IF, THEN

[RJhog (Admin)]

If Kiss had broken up completely after the Unmasked album in 1980, then which of the 4 original members do you think would have had the most successful solo career?

[Niels (Mod)]

Now, there's a thought. Maybe one or two of them would have kept the make-up a little longer in that solo career. 

When they released the solo albums, I had a strong feeling, that the best ones would be Paul's and Ace's, and I do think, that Ace would have made one or two good "heavy" rock-albums in, let's say '81 and '82, IF he would have stopped the drinking bit, and had the right people around him. I'm going to say: Ace!! He should never had waited so long, releasing his solo-album in '87. He also should have kept his make up, even though KISS removed theirs in '83. At least until '90, or something like that. Now, what about you, RJhog? 

[RJhog (Admin)]

I have a somewhat long-winded thought.  First, it seems like I read somewhere that Ace was still in his Kiss partnership after he left the band for a few years, which means he received 1/4 of Kiss' profits, but 3/4 of his profits would have gone to the other 3 orig. members of Kiss.  I can't swear to that, but I'm pretty sure I read it somewhere and it makes sense.  That is why it took him until '87 to release his first one.

 

Now, back to who would have been more successful.  In terms of sales, I don't think any one would have been more successful than the others.  In terms of whose material would have been the best from a long-term fan's point of view, the answer is easily Paul, followed by Ace, then Gene, and finally Peter.

 

I did some detective work yesterday.  I compiled a list of songs that came from Kiss after the Unmasked album up to today, with two exceptions:

 

1. No songs co-written by any non-original member of Kiss, but any other co-writers were okay.

2. Nothing from The Elder, none of those songs would have seen the light of day after a breakup in 1980.

 

After compiling all of Gene and Paul's songs, Paul had enough to come up with 4 additional solo albums in addition to Live To Win.  Gene had enough for 3-4 in addition to A-hole.  Ace and Peter have both put out 4 since leaving Kiss.  Thats a surprisingly close number to me.   This just shows that for everyone who has complained about Ace and Peter's lack of output since 1980, it's really about the same as Gene and Paul's output. 

 

By the way, the reason I discounted anything co-written by non-original band members is that Paul and Gene would not have had VV, Kulicks or Carr's help because they would have never been in the band.

 

I don't think that Gene would have pursued much of a solo career, so that's a lot of his songs that we would have never heard.  I think Paul would have been very active in the 80's, but less and less during the 90's and today.

 

So my final answer is nobody in terms of sales, Paul in terms of quality material, although Ace would not be far behind Paul.