BIRTH: December 20, 1945 Brooklyn, NY
PERSONA: The Cat
Lady CAT:: Married to model Gigi Criss (Peter's third marriage)
KITTENS: daughter Jenilee (age 18, from second wife Debra)
The Catman has 4 brothers in sisters in the litter
Watch the claws..he was a Golden Glove Boxer in High School.
this alley cat first real taste of a musical career was at the age of 13,
when he formed a street corner doo-wop singing group, called The Stars.
Peter began playing drums around the age of 13 when his father gave
him an old Army marching band snare drum.
Peter went to art school as a teenager. He took an interest in painting.
Peter took some drum lessons from jazz legend Gene Krupa. Peter has
said that he incorporated some of Krupa's drum techniques into his Kiss
drum solos.
Of the four original Kiss members, Peter was the only one to have
ever released any kind of professional recording prior to Kiss. His
band Chelsea signed a two album deal with Decca Records in 1969.
*Peter was the first Kiss member to ever be married. His first marriage
was in 1972 to Lydia Di Leonardo.
In the early 1970's, Peter flew out to London, England to audition
for the drummer's role in Elton John's band, only to have lost to Nigel
Olssen.
In the early days of Kiss, Peter supported himself and the band by
recording drums on commercial jingles (Paul & Gene soon followed suit
by doing vocal jobs for commercials).
Peter recorded a seven minute drum solo on the song "Strange Ways"
off the 1974 "Hotter Than Hell" album. The solo was not suitable to
rest of the band and it was cut out of the final version of the song.
Contrary to popular belief, the song "Beth" was not written for Peter's
first wife Lydia. It was originally titled "Beck" for a girl named Becky,
who was dating a band member of a group called Lips that Peter was in
around 1971.
