Eric Carr - Stage Makeup and Persona

Stage Makeup and Persona

After Caravello passed the audition, time was short but the band had some trouble coming up with a character persona and a stage name for him before his debut concert.

"We never actually told him he was in the band," stated Paul Stanley on USA Network's Night Flight program in 1983, "We just said: "In two weeks we're playin.'"

Caravello was alleged by Gene Simmons to have originally considered going by the name "Rusty Blade" until Simmons dissuaded him. He decided on Eric Carr' quite carefully. He noticed that while all four members' full stage names were each three syllables long, Criss' name was the inverse of the other three band members' name syllable pattern - 'Peter Criss' was two syllables followed by a single syllable. He decided to make his stage name sound the same rhythmically as Peter Criss' by choosing a double syllable first name and a single syllable last name so when people said all four names together it would still fit the same to the ear. Carr was shortened from his birth name Caravello, and he chose Eric from a list of first names his girlfriend at the time had given him. Paul Caravello remained his legal name.

For his Kiss persona, Carr initially tried "The Hawk"; this concept was apparently very difficult to realize in greasepaint – a suitable make-up design was never created, and the "Hawk" costume was a "bright ORANGE-YELLOW!" The idea was dropped after Paul Stanley mentioned that it looked like Big Bird . With the band on deadline (only two weeks before Carr's stage debut), Carr came up with the make-up design for the persona of "The Fox"; Simmons liked it and thus the character was born. The original design was modified within days of Carr's initial photo sessions and debut concert as a KISS member, (See People Magazine cover photo,August 1980: "Kiss, they're Rich, Raunchy, and not so Repulsive"

Carr was introduced to the public on an episode of the syndicated television youth show Kids Are People Too! filmed in late July, 1980 and aired in September 1980. His first public performance was with the band in New York City's "The Palladium" venue on July 25, 1980. His parents, warned to not tell anyone their son was now in Kiss (to maintain the mystique that no one knew what the new member looked like without make up), attended the concert, and were recognized by a friend who actually worked with Paul Caravello at the repair shop - and had no idea the new KISS member behind the kit was his former co-worker. "'What are you doing here?'", Carr's father, Albert Caravello related in the Tale Of The Fox DVD, "'You like Kiss?' I said, "Yeah!'" Carr also, immediately after joining KISS, still did a few stove repair jobs. For Christmas in 1980, the KISS organization bought Eric a Porsche—so their new drummer would ride around in appropriate rock star-style. Ironically, the car broke down often, and caused Carr quite a bit of grief. ("Tale of the Fox" DVD).

His persona remained consistent for three years until the band's well-publicized removal of their stage makeup in September 1983, live on MTV network. The drastic move came after declining album sales and a poorly attended US tour. "I thought the band was ending, and they weren't telling me", he told a fanzine editor in a June 20, 1990 interview. Kiss slowly turned their career descent into a rebound, and the band thrived. Carr earned a reputation amongst fans for being unusually friendly and approachable. He answered more mail than other band members, and often added messages to his autographs. Despite being a replacement of an original member, his popularity soared among fans based on his personality and percussion skills.