"He asked me 'Do you have long hair? Are you willing to wear a dress and high heels? Are you willing to wear lipstick?' Those questions fascinated me." Peter Criss recalls his first conversation with Gene Simmons and the birth of Kiss

Original Kiss drummer Peter Criss has recalled the first time he ever spoke to Gene Simmons and the strange questions that made him realise something very special could be brewing.

In the early 1970s, Criss was looking for a new band after his time with previous groups Chelsea and Lips had come to an end.

And when a young bass player called Gene Simmons called him, Criss was stunned by the questions that were coming his way.

The drummer who would go on to become a star as the 'Catman' in Kiss tells Rock Candy Magazine: "I put an ad in a local paper and that's when Gene Simmons called. He asked me. 'Are you tall? Are you good-looking? 'Do you have long hair? Are you willing to wear a dress and high heels? Are you willing to wear lipstick?'

"I couldn't believe what he was asking me, but those questions fascinated me. I said to my wife at the time, 'I've got to meet this guy'. We had been to London for our honeymoon not that long before and I'd found some really cool clothes there.

"So when I went down to Electric Lady Studios in New York to meet Gene and Paul for the first time I was really dolled up. Gene told me later that day he thought I was a rock star going into the studio to make an album."

Criss had made an impression with his look and also with his drumming. All that was missing was a lead guitarist. Enter Ace Frehley.

Criss adds: "We put an ad in a local paper looking for a lead guitarist. We auditioned quite a few players before Ace, but he really made an entrance wearing a motorcycle jacket and different coloured sneakers.

"There was some other guy already playing, but Ace didn't care. He walked right by the guy, plugged in, and started playing himself. And we all turned around, looked at one another, and went 'Holy sh*t!'. He was in straight away."

The development of their characters and striking image came about because the band wanted to attract the kind of fans that obsessed over the Beatles.

"John, Paul, George and Ringo all had their own fans, as well as people who loved the whole band," adds Criss.

"We wanted the same thing. So we took the concept they developed and made it more theatrical. We said, 'Let's start trying to apply make-up and see what's going on.'

"So we bought this really cheap clown-white make-up – even shoe polish at first, I think – and started putting it on for rehearsals in this real sh*tty loft with no heating. It was so cold we had to wear coats all the time, but that's were we experimented with our different looks."

The trick worked of course, and the band went on to become megastars who influenced a string of great bands in the decades since.

Criss would eventually be replaced in Kiss by Eric Singer who kept the Catman persona made famous by Criss.

Kiss played their final show in 2023.