BRUCE KULICK
BRUCE HOWARD KULICK
Birthday: Dec. 12, 1953, Brooklyn, NY

Introduction
Bruce Howard Kulick was born on December 12th, 1953 in Brooklyn, New York. Growing up in Queens, after moving there in 1964, with his brother Bob, it was Bob who first made moves into an interest in music. It would be Bob's lead that would long provide a push for Bruce throughout his life. Bruce remembered, "My brother got a guitar, and the next thing I knew I kind of was attracted to it as well. The acoustic guitar in the house became the first thing I started to play cords on. Eventually I started to take some lessons, and I learned from my brother of course. I picked it up quite easy, and I was happy not playing sports, but holding my guitar. It took a little time before I started to play in bands. I started to play with some people at my high school, and we would do cover songs. I actually played bass then because my brother played the guitar. My first electric instrument were a Gibson bass guitar. I was really into Cream, and I thought my brother could be Eric Clapton, and I could be Jack Bruce. I have tapes of us jamming, and it's kind of funny listening to it now. It was recorded straight into a tape recorder, so you can say it have an interesting sound. I have to say that by playing bass my hands got stronger so it would be more easy to play the guitar later on. I was always practicing on the guitar, and I found out that I was surpassing the guitar player in my band. At that point I realized that maybe I should play guitar. So that's what I did, and from then on I was a lead guitarist" (Scream Magazine #46, Jan Dahle). Bob would also take Bruce to concerts, and it was at these that Bruce would see some of the greatest artists of the 1960's, including The Rascals, Jeff Beck, and Cream. Of his own musical development. one of his early bands was called John Bodkin (DS) and later metamorphosed into the Jackson Heights Band. Bruce's tastes were similar to his brothers and he was very much into the British rock scene of the sixties. He recalled, "I really liked Jeff Beck, Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton and certainly Jimmy Page. That's really why I fitted into Kiss, because those guys were important for Ace Frehley as well. Also me and Paul Stanley found out that we had been to a lot of the same shows in New York City in the early years. We saw Led Zeppelin at the same show, and we saw Yardbirds at the same show. It was really interesting to find out that we were into the same stuff. I think it did really show that we had similar influences, and I also think that's important in a band" (Scream Magazine #46, Jan Dahle). Some of Bruce's early cover bands did well enough to play the Circle Line, a cruise ship that went around Manhattan Island. By 1972, when his brother Bob was trying out for KISS, Bruce was at Queen's College...

Dues Paid In Discos
"Believe it or not, but I first toured with a disco artist who had a big hit. His name was George McCrae, and he had a song called "Rock Your Baby" (T.K. 1004) which was a big hit in Germany. With him I toured Germany for two months, and that was really my first time outside of North America. I was born in New York, and suddenly I was in Germany for two months, and I have to say that it was interesting. Because he had this big hit we even played a big show for Radio Luxembourg. We did a huge show in Dortmund with a full orchestra, but even though it was a disco hit the guitars was still very important in the sound of the song. It's a funny story about the show in Dortmund. The guys from the record company told us that we would be on pretty soon, but then suddenly we were announced on stage, but we were still backstage. I still have a tape of it, and you can here the orchestra start to play, then you suddenly hear that I plug in the guitar. We did some gigs in America as well, but I can't say that my heart and soul was into it. My brother was in the band as well, and during the shows we got to do an instrumental section. Then we did some covers by Jeff Beck from his funky period, like his "Blow By Blow" album and stuff like that. I didn't really care for George's disco, but it was a good experience" (Scream Magazine #46, Jan Dahle). Interestingly, "Rock Your Baby" was a melodic composition written and produced by Harry Wayne (KC) Casey and Rick Finch, the main members of the famed disco group KC & The Sunshine Band. Released in May 1974 this single topped both the US and UK singles charts. According to Dale Sherman, in Black Diamond, Bruce also worked with disco artist Andrea True around this time (probably in 1976). Andrea True is more likely remembered for her string of X-rated movies than the disco music she was creating with Greg Diamond and Tom Moulton. Bruce was less impressed working with Andrea, recalling "I didn't enjoy the Andrea True gig; we played nice places where she'd had big hits, but we also played Air Force bases. At times it was like Spinal Tap" (Moseley, Willie G., Vintage Guitar Magazine, 1996). The following year Bruce signed on for the Meatloaf tour, again due to his brother's growing connections in the music business. Bruce recalled, "It was exciting touring with George McCrae, but it wasn't rock 'n roll. It was after the McCrae thing that my brother heard about the Meat Loaf gig. I'm not really sure if you could call Meat Loaf rock'n roll, but it was at least closer than George McCrae. Again I ended up in Germany, and I got to travel to Australia. We toured the world since "Bat Out Of Hell" was really big, and me and my brother were the duel guitar players on the tour. I was the pretty boy, and he was the killer. As I said Bob heard about the gig, and he really had a lot of connections in the business, but I still hadn't. So it was kind of through his connections I ended up in Meat Loaf's band. I got the George McCrae gig through a really good cover band I was in at the time. We played whatever was popular, and fortunately our agent started to manage George McCrae. With Meat Loaf it was all much bigger. He got a real big push from Epic at the time, so it all became very big. I toured with him for about a year, but when he was done he was really done. He had problems with his voice, and naive as I was I wasn't aware of him having problems with drugs. I wasn't surprised when I found out, because there were lots of crazy things going on at the time. It was pretty stressful actually. Later on my brother worked with Meat Loaf again, but then he was a lot more together. On my first tour with Kiss, over here in Europe, we did something in Holland with Meat Loaf, and I have a great picture of me, my brother, Meat Loaf, Paul and Gene" (Scream Magazine #46, Jan Dahle). By the end of the tour Meat Loaf was left in a wheel-chair after a fall from the stage at one of the final shows in Toronto, and his voice was shot. It'd be several years before Meat would be heard from. However, bassist in the touring group Steve Buslow, would go on to work on 5 tracks on Paul Stanley's solo album and would later guest on the 1979 Blackjack album as well as the1982 tour billed as "Blackjack (Featuring Michael Bolton)". Bruce, on the other hand, found his first professional recording credit. Michael Wendroff had released albums such as his self-titled debut in 1973 (Buddah BDS-5130), "Southpaw" (Buddah BDS-5609, 1974) and "Recorded Live" (Buddah BDS-5687, 1977) which had included Bruce's brother Bob on lead guitar. It was a result of the connection that Bruce would get his first professional recording credit. In an interview with Scream Magazine's Jan Dahle, Bruce recalls, "Michael Wendroff was someone my brother knew from New York that he did a session for. At one point my brother wanted me to play in the studio, so he brought me in and told everybody that he wanted me to play on one song. Michael was kind of like a pop singer. This was my first recording session, or at least my first session of anything that got released. I think it was out on Arista or something like that" (Scream Magazine #46, Jan Dahle). The album, "Kiss The World Goodbye" (Ariola SW-50030, 1978) features a shared solo by the Kulick brothers on "Have A Party, Give A Party, Be A Party". In the next chapter of his live, Bruce sums it up concisely, "my next band was called Blackjack, which had Michael Bolton in it, but he was called Michael Bolotin back then. We were like Bad Company; we got a big record deal on Polydor, and our lawyer handled Led Zeppelin and Bad Company for Swan Song in America. Tom Dowd produced our first album, but I was really intimidated; that was one area where I wasn't experienced. Being in the studio, doing my music for a famous producer wasn't a fun time, and Michael didn't enjoy it either, but we did the best we could. We did another record with Eddie Offord, from Yes, producing; he was another hero of mine, but it also wasn't what I expected. I was kind of dejected after that, so I joined the Good Rats" (Moseley, Willie G., Vintage Guitar Magazine, 1996). There was a bit more to it than that!

Blackjack
There is one final interesting connection between Bruce, Meat Loaf, and KISS. The cover of the album Jim Steinman recalled, "They were going to use the guy who does the Kiss stuff... But I hated it, like all the Kiss cover the stuff he came up with, it was cheap and tacky. I insisted we use Corben, his style is very powerful and muscular" (Robbin Smith - "Would You Believe Meat Loaf Is About To Become A Fairy?", 1978). When the "Bat Out Of Hell" tour ended in Toronto Meat Loaf issued a advertisement which included a picture of the touring band, including Bruce. Having earlier been in bands that performed mostly cover material, after the experience of being a member of Meat Loaf's large touring band Bruce decided that it was time to be a member of a band rather than being a touring supporting band member or studio session player. Following the end of the Bat Out Of Hell Tour Bruce hooked up with Michael Bolotin. He recalls, "Michael was another guy I was introduced to through my brother. Michael was popular in New Haven, a city in Connecticut, not too far away from New York. We used to do some gigs together, and I always saw Michael as a star. He was a very strong singer. Actually my brother was for a while in the band that was to become Blackjack, but he was unhappy with some of the business thing and it became a bit stressful for him. But I didn't want to not do it, so I wound up working with Michael, and we had a good band. We certainly had a lot of interesting experiences. The producer on the first album was Tom Dowd, and he was very famous at the time since he had worked with Eric Clapton, The Allman Brothers and people like that. It was a really good experience although it was difficult as well. The president of Polydor at the time was very interested in a band like Blackjack, and he was throwing a lot of money around. The record did OK, but the company wanted a gold record, and later on they fired the guy who was really behind us" (Scream Magazine #46, Jan Dahle). Producer Tom Dowd had also famously refused to produce Peter Criss' solo album a year earlier allegedly leaving the Catman in tears. Bolotin had been active in the Connecticut music scene since the late 1960's and had famously signed a recording deal with Epic records when just 15 (1969). Filling out the band was bassist Jimmy Haslip and drummer Sandy Gennaro. Jimmy had more serious pre-Blackjack experience in the music business having worked with the bands supporting Tommy Bolin, Jeff Beck, and most importantly Robben Ford. It was the band that had assembled for Robben's 1978 album that would become the renouned Yellowjackets (a Grammy nominated contemporary jazz band) following the demise of Blackjack in 1980. Recorded at Criteria Recording Studios in Miami, three singles would be released from the first Blackjack album, "Love Me Tonight", "For You", and "Without Your Love" helping the album to its respectable performance following its late-June 1979 release. Of these only "Love Me Tonight" would chart, reaching #62 in July 1979, during a short 6 week stay on the charts. A novelty feature of the album was its die-cut deck of cards styled cover. Bruce would co-write eight of the album's 10 tracks, with his brother Bob contributing to two songs also. This shows that early on Bruce had a definite contribution to make in the song-writing department, something which would be seldom used during his later KISS career. Billboard Magazine's review of the album was very positive, "Blackjack is a highly tauted four-member group that combines hard biting rock with a distinct blues style. Lead singer Michael Bolotin has a husky R&B growl, coming across loud and clear in each of the tracks. The other members of the group include lead guitarist Bruce Kulick, bassist Jim Haslip and drummer Sandy Gennaro, all rock veterans. Producer Dowd, whose credits include Rod Stewart, Eric Clapton and the Allman Brothers, has crafted an album that seems to fuse bits and pieces of each of those styles. Just about all tracks are first rate and explosive." (Billboard, 6/30/79). The band toured in support of the album on what they dubbed the "Play To Win Tour" opening for Peter Frampton and Marshall Tucker. The following year the band released their second album, "Worlds Apart", which failed to build on the first album's performance. Bruce continues, "We did another record, but that's kind of hard to find since nobody cared about us at the time. The politics with record companies are really hard at times, it's kind of like a chess game. I learned a lot in the time with Blackjack. I was very disappointed about how certain things had turned out, but I knew they weren't in my control" (Scream Magazine #46, Jan Dahle). Two singles would be released from this ill-fated second album, "My World Is Empty Without You" and the Bolotin track "Maybe It's the Power of Love", which didn't trouble the charts. As was the case with the earlier album Bruce would co-write 7 of the 10 songs on the album. The use of the R&B classic "My World Is Empty Without You" as the lead off single for the album demonstrates the changes that Michael Bolotin was undergoing as he started to move from AOR Rock towards R&B. This change would take several years even though Michael had originally started out doing a more blusey form of music in 1975 and in the clubs in the 1960's. While some look at the combination of a rock guitarist with what Michael became as odd, Bruce is emphatic about its roots, "we were kind of molded more after [a] Bad Company/Zeppelin kind of band. Our business manager was the guy who handled Led Zeppelin's affairs - and Bad Company - at Swan Song. And that's what we were into" (Prime Choice). Before long Bruce was involved in his next project, some session work with a interesting female vocalist. An album (20th Century Fox Records T-602) of harder-edged AOR, Rozetta Stone, had a Laura Branigan/Joan Jett/Pat Benatar style of vocal which worked well with this not-too-subtle chick-rock album! Bruce even got a song writing credit on the album's first song, "Pick Me Up". Bruce remembers, "Rosetta was a girlfriend at the time of a guy who worked with Michael Bolton. She was a songwriter and singer who knew Paul Stanley, and she dated Paul for a while years ago. My brother helped out on a demo she did, and then she finally got a publishing deal. Then she got a record deal, and she asked me to play guitar. I was up in Woodstock doing her record, and that was where I got hired to do Billy Squier's album. That's also where I met Eddy Offord, who was a little bit crazy at the time. That's the Rozetta album, it came and went. She actually used some really amazing musicians, but there was so much drama around that record that it was crazy. She used some guys that went on to become really big fusion players like Vinnie Colaiuta, Tim Landers and Philippe Saisse, so for me it was a big learning experience. It was like I was "the rock guy", but it was OK" (Scream Magazine #46, Jan Dahle). Released in the spring of 1980 the album essentially disappeared even though she got an excellent review from Billboard, "Rosetta Stone appears to be one of the striking new breed of women who are challenging some of their male counterparts in the rock game. Rozetta plays good aggressive music, with tough street wise lyrics cloaking a vulnerability beneath. The music is generally mainstream rock which is well conceived and well played throughout. The whole record shows a rare intelligence, making for an impressive debut" (Billboard, 3/29/80). As a result of being in the right place at the right time, Bruce ended up working on Billy Squier's debut album along with keyboard player David Sancious who'd been involved in the Rosetta sessions. Bruce recalls, "That's an interesting story. The second album for Blackjack was done up in Woodstock. We started of with Eddy Offord - who was a producer and engineer for Yes, and I love the Yes albums - but unfortunately the guy was going through some personal problems at the time with drugs and things, so he never quite finished the record with us. Billy tested Eddy out for a song, and he actually wound up co-producing Billy's first solo record, "The Tail Of The Tape". My brother was a little bit involved with Billy, but his schedule didn't fit playing with him. When Billy came up to Woodstock I was there, and he loved the way I played. He asked me to do the album, and I just said "OK". So I wasn't supposed to have done the album, but my brother should. Even at one point I couldn't finish it because I was still in Blackjack and I got busy with the band again. Billy then asked me to join him for the tour, but I was told that Blackjack would go on tour, so I couldn't. Then Blackjack didn't go on tour, and that did hurt me, it felt bad. It felt like I had done a big mistake, but I always believed in Michael and I felt that he was extremely talented. I believed Billy was really talented too, and I learned a lot working with him. I saw how he understood and produced his music, and it was really cool to work with the guy. Unfortunately I think I pissed him off when I couldn't do the tour, but ironically I think it would have been harder for me to get to be in Kiss if I had started to tour with Billy. The reason for that was because when Kiss called me I was basically free, but with Billy I would have been traveling the world on tour, and I wouldn't have been available to work with Kiss" (Scream Magazine #46, Jan Dahle). While "Tale Of The Tape" was not the album to break Billy into the big time, Bruce recalls the album with fondness, "I really enjoyed that record! He wanted to hire Brian May from QUEEN - and he knew Brian. So for him to settle on me, I was very flattered, as you can imagine. I saw him work very hard. That wasn't the record that put him over the top, as you know, but there was good material on that album" (Universal Wheels, 8/98). Billy would find mainstream success with his following year's album.

Rat Kissing
The next project Bruce would be involved in were the New York band Good Rats. Billing themselves as the most famous unknown band The Good Rats were in the early 1980's at the tail end of their attempt to be a serious music unit rather than popular bar band. Following the release of their self-titled debut album in 1969 the band would release a string of albums throughout the 1970's. These albums would invariably receive good reviews in the music press the band was never able to break into the big time, even though "they have also headlined and played with the likes of Rush, Aerosmith, Meatloaf, Ozzy, Grateful Dead, Kiss, Journey, Heart, Bruce Springsteen, Styx and many others over their career" (Good Rats Press Bio). In the early 1980's the "Good Rats were very popular in the New York area, and they were changing some members so they asked me to join the band. That was a step back creatively for me because I wasn't writing with them. Although we used to do an instrumental called '495' which I still jam on at clinics, and I'm gonna do it on my solo record. I've already kind of recorded it, and even though I wrote it in 1980 it will be on my record. It's like a fusion rock'n roll thing, and a lot of kids love that songs. So that's the only good thing really to come out of Good Rats" (Scream Magazine #46, Jan Dahle). Sole control of the band was by singer/song-writer Peppi Marchello. For collectors and fans to note is the fact that video of Bruce with the Good Rats does circulate, notably from a performance on "After Hours" in New York in 1980. While Bruce was a permanent member of the band the Marchello's control of the band meant that he "never felt like it was my band at all. The two brothers in the band kind of owned the band together with the drummer, Joe. I have to say that I'm still good friends with Joe, and he's a great guy. Over the period I was in the band the band got better, but that doesn't mean that the gigs got better. The whole scene in New York were changing at the time. It was interesting because at one point we were on a bill with Ozzy Osbourne, with Randy Rhoads, and Motorhead. That was in 1982 I think, but the thing was that it just wasn't going anywhere" (Scream Magazine #46, Jan Dahle). While Bruce only recorded one album with the band, unused material would continue to surface on later Good Rats albums right up to 2000 when the band released their "Cover Of Night" album (even though it was simply a reissue of 1997's "Tasty Seconds"). Following the demise of the band's lineup both Bruce and bassist Schuyler Deale would work with Michael Bolton again. Bruce recalled, "It was at the time when things didn't really work out for Good Rats anymore that Michael was trying to get his solo career back together. He did the "Fools Game" album, and my brother did most of the rhythm guitars on it. He wanted me to do some lead guitars, and I played on two tracks and it came out great. I liked the music, but I didn't know what to do at the time. I wasn't in Michael's videos at the time, but when he was to go out on tour he asked me to do the tour. That was kind of stressful for me, because before I had had a band with him. Now I was just working for him, but he relied on me like he did in Blackjack. Actually we had a really good tour, and we opened for Bob Seger, who was and still is popular in America. Since Michael only had one solo album out we ended up doing some Blackjack songs. We were actually doing covers, but I suggested that we should do Blackjack stuff like "Stay" and "Can't Live Without Your Love". It felt good to be doing these songs" (Scream Magazine #46, Jan Dahle). The material that Bruce provides on this album is as limited as he suggests, having performed the lead on "She Did The Same Thing", which would be released as a single (which wouldn't chart), and playing the solo on "Can't Hold On, Can't Let Go". It is also interesting to note that the album includes yet another Holland/Dozier/Holland composition again demonstrating where Bolton was headed, even though he was still showing the pretensions of being a rocker! Incidentally, the "Great American Music" album would be re-released on CD on January 26, 1999 of the Good Rat's own label (Uncle Rat).

The Call
By 1984 Bruce's career had reached something of an impasse. Studio work was always an easy bread earner, like his brother, Bruce was easily able to adjust to different styles easily. As a member of bands things had not quite worked out, though Bruce had built a reputation as a solid guitarist. KISS too, were having issues around this time and the band, notably Paul Stanley was having second thoughts about the band's third lead guitarist in 2 years. Bruce recalls his introduction to the band, "the first time I met Paul was probably at a club when I went out with my brother. It was maybe '77 or '78, and my brother introduced me to him. I saw his guitar collection, and I saw the place he lived. We used to go to some movies, restaurants and clubs. Sometimes when I dated a girl she would tell me that she used to go out with Paul. Gene I met when they were doing "Creatures...". I'm not sure how I wound up there, but I met Gene and Eric. It was just a quick hello. They were mixing "I Love It Loud", and I do remember the fade out and then fade up. Gene was pretty proud of the fade as he was working on it that day, and I was impressed with Gene being so into it. Eric seemed a little complicated, and I thought he was not friendly. I didn't realize it until I started to work with him, but I think he was kind of insecure about who I was. I was really impressed with that heavier kind of sound they were going for. They got really so pop towards the late seventies, like with "Unmasked", and I didn't really understand that. I always preferred them heavy, and I really liked the "Lick It Up" record too. I thought they looked great, even without the make up. Even when they did the first video with Vinnie in it I thought they looked great" (Scream Magazine #46, Jan Dahle). Bruce would see the band at MSG that year and was impressed by the performance. By 1984, probably because of being a known quantity to Paul, Bruce was brought into the band's Animalize sessions to do some work on a couple of tracks. By the time Mark St. John became ill, Bruce was in a prime position to step in to help the band fulfil their touring obligations. His skill and personal qualities as a team member who did not draw attention away from the primary band members meant that he was a good fit for the job. Some of the final non-KISS work Bruce would do would be his performance on French-Canadian artiste Stevie's album. Recorded in March and April 1984 at Boogie Hotel Studio, New York and Venus Studio, Longueville, France, the album would be produced by Jan Mullaney, who had guested on the 1979 Blackjack album, and Rosetta Stone with whom Bruce already had an association. What is interesting for this album is that fellow former Good Rat Schuyler Deale performs bass while Michael Bolton sings a duet on "Without You".

The Tree
Bruce took over the lead guitar position and provided stability in the role for 12 years. During his time in the band Bruce continued to do occassional session work which his confidence and musicianship evolved, culminating in the "Carnival Of Souls" album which would also see his lead-vocal debut. Bruce also participated in side projects with drummer Eric Carr. Following his departure from KISS in August 1996 Bruce has been a member of his own band with John Corabi, worked as a session player and recorded tracks for tribute projects, and participated in Eric Singer's ESP project. He remains one of the most visable and approachable members of the band and can often be found at KISS expos.

FROM THE KISS Album Focus - USED WITH PERMISSION