“They counted me in and I ripped through the first solo that came to mind. They stopped the tape, and Paul Stanley went, ‘Dude… will you wear high heels?’” Steve Farris on his close call with Kiss before he formed Mr. Mister (who he might rejoin)

Steve Farris.

As lead guitarist of Mr. Mister, Steve Farris blended jazz and new wave, and sprinkled some heavy metal over the top en route to chart-topping success. Of course, he’s also known for other exploits, notably his association with Kiss’s Creatures of the Night (1982), which features Farris' heavier-than-heavy solo on the title track.

At the time, he was a young Midwest native who leaned into jazz as opposed to rock – but none of that mattered, as he was immediately comfortable in the studio with Kiss. “I nailed the solo in one take,” he tells Guitar World. “And Paul and Gene loved Creatures of the Night; they were flipping out.”