Doug Aldrich recalls audition for Kiss and being rejected

Born in Raleigh, North Carolina in 1964, Doug Alridch is known for his work with Dio and Whitesnake but years before working with those two bands, when he was 18 he auditioned for Kiss. He recalled in an interview with VRP Rocks (Transcribed by Ultimate Guitar) that he was just a kid at the time and it was surreal to be in the same room as Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons and Eric Carr.

However he also recalled that he was imature and that was the main reason why he probably was rejected.

Doug Aldrich recalls audition for Kiss and being rejected

“They didn’t offer me enough money, so I said no! (He joked) I was just a kid, man. I moved out to Los Angeles, and there was all kinds of wackiness happening – and Kiss was looking for a placement for Ace, and they were working on a record. The drummer, Eric Carr — his girlfriend had actually seen me play at a club – and I had just gotten a band together. Looked in the newspaper, joined a band, we’re playing in Hollywood, and this girl said her boyfriend’s Eric Carr, and that she thinks I should meet Eric. And then Eric came – it was like the next week or two weeks later, I can’t remember, we played again, and she brought him.”

“I met him, and then I went down and jammed with the guys in a recording studio, and I went and played with them live a couple of times. It was pretty surreal for an 18-year-old kid. I was 18 going on. I mean, my maturity level was probably 10. So I went down and played with them a couple of times, and I think we sounded cool, but I was just a kid – I couldn’t hang out with those guys.”

He continued:

“Now, looking back on it years later, it makes sense to the guitarist why he didn’t land the Kiss gig. “I’ve actually figured it out now – that if I had been more of a cool hangout, they might have said, ‘OK. Let’s go.'”

“But that’s a very important part of getting a gig or being invited to jam with a band, and then having them maybe say, ‘Hey, I like that guy,’ is if you’re a cool hang and you get on good, and you can laugh and get on the same wavelength, then that’s half the battle. And then, if you can play, that’s the other half. But I think that everything works out for a reason, and it really inspired me to try and do better. To be the best I could be,” Doug Aldrich said.

Aldrich was a member of Dio in 2002, 2003, 2005 and 2009. He also worked with Whitesnake from 2003 to 2014.