R.I.P. Bob Kulick (KISS/Lou Reed)

[Dan Roth]

Veteran session guitarist played for nearly everyone (check out his Wikipedia page), but he may be most famous for his contributions to KISS, Meatloaf, Lou Reed and SpongeBob.

https://www.blabbermouth.net/news/ve...ck-dead-at-70/




"Nowhere to Run" is a great mid-tempo song for KISS with a great solo by Kulick. Often playing uncredited, he told The Metal Voice in a November interview about his experiences playing for Kiss: "Did they ever say thank you? No never. Paul then said to me, 'Bob you can't tell anybody you played on these songs.'"



Kulick was one of the writers for the song "Sweet Victory" in the 2001 episode "Band Geeks." A short stadium rock anthem with David Glen Eisley from Giuffria on lead vocals, the song is epic in that it's just over two minutes. It's instantly recognizable as soon as the first horns sound or the keyboard riff in the intro plays. Naturally, Kulick contributed an excellent guitar solo.

[interbellum]

I only now him as musician and producer from the A.O.R. outfit Balance:

[interbellum]

This is a better Balance-song in a quite a recent version:

[Vic2012]

RIP. 70 is too young.

[GuitarGeek]

He had a good story about playing on one of the Kiss sessions he did (probably for the new stuff that was on the Killers release). He said that Paul called asked if he could come to the studio to do some overdubs. Bob says, "Where's Ace?". Paul says, "Can't play". Bob says, "OK", so he goes down to the studio and they do a few overdubs, do a few takes, after awhile, they take a break. So he goes into the studio lounge, and Ace is sprawled out on the sofa. Ace looks up at him and says "How'm I playing, Curly?!". Bob says "Best you ever sounded, Ace!".

Bob actually auditioned for the band before Ace. Some versions of the story have that Ace walked in during Bob's audition, plugged in his guitar and started playing, and Gene and Paul had to tell to shut up and wait his turn. I think it's been suggested that until Ace played, Gene, Paul and Peter were getting ready to ask Bob to join.

[Gruno]

May he truly rest in peace. Hopefully he has found it after his bitter feud with his brother, Bruce. I hope they reconciled before his passing. Difficult to picture that, unless Bruce cancelled the restraining order against Bob. If Bob was terminally ill the previous 12-18 months, it would help to explain his public behavior.

I attended most of the Southern California shows for the 1989 Paul Stanley solo tour. Bob was lead guitar. Fun stage presence, but awkward in style -- sorta dorky & clumsy. But, it was the 80s so it fit in, I suppose. He was often praised by many KISS fans due to his long history with KISS dating back to their guitar auditions in '73, as GuitarGeek mentioned. He was always cool with me.

Here's a shot I snuck at the Anaheim, CA Celebrity Theater concert with Bob pointing. Yes, he is wearing wrestling shoes.



With that, I'll be respectful...

Around 2000, I started to see changes in Bob. He began to speak with a bitter & biting tongue about KISS. He felt he didn't get enough recognition from them for all his work as a session player. He would take jabs at them. It seemed petty and unwarranted. Yet, he would be gracious while making paid appearances at fan-run KISS conventions/expos. He would attend official KISS events/concerts and all seemed well between he and KISS from my vantage point. Last time I saw Bob was about 4 years ago. It has been at least 10 years since I last spoke with Bob.

A couple of years ago he and Bruce performed a kickass set as The Kulick Brothers on the KISS Kruise, playing many obscure KISS tracks that they appeared on.





Then, things soured when they were scheduled to appear the next year. You can research it and read Bob's own words as he made everything public from his perspective. I know what I know from those in the know and multiple hugely reliable sources point to Bob being the one who just sorta lost it and went on these odd tangents. Some audio interviews he did back then are VERY strange.

I can't imagine what Bruce is going through. Stella Stevens is another I thought of when I heard this news.

R.I.P.

[GuitarGeek]

BTW, the first time I remember hearing of Bob Kulick was when he was in Balance, I think, and Guitar World did a piece on him. At the time, he was endorsing BC Rich guitars, and I gather he had a really sweet Eagle Supreme that he used as his main guitar in the studio at the time. But the photo that accompanied the piece showed him playing his stage guitar at the time, which was a white (I think) Bich. I was actually trying to find that picture, but the only version I could find online had a watermark (not Getty Images, but a similar outfit, I gather). Anyway, I always thought that was a cool looking image.