BIRTHDATE: July 12, 1950
BIRTHPLACE: Brooklyn, NY
DIED: November 24, 1991, due to a cancer related brain hemorrhage.
KISS MEMBER STATUS: mid 1980 - late 1991
KISS PERSONA: The Fox
INSTRUMENTS PLAYED: Vocals, Drums, Bass, some Guitar, harmonica.
INFLUENCES: The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, The Who, Neil Young, R&B
MARITAL STATUS: Eric never married.
CHILDREN: Eric never had any children.
SOME FACTS & TIDBITS YOU MAY OR MAY NOT KNOW ABOUT ERIC CARR:
* Although he played the drums right handed, Eric was left handed.
* Eric became seriously involved in music after discovering the Beatles
as a teenager. He considered Ringo Starr his idol.
* Eric's all time favorite drummer was John Bonham from Led Zeppelin.
* Eric went to the Manhattan High School of Art and Design (a subsidiary
of the High School of Music & Art, where Paul Stanley attended). He
majored in cartooning and then later in photography.
* Eric's first band was named the Cellarmen. Eric played drums and sang
lead vocals.
* The band that Eric spent the most time with in his pre-Kiss days was
a Top 40 cover band called Salt & Pepper (later Creation and Mother
Nature/Father Time). He spent nine years in that band.
* Right before auditioning for Kiss, Eric played in a rock cover band
called Flasher.
* Eric's side job before joining Kiss was repairing home gas ranges.
* Eric's Kiss audition resume was sent in a bright florescent colored
package, which caught the attention of the secretary at Aucoin management,
thus giving Eric the opportunity to audition for the band.
* Eric's final competitor for the drummer slot in Kiss was Bobby Rondinelli,
who later went on to join both Rainbow and Black Sabbath. Eric was chosen
for his strong vocal capabilities.
* Eric's first performance with Kiss was on July 25, 1980 at the Palladium
in New York City.
* Eric's initial Kiss persona was "The Hawk." Unhappy with it, as wellas the costume, Eric developed the Fox character on his own.
* Before settling on his final stage name, Eric was considering renaming
himself "Rusty Blade."
* Like the four original members, Eric had a distinguishable color: rust.
* There were brief ideas of Eric recording a solo album in the early
80's to go along with the original four. Kiss commissioned Eraldo Carugati,
who painted the four solo covers to do a portrait of Eric, which currently
is in the possession of Eric's family.
* Eric considered "Saint and Sinner" to be his greatest drumming performance
as a member of Kiss. He considered "Creatures of the Night" as his favorite
Kiss album that he played on.
* Eric played bass on the songs "I Still Love You" and "Little Caesar."
* Eric's first successful outside songwriting contribution was with
Bryan Adams on the song "Don't Leave Me Lonely" off Bryan's 1983 "Cuts
Like a Knife" album.
* When Eric re-recorded the vocals to Peter Criss's song "Beth" in 1988, he
actually sat in the same stool that Peter sat in for the original vocal
recording in 1976.
* Eric almost landed a syndication deal for his cartoon characters "The
Rockheads," little egg shaped creatures with big rock star hair. The
project, unfortunately never came to fruition.
* Eric co-wrote the song "Breakout" off of Ace Frehley's first post Kiss
solo album. Both he and Ace were working on a sequel song around the time
of Eric's sickness
* In the late 80's, Eric formed a management company and developed and
managed an all female thrash band called Hari Kari. He also did some
pre-production work with a band called Electric Thunder around 1989.
* Eric died the same day as Queen vocalist Freddie Mercury. Eric is
buried in Middletown, NY.
