap plywood HITS logo in the picture

I actually touched that sign on that tour

GACatmandu · Post by **GACatmandu** » Tue Jan 15, 2019 7:15 pm

Nobody ever bugged me, and I wouldn't have cared if they did, it's music, not worth getting a fight over.

PsychoElder · Post by **PsychoElder** » Tue Jan 15, 2019 7:24 pm

People have told me that KISS sucks plenty of times through the years but never any fights. Now instead of KISS sucks it’s KISS lip syncs. Everybody that knows I’m a fan mentions it.

star_paul12 · Post by **star_paul12** » Tue Jan 15, 2019 9:03 pm

That wasn’t limited to just the 70s. When I became a fan in 7th grade, which was 2001, that mentality was still very, very much alive. I’ve always wondered if it would’ve been different had it been 96 or so. But in the early 2000s I can very much confirm that kiss was anything but a “cool” band. It’s always been interesting to me how that response has been such a continuous, pervasive part of their fan culture.

peopleselbow · Post by **peopleselbow** » Tue Jan 15, 2019 9:09 pm

In my neighborhood you had the freaks who liked UFO, Rush and Zeppelin and they hated KISS.

Then you had the jocks and gangbangers who liked disco and hated KISS.

I was still a KISS fan and then they go and make a DISCO song. I was really picked on from all sides.

Soylent Gene · Post by **Soylent Gene** » Tue Jan 15, 2019 9:59 pm

I used to hear KISS Sucks all the time when I was a kid but no one ever threatened to beat me up over it. Where the hell did some of guys grow up that kids wanted to beat you up over a rock band???

metalfuel · Post by **metalfuel** » Wed Jan 16, 2019 3:41 am

I've had all the remarks that we're already mentioned, fuck 'em and the horse they rode in on.

They never touched me............... HA! they woulddn't dare to.

NIGHTTHING · Post by **NIGHTTHING** » Wed Jan 16, 2019 8:39 am

High school in the late '70s was rough - I was not physically harrassed because I was a big guy, but verbally ridiculed and things of mine with a KISS logo or face were damaged when I'm not looking...

It was the new wave of sub-punks that attempted to rile me.

Come mid-1980, though, everyone was a KISS fan (if only for six months or so).

peopleselbow · Post by **peopleselbow** » Wed Jan 16, 2019 4:04 pm

Soylent Gene wrote: ↑
Tue Jan 15, 2019 9:59 pm
I used to hear KISS Sucks all the time when I was a kid but no one ever threatened to beat me up over it. Where the hell did some of guys grow up that kids wanted to beat you up over a rock band???

Chicago - the disco guys and the rock guys fought all the time. A friend of mine got the living shit kicked out of him for wearing a Rush T-shirt and he was on the wrestling team. It was 5 on 1.

I was more of a loner. Played sports but never was really popular and I liked it that way. Loved hard rock and metal but never partied. Drank a couple of times and puked my guts out and smoked weed a couple of times and it burned my throat. That was enough for me.

His Majesty · Post by **His Majesty** » Wed Jan 16, 2019 4:13 pm

Got into some scraps in Elementary school. Kids made fun of my KISS lunchbox, which made its way across a few of those kids heads.

Tommyr · Post by **Tommyr** » Wed Jan 16, 2019 4:58 pm

Never got into fights for liking Kiss. Heard a lot of shit but never came to blows. No need to fight over a fucking rock group for fuck sakes. It's not like you're defending a girlfriend or sibling.

Crown Royal · Post by **Crown Royal** » Thu Jan 17, 2019 7:08 am

The worst I received for being a KISS fan is an occasional eye-roll here and there.

Most people don't care one way or the other. Some people find it cool, and says stuff like "KISS isn't my cup of tea, but I get why people like them, they are pretty wild", or something along those lines.

Thunderous_Lay · Post by **Thunderous_Lay** » Thu Jan 17, 2019 7:38 am

False memory ? Confabulation ?

Either one, really.

Kissologist · Post by **Kissologist** » Thu Jan 17, 2019 8:20 am

Never got into a fight over KISS.
I always took the stupid comments from where they came from and laugh about them

Wally Swift · Post by **Wally Swift** » Thu Jan 17, 2019 9:03 am

I caught a lot of shit for loving The Runaways 'cause they were girls. I'm from New York so KISS wasn't really a problem '74-'77.

Wally Swift · Post by **Wally Swift** » Thu Jan 17, 2019 9:05 am

My sister-in-law often uses the fact that I'm a KISS fan as proof that I'm all the other evil things she imagines me to be. Miserable fat bitch is just jealous that my wife and I are going on 21 years of marriage and she got dumped after only a few years.

styxter · Post by **styxter** » Thu Jan 17, 2019 9:30 am

The worst Kiss insults I've ever heard are all right here...daily.

Wiped Out 78 · Post by **Wiped Out 78** » Thu Jan 17, 2019 9:47 am

My older siblings gave me crap about KISS, but they gave me crap about everything I listened to (Van Halen, Ozzy, etc). Never cared about a band (or knew anyone who did) enough to get in a fist fight over it.

By the time KISS became "uncool" (Dynasty-Unmasked), they were considered a kiddie band, and nobody really talked about them anymore. At least not in my high school.

Diss · Post by **Diss** » Thu Jan 17, 2019 10:02 am

I remember being in elementary school when KISS was just starting to break big and coming into class wearing a KISS t-shirt. Kids were like, "Oh, that's so cool, that's KISS!" "Where did you get that?" "Awesome."

Flash forward about four years later to middle school. The "Dynasty" period. I come to school wearing my Dynasty tour shirt I got from Largo, Night 1. "Fag!" "KISS sucks!" I remember some kid threatening to punch me unless I "admitted" I was a "fag" for wearing a KISS t-shirt. I was scared, but I said nothing. He didn't punch me.

I also remember during that same time listening to our preacher talk about the evils of rock music at a youth group meeting. He started talking about KISS. A girl laughed, and he asked what was so funny. She said, "KISS is a bad example. No one listens to KISS anymore. They suck."

Then I went home and played "Unmasked".

What cheers me up now when thinking about those dark times is realizing how much the band truly cares about me and fans like me who were there for the duration, fought for them, took abuse for them, etc., etc. Yep, it's all about fans like me to those guys. Good to see that loyalty is truly valued.

Wait ...

johnsaidwhat · Post by **johnsaidwhat** » Thu Jan 17, 2019 10:42 am

I always thought it was more of an urban myth maybe backed up by some scattered incidents and romanticized.
For me, I saw the Dynasty tour in Jr high and The Creatures tour in high school and was generally met with light admiration, "oh wow you went to that" ? sort of statement spoken with wonder not violent or angry.
Not discounting that it happened it just wasn't my 1979 to 1984 high school experience in urban Orlando Fl

Diss · Post by **Diss** » Thu Jan 17, 2019 10:54 am

johnsaidwhat wrote: ↑
Thu Jan 17, 2019 10:42 am
I always thought it was more of an urban myth maybe backed up by some scattered incidents and romanticized.

It wasn't like there was some special case against KISS. It was just like anything else when you're a kid and you openly like something that most think is uncool. If there are enough douchebags around, you'll probably get teased for it. I'm sure people would've gotten the same reaction if they'd said they were still a fan of the Bay City Rollers back in 1979, or if they'd come to school wearing bell bottoms.

Crown Royal · Post by **Crown Royal** » Thu Jan 17, 2019 11:06 am

styxter wrote: ↑
Thu Jan 17, 2019 9:30 am
The worst Kiss insults I've ever heard are all right here...daily.

This ...site

spacekace · Post by **spacekace** » Thu Jan 17, 2019 11:33 am

Never got into any fights over Kiss but got lots of comments, like “Kiss is Piss!” This mostly came from music snobs into Beatles, Zep, Yes, Genesis, Jethro Tull, Floyd etc. Started around ‘76.

scotty_rhoads · Post by **scotty_rhoads** » Thu Jan 17, 2019 11:38 am

i've never heard those words. probably because i'm bigger than whoever asked if i was a kiss fan

Thunderous_Lay · Post by **Thunderous_Lay** » Thu Jan 17, 2019 7:49 pm

styxter wrote: ↑
Thu Jan 17, 2019 9:30 am
The worst Kiss insults I've ever heard are all right here...daily.

Nailed it.

BeachJediSC · Post by **BeachJediSC** » Thu Jan 17, 2019 9:07 pm

Wally Swift wrote: ↑
Thu Jan 17, 2019 9:05 am
My sister-in-law often uses the fact that I'm a KISS fan as proof that I'm all the other evil things she imagines me to be. Miserable fat bitch is just jealous that my wife and I are going on 21 years of marriage and she got dumped after only a few years.

Damn I love this response!
Rearrange the details just a bit, and it sounds just like a combination of 3 or 4 things I've been through regarding in-laws, and/or KISS, and/or having to listen to relatives yap their clueless traps about this, that, and the other being "satanic."
From a purely relatable standpoint, I'd probably be very entertained if you ranted about the back story behind what you described. \m/

Wally Swift · Post by **Wally Swift** » Fri Jan 18, 2019 5:58 am

BeachJediSC wrote: ↑
Thu Jan 17, 2019 9:07 pm

Wally Swift wrote: ↑
Thu Jan 17, 2019 9:05 am
My sister-in-law often uses the fact that I'm a KISS fan as proof that I'm all the other evil things she imagines me to be. Miserable fat bitch is just jealous that my wife and I are going on 21 years of marriage and she got dumped after only a few years.
Damn I love this response!
Rearrange the details just a bit, and it sounds just like a combination of 3 or 4 things I've been through regarding in-laws, and/or KISS, and/or having to listen to relatives yap their clueless traps about this, that, and the other being "satanic."
From a purely relatable standpoint, I'd probably be very entertained if you ranted about the back story behind what you described. \m/

My father-in-law [now dead] was a piece of work. He put my sister-in-law on a pedestal and basically ignored or psychologically abused both my wife and her brother. My sister-in-law has a huge ego [bigger than her ass] and she has never been documented, ever saying "I'm sorry" for anything. She first entered my life when my wife and I were living in Europe. Freshly divorced she showed up in Europe initially only wanting to see my wife because her father had convinced her that I was the devil. I met her and did my best to win her over. I kinda did at first until one day when I was out sightseeing with her all day but my wife couldn't meet us until the following afternoon. We stayed in a hotel room in Prague that only had one bed. She was paying for it and being a gentleman I said that I would sleep on the floor. She insisted that it was fine, I should just sleep in the bed with her.

I was a gentleman the entire night even though I didn't get a moments sleep. And as I have admitted to my wife, had her sister reached over at any point I would have failed at being a gentleman and faithful husband. From the next day forward she developed a hatred for me that defies all logic. It kills her that my wife got a guy like me and she got dumped.

PS: my sister-in-law was not as huge then as she later became. She was a chubby chick like my wife but with enormous tits. Now she's entirely enormous.

Blackwaterrisin · Post by **Blackwaterrisin** » Fri Jan 18, 2019 6:14 am

I had older female cousins who would babysit me when I was a kid.
Sometimes they'd bring their boyfriends and these guys would give me a hard time about KIss.
I probably take more shit now for loving Kiss as a middle-aged man than I did as a kid.

ZachAttack · Post by **ZachAttack** » Fri Jan 18, 2019 6:15 am

I was in middle school and high school in the mid 90s and it happened to me constantly, it actually got worse after the reunion. 90% of it was "they're gay" or "you must be gay if you listen to that shit" (this coming from kids listening to Limp Bizkit or shitty ska bands btw)....I don't understand how writing songs about wanting to bang women makes you gay but whatever.

Funny how a lot of those same kids have now jumped on the 80s metal revival bandwagon and now all pretend to be lifelong fans of the same bands they made fun of me for listening to back then. The same people who said I was "fag" for listening to Iron Maiden now have denim vests covered in Iron Maiden (and KISS) patches

But then again, I lived in Florida at the time, which as everyone now knows is the white trash capital of the world, so that probably didn't help

J-Lefty · Post by **J-Lefty** » Fri Jan 18, 2019 9:04 am

Growing up in the 80's most music fans ignored KISS.... If you were a dude wearing a Bon Jovi T -Shirt in NJ in 1987 you would have heard some shit talking.

FlamingRuth · Post by **FlamingRuth** » Fri Jan 18, 2019 11:28 am

scotty_rhoads wrote: ↑
Thu Jan 17, 2019 11:38 am
i've never heard those words. probably because i'm bigger than whoever asked if i was a kiss fan

Hah! I can relate for the opposite reason--I am tiny so no one ever dared to kick my ass or they might have accidentally killed me.

I often felt isolated, but I never got physically picked on for liking Kiss. I just got the occasional condescending remark like "Are those guys still around??"
Or "You still like Kiss?" ...which I occasionally hear to this day.

For a short time when I was 11 or 12, I went through a tom-boyish phase that must have concerned my aunts because I remember a couple of them telling me that "Girls don't like Kiss!" and "Kiss is for boys!"

Luckily that phase didn't last long for any of us.

The comment I hear most often is, "But you don't look like a Kiss fan"....which baffles me because I don't know what a Kiss fan is "supposed" to look like.

scotty_rhoads · Post by **scotty_rhoads** » Fri Jan 18, 2019 5:13 pm

FlamingRuth wrote: ↑
Fri Jan 18, 2019 11:28 am

scotty_rhoads wrote: ↑
Thu Jan 17, 2019 11:38 am
i've never heard those words. probably because i'm bigger than whoever asked if i was a kiss fan
Hah! I can relate for the opposite reason--I am tiny so no one ever dared to kick my ass or they might have accidentally killed me.

I often felt isolated, but I never got physically picked on for liking Kiss. I just got the occasional condescending remark like "Are those guys still around??"
Or "You still like Kiss?" ...which I occasionally hear to this day.

For a short time when I was 11 or 12, I went through a tom-boyish phase that must have concerned my aunts because I remember a couple of them telling me that "Girls don't like Kiss!" and "Kiss is for boys!"
Luckily that phase didn't last long for any of us.

The comment I hear most often is, "But you don't look like a Kiss fan"....which baffles me because I don't know what a Kiss fan is "supposed" to look like.

"oh you like kiss??! " *looks way up and unballs fists*

i totally understand it there.

kiss fan are everywhere and we look like everyone. we truly have blended in everywhere

metaldad · Post by **metaldad** » Fri Jan 18, 2019 5:39 pm

J-Lefty wrote: ↑
Fri Jan 18, 2019 9:04 am
If you were a dude wearing a Bon Jovi T -Shirt in NJ in 1987 you would have heard some shit talking.

Or gotten laid

Hotter Than Heck · Post by **Hotter Than Heck** » Sat Jan 19, 2019 8:48 am

I never got my ass kicked but I remember getting teased about Kiss a few times by older kids a few times, some of my friends at the time got the same stuff every now & then. This is from 1978 to 1982/83 or so, I guess

The backlash Kiss endured after going into full Disney-mode with all the ballads, the disco, the toys, the comic books, the TV movie etc - that backlash was pretty bad at times for some of the fans

By the time Heaven's on Fire was all over the radio & MTV in late 1984 all that was in the past though, I never saw anyone get razzed about their Kiss-fandom after that

KISS fan? You’re getting your ass kicked!

KISS fan? You’re getting your ass kicked!

Re: KISS fan? You’re getting your ass kicked!

Re: KISS fan? You’re getting your ass kicked!

Re: KISS fan? You’re getting your ass kicked!

Re: KISS fan? You’re getting your ass kicked!

Re: KISS fan? You’re getting your ass kicked!

Re: KISS fan? You’re getting your ass kicked!

Re: KISS fan? You’re getting your ass kicked!

Re: KISS fan? You’re getting your ass kicked!

Re: KISS fan? You’re getting your ass kicked!

Re: KISS fan? You’re getting your ass kicked!

Re: KISS fan? You’re getting your ass kicked!

Re: KISS fan? You’re getting your ass kicked!

Re: KISS fan? You’re getting your ass kicked!

Re: KISS fan? You’re getting your ass kicked!

Re: KISS fan? You’re getting your ass kicked!

Re: KISS fan? You’re getting your ass kicked!

Re: KISS fan? You’re getting your ass kicked!

Re: KISS fan? You’re getting your ass kicked!

Re: KISS fan? You’re getting your ass kicked!

Re: KISS fan? You’re getting your ass kicked!

Re: KISS fan? You’re getting your ass kicked!

Re: KISS fan? You’re getting your ass kicked!

Re: KISS fan? You’re getting your ass kicked!

Re: KISS fan? You’re getting your ass kicked!

Re: KISS fan? You’re getting your ass kicked!

Re: KISS fan? You’re getting your ass kicked!

Re: KISS fan? You’re getting your ass kicked!

Re: KISS fan? You’re getting your ass kicked!

Re: KISS fan? You’re getting your ass kicked!

Re: KISS fan? You’re getting your ass kicked!

Re: KISS fan? You’re getting your ass kicked!

Re: KISS fan? You’re getting your ass kicked!

Re: KISS fan? You’re getting your ass kicked!

Re: KISS fan? You’re getting your ass kicked!

Re: KISS fan? You’re getting your ass kicked!