1. Paul Charles Caravello, better known as Eric Carr, was an American musician.
47 Facts About Eric Carr
1. 2.
Eric Carr was the drummer for the rock band Kiss from 1980 until his death in 1991.
3.
Eric Carr created the stage name "Eric Carr" and designed his on-stage Fox persona.
4.
Eric Carr remained a member of Kiss until his death from heart cancer in 1991.
5.
Eric Carr spent a lot of time alone in his room, playing with toy soldiers and toy monsters.
6.
Eric Carr planned at first to be a cartoonist, then changed his mind quickly thereafter and decided to study photography.
7.
Eric Carr collected several books and pots from the kitchen to create a makeshift drum kit and began teaching himself how to play drums.
8.
Eric Carr began exploring heavier music, such as Cream and Jimi Hendrix.
9.
Eric Carr soon recruited Mother Nature-Father Time with guitarist Tom Siano writing three of the five songs.
10.
Eric Carr was one of the few people outside of the band's circle of friends, family and music business partners, to see Kiss without make-up.
11.
Eric Carr was not impressed with Kiss' performance at the audition.
12.
Eric Carr 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 that when people said all four names together it would still fit the same to the ear.
13.
Eric Carr's persona remained consistent for three years until the band's well-publicized removal of their stage makeup in September 1983, live on MTV.
14.
Eric Carr thought the band was coming to an end, but Kiss slowly turned their career descent into a rebound, and the band thrived .
15.
Eric Carr earned a reputation amongst fans for being very friendly and approachable.
16.
Eric Carr answered more mail than other band members, and often added messages to his autographs.
17.
Eric Carr cowrote "Escape From The Island" with Frehley and producer Bob Ezrin.
18.
The heavy reverb on Eric Carr's drums was a unique sound not previously heard on a Kiss album.
19.
Eric Carr said he found writing lyrics harder than writing music.
20.
Besides drumming, Eric Carr played guitar, bass guitar and piano, and sang background vocals.
21.
Eric Carr recorded his version of the song in the same room in the Record Plant where the song was originally recorded, using the same backing track as Criss.
22.
Eric Carr wrote the music, played bass and drums, while Kulick played guitar.
23.
Simmons wrote new lyrics, which Eric Carr recorded for the subsequent Hot in the Shade release.
24.
Eric Carr performed the song a few times, but it wasn't performed beyond the first month of the tour.
25.
Eric Carr felt excluded and unfairly treated as a second-class Kiss citizen, for instance not being allowed to share Simmons' and Stanley's limousine, only getting minimal exposure in videos such as the Kiss eXposed VHS, or being partially cropped out of the Asylum album cover.
26.
Unlike fellow bandmember Bruce Kulick with the same status, Eric Carr grew ever more frustrated and unhappy, culminating in his feeling of being ditched by Kiss during his 1991 hospitalization.
27.
Eric Carr's last recording with Kiss was for the song "God Gave Rock 'N' Roll to You II", which featured him on backing vocals.
28.
The last time Eric Carr worked with Kiss was in July 1991 when Kiss filmed the video for "God Gave Rock 'N Roll to You" with Eric Carr playing drums.
29.
Eric Carr allegedly fixated on the fact that he was neither going to be a founding member of Kiss, nor the band's first drummer.
30.
Eric Carr was a powerful hard-hitting drummer and one of the first drummers to adopt the classic 1980s snare drum sound: a highly reverberated and low-tuned sound.
31.
Simmons has stated that Eric Carr's harder drumming style pushed Kiss into becoming a heavier band than it had been when jazz-inspired Criss was the band's drummer.
32.
Stanley and Simmons refused; both have stated they repeatedly told Eric Carr to focus on his cancer treatments and they would allow him to return to Kiss once he regained his health.
33.
The doctors refused to let Eric Carr leave the hospital on any conditions, no matter how he pleaded with them.
34.
Eric Carr flew to Los Angeles to film the video in July 1991.
35.
Eric Carr died on November 24,1991, at the age of 41.
36.
Eric Carr's death came on the same day as Freddie Mercury, the lead singer of the British rock band Queen, whose death attracted more media attention.
37.
Eric Carr had been planning on giving her an engagement ring for her birthday.
38.
Eric Carr is interred in Cedar Hill Cemetery in the town of Newburgh, New York.
39.
Stanley wrote in his autobiography that, at the time, he believed the allegation of mistreating Eric Carr was simply untrue and that he did what he thought was right to support him.
40.
In 2011, Eric Carr's family released an album of his unreleased songs called Unfinished Business.
41.
The album consists of 18 songs and runs 43 minutes in length, and includes Eric Carr singing Shandi, which was taken directly from his 1980 tape he sent into KISS for his audition.
42.
Eric Carr had for years been trying to get his hands on a copy of the solo for his personal collection, but his request was always rebuffed by Bob Ezrin with the excuse that he did not know where the masters for the session were.
43.
Eric Carr was paid homage on the "Kiss My Ass" and Kissology 2 videos.
44.
Eric Carr's acknowledgment was a bronze plaque with his name, autograph and a separate icon of the Fox makeup he wore.
45.
In July 2005, Eric Carr was voted the tenth best drummer of all time by Planet Rock.
46.
On November 9,2023, the first book in an unauthorized biographical series, Eric Carr Revealed, was published.
47.
Eric Carr's family announced in 2006 that they would release material written and recorded by Eric Carr between 1980 and 1991, including the following songs:.