Paul Stanley needs no introduction among rock fans. He’s a legend.
He has been an inspiration to many and his music still inspires artists.
The revolutionary American singer rose to fame as the vocalist, frontman, co-founder, and rhythm guitarist of the popular rock band KISS. Stanley alongside Gene Simmons founded the band back in the early 70s.
And as we know it, they created a huge impact in the music community around the world soon after.
While KISS was already breaking records globally, there was a struggling band Mötley Crüe. This band was formed several years after KISS was formed. And a year after the band formed in 1981 they released their debut album Too Fast for Love.
They did pretty well, people slowly started recognizing them throughout the United States. With recognization came fame and success.
Their popularity didn’t stop there, Mötley Crüe became quite popular globally. This is when KISS invited Mötley Crüe to open for them.
Why did KISS invite Mötley Crüe to open for their concert?
Looking back some might think that KISS did a favor to Mötley Crüe and helped them get more attention.
No one denies that opening the concert for KISS did in fact improve their reputation. However, that invitation was just a strategy to sell their tickets, which Stanley later revealed in an interview.
The KISS band members were planning a tour in 1983 for their tenth anniversary, there realized a problem. As Stanley said in an interview, their band’s popularity was slowly declining. He realized they needed a plan to sell their tickets.
Since Mötley Crüe was a fresh band with a decent fan following, they (KISS) decided to call them for the opening.
Yes, this is how Mötley Crüe got the opening for KISS’ 1983 tour.
Even though some may disagree, the co-founder and frontman of KISS Paul Stanley revealed it himself.
When talking to Ultimate Classic back in 2012, Paul recalled, “At that point, we were hurting. We were in a lull, we were on the West Coast, and we thought, Who can help us sell tickets?”
And the rest is history.
You’d imagine times were rough when a band like KISS was having a hard time selling tickets on the west coast.
Since Mötley Crüe is from Los Angeles, they thought of inviting them to open for them. This became the first tour KISS and Mötley Crüe collaborated.
What’s best is their strategy was a huge success as huge crowds of fans swarmed into their concert. Moreover, Mötley Crüe also saw it as a great opportunity to market themselves with their debut album as well as the upcoming one called Shout at the Devil.
Mötley Crüe was also able to impress the lead vocalist of the famous heavy metal band Black Sabbath, Ozzy Osbourne. You can’t deny that even after the band was quite new, they were able to impress so many celebrities.
Mötley Crüe became so popular that Ozzy Osbourne praised their music and they also got to tour with him.
