Eric Carr - Early Career

Early Career

Caravello played with a string of bands mostly performing covers of well-known songs before joining Kiss. The first band, "The Cellarmen", was formed in 1965 by him and a couple of friends. They started playing local clubs in Brooklyn and Queens. Only a handful of recordings were made, released on the "Jody" label, a small Brooklyn recording studio. Caravello then joined a band called "Things That Go Bump In The Night" and later "Smack", the latter of which consisted mostly of members from "The Cellarmen", who disbanded in 1968.

Salt & Pepper" was Caravello's next cover band, playing music from multiple genres. He would go on with this band for nine years. The band enjoyed some success, performing as opening act for established names such as Stevie Wonder and Nina Simone. Changing name to "Creation" in 1973, the band was now performing disco music.

"From '70 to '79 I was in one band that changed personnel a few times. It was called Salt N' Pepper at first, because it was 50% black and 50% white. That was a cool band, what a (great) band that was! We were great. They were like my family basically for nine years." {Taped KA interview, 1990}

Tragedy struck in 1974,when a fire broke out during a discothèque gig in Port Chester, New York, killing dozens of people including the band's keyboardist and lead singer. Caravello escaped and was credited with saving another person. It was determined that the fire had been started by a thief in an adjacent building hoping to cover his tracks.

Years later, he could still vividly remember the horrible night. "It was a club called Gulliver's – twenty-four people died. Two people in my band were among the dead. I was one of the last people to get out. A waitress came up on stage, and we stopped the song. She told us to announce that there was a fire a couple of doors down, and that everyone had to clear the building. And so everybody was like, 'Oh, (to hell with) THIS!' Everybody started to clear out, and then all of a sudden the ventilation system on the roof started to suck in the smoke from the fire. So this thick, black smoke started to pour into this place. The lights went out – and that was it. It was pandemonium. {Taped KA interview, 1990.}

"I was lucky, I was at the bottom of the stairway leading out of this place. We were below ground, that's where the dance floor was, and where the stage was. I had the lead singer, one of (our) lead singers, a girl. I had her by the hand, because she panicked and wanted to go back inside the basement. She would have been dead, too. I pulled her out, we were one of the last couple of people to get out of there. Two members of my band (died). My lead singer, a guy named George, and this kid Damien, a keyboard player from Deer Park, Long Island – he was seventeen. It was terrible. We were really demolished. I was on TV with the guitar player a week later on CBS on Sunday morning – it was a show called Sunday. I had a tape of that, and that's gone. I wish I had the film, because all you see is this gigantic head of hair, with my John Lennon mustache and John Lennon glasses. That's the way I looked then." (Actually, you can get a clip of this appearance on the DVD Tale Of The Fox, located by Carr's younger sister from another Caravello family member). {Tale of the Fox DVD release.}

The band continued for some time, sometimes using the name "Bionic Boogie". "All our equipment was gone," Carr said, "it was all melted. It was like a three foot (1 meter) high pile, and that's it. Our agent held a benefit for us and they raised about $5,000. That was enough in those days to get all new equipment. And we kept going. We kept going basically until 1979. We finally decided to can it. After nine years of trying to make it, it just wasn't happening so we broke up...in, I don't know, September, October in '79." (1990 KA interview).

In December 1979, Caravello successfully auditioned for a rock 'n' roll cover band called "Flasher". "(I)t was the first actual rock band that I'd really been in," He recalled, "and it was four pieces – drums, bass, keyboard, and guitar...and after about three weeks of rehearsals we went out and we started playing clubs." {1990 KA interview.}

At this point he had become discouraged about his musical future after so many years trying to make it without a break, and considered settling down with a non-musical career. "...we were making real (lousy) money – something like $10, $7 a night, whatever it was it was. Really, really terrible. Just by contrast, I used to make $15 a night when I was like 16 years old, and here I am almost 30 years old, and I'm making like $7 a night! So I wasn't doing better, obviously – I was going in reverse, you know!

"I was (repairing gas ranges) during the day to keep my car going, because I had a 1973 Dodge Colt, that used to break down, oil used to shoot out (of it). (I worked on) just regular gas stoves that people use in their house. And that was horrendous, that was pretty hair-raising!" {KISS Alliance oral history, '"Growing Up Cool" by Eric Carr' - Spring 1990 issue.}

Flasher played the club circuit in New York City and Long Island. "We did clubs all around New York and Long Island for about two months, and then the keyboard player, Paul Turino, he quit. (W)e went on as a power trio, we had three lead vocalists, I was singing lead and we were doing Joe Jackson, and Van Halen, and Led Zeppelin stuff, and Oh, God, Hendrix, and you know – whatever we could play."

The band continued on despite the resignation of their keyboardist, but bookings diminished. Caravello handed in his resignation in May 1980. "At that particular point, I had already told the band that I was gonna quit. I had given them like, to the end of June, and I was gonna leave 'cause there's nothing going on. I just said you know, 'There's no money in it, and I can't do it. I don't know what I'm wanna do.' And literally for the first time in my life I really, seriously thought about giving up music completely. I'm thinking, 'Gee, you know, I've tried everything and here I am, 30 years old and nothing's happening – I'd better can it for awhile'. I would have kept doing the stoves, and probably done something else, but, knowing me, I would have gotten back into the music probably quick anyway. But, for awhile I might have given it up, just to cool out a bit."

Shortly afterwards, he had a chance meeting with Turino in a club in Queens. "Literally, I never expected to see him (Turino) again, because we really hadn't gotten to be friends you know, in that short (amount) of time." Carr remembered. "I ran into him again two months, three months later at a place called “Poets”, in Queens; that's called “Nobodys” now. I was gonna play there the next night, so I just went to just hang out to have a couple drinks, you know, nothing to do, it was a Tuesday night. So he happened to show up, this was months after he quit the band. I invited him down to see us play the next night." {1990 KA taped interview.}

Turino told Caravello about Criss' departure from Kiss and urged Caravello to audition to become Kiss' drummer. "At the end of the evening, he goes, “(Paul), you've to get out of this band,” and I said, “Yeah, I know, I already told them 'em I was leaving”.

“Well, why don't you audition for KISS?” (Taped KA interview, 1990)