“It’s not that I’m embarrassed by it. You let something pass for long enough, and you can kind of chuckle at it”: The lost ‘hippie’ album that Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley made before they were in Kiss

Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons of Kiss in 1974.

In 1971, Kiss weren’t even a twinkle in the eyes of Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley. Back then they were just another pair of struggling New York musicians trying to pay the bills – albeit musicians with more ambition than most. Not content with churning out covers in local clubs for chump change, Simmons and Stanley were dead-set on rock stardom from the off. And the sooner it came, the better.

The vehicle they hoped would get there was Wicked Lester, a five-piece featuring Simmons and Stanley alongside guitarist Steve Coronel, keyboard player Brooke Ostender and drummer Tony Zarella. The band were a long way from Kiss’s larger-than-life approach – rather, they sounded like an unlikely cross between The Beatles and the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.