I Want to Be Like KISS

I was obsessed with music since I was a wee little lass. I grew up on country music my family would play in the house. I was always dancing around to it in my playpen as a kid. I wore cowboy boots and a cowboy hat. I was obsessed with the whole cowboy deal. I wanted to be like Garth Brooks when I was little...until a certain band came into my life that just turned my world upside down. Now, before I got into this said band, I was into rock music as I got to be around 5 years old. My parents listened to rock as well as country, from time to time. My mom dug Motley Crue and Aerosmith and my dad dug Def Leppard and Styx. So, I would take that in as a kid and really enjoy it. But, then, I was watching TV one day when I was 5. I see these 4 guys on the screen in platform shoes, black and silver studded tights, big hair, and kabuki-style makeup, surrounded by smoke and fire and big amplifiers. That band was KISS, and they warped my fragile little mind when I saw them on the screen. I had never seen anything of its kind before. It was so foreign to me, but oh so fascinating. I liked the music a lot. It fell along the lines of the rock music I was already listening to as a kid. But, this was the first time I really put the music together with the image. They seemed like superheroes to me. One was a Cat, one was a Spaceman, one was a Demon, and one was a Starchild. It looked like they belonged in a comic book. But, what separated them from the comic book culture was the instruments and the music. I was hooked ever since seeing them on TV. I started to mimic their moves. I would pretend to slam my toy guitar like Paul Stanley did on stage. I would pretend the ketchup I ate with my Burger King fries was blood and spit it out like Gene Simmons. I would air guitar KISS songs and get into full Ace Frehley mode and mimic his moves on stage. I would draw in my drawing pad bands that were similar to KISS and give them names like Torpedo or something cheesy like that. I had posters in my room of them. I had toy cars with KISS on them. I had t-shirts. I even got what records of theirs I could from anybody I could, from family members to my friends' families. I was never into something like this before until KISS came along. My mom thought it was a bit disturbing at first, but when she saw it wasn't harming me much, she eased up a bit. She would let me know that it was just a show they were putting on and that they really weren't doing those things for real, kind of like the wrestlers of my time. Over time, I would grow out of the mimicry, but I still would wear the shirts and have the posters on my wall. The music became more important to me than their stage moves. I got moved by the loud guitars and pounding beats. I then fell in love with rock n' roll music because of KISS. Without them, I really don't know how I would have turned out today. Would I be into music as much as I am? Would I be way more into country music? Would I even like music at all? So, I thank them big time for coming into my life and changing it the way they did. Yeah, I don't really listen to them as much as I did when I was younger, and I feel like they are more of a joke now because of their age, but I will never forget the effect they have had on my life. Now, excuse me, as I go rock n' roll all night, and party every other weekend.