Bruce Kulick recalls how he reacted to Eric Carr’s death

Eric Carr replaced the original Kiss drummer Peter Criss in the band after he was fired in 1980. The musician was an important part of the group and was part of all their releases until his death in 1991. He sadly died at the age of 41 from heart cancer.

In an interview with Chaoszine, his longtime bandmate in Kiss, the guitarist Bruce Kulick, recalled how he reacted to Carr’s death.

Bruce Kulick recalls how Kiss members reacted to Eric Carr’s death

“Well, it was really sad of course that Eric got sick right when we were getting ready to record. When he found out that he had actually cancer on the heart, which is a very serious, Bob Ezrin being involved and being such a famous producer and successful with the Kiss history, I love the way he arranged the band.”

“And we knew we had to get a different drummer so we were auditioning some people. Eric Singer, of course, passed the audition, which was great. And we didn’t know what would happen, and there was only so much… Eric Carr wasn’t in a position to play, sadly. Though he sang on ‘God Gave Rock n’ Roll to You.’ And then, of course, there was when, sadly, he passed away, there was the ‘Carr Jam,’ that we were able to dedicate to him and update a little bit. There was other guitar work on it.”

He continued:

“That was the first thing we did after the funeral (Work on ‘Carr Jam 1981 – Unreleased song from ‘The Elder). ‘OK, Bruce, play guitar on this one.’ (Bob Ezrin said) I’m like, ‘Oh God.’ But actually working was a good thing, it was in tribute to him. Of course, he did the video for ‘God Gave Rock n’ Roll’, which was really wonderful that he got that opportunity. And he had more energy than I did that day, it was amazing. Even though he was wearing a really big ‘Eric Carr hairdo wig’, because he lost his hair from the cancer treatment.”

“So, it was really tragic, yet I have to admit that the music that came out from Bob Ezrin’s work with the band was very powerful. Probably my favorite from my era although there’s so many great highlights throughout the years. Especially the way the guitar playing [was], I was able to reinvent myself in another way that was very different than anything before,” he said (Transcribed by Ultimate Guitar).

Bruce Kulick was a member of Kiss during the “unmasked” era, from 1984 to 1996. Playing on all the releases from “Animalize” (1984) to Psycho Circus (1998 – Guitar and bass on selected tracks).