Paul Stanley Reveals Regret With Eric Carr

Paul Stanley expressed remorse that Eric Carr felt deceived by KISS during his sickness and death, saying that the band should have been more sympathetic to the drummer’s difficulty.

In an interview with Howard Stern, the KISS singer explained his thoughts. “I’m not a big believer in mistakes. I believe that everything you do gets you to where you wind up, and without those mistakes, you wouldn’t succeed on the level you could have. But the one thing that I think personally was a mistake was when our second drummer, Eric Carr, got sick with cancer.”

Carr passed away in November of 1991 from a very unusual kind of heart cancer. KISS’s “God Gave Rock ‘n’ Roll to You II” was recorded earlier that year, with Eric Singer taking over drum duties from Carr. Despite his worsening health, Carr insisted on participating in the music video and contributing background vocals for the song – a request that was rejected by the members.

“I didn’t believe that he could possibly die,” Stanley added. “I thought this was a new ongoing condition: ‘OK, he’s got this and then it’ll go away.’ And had I known, I think we would have treated it more sensitively. We took care of him, we paid his medical bills, but we also told him, ‘We’re going to continue as a band while he’s sick.’ Well, he wasn’t ‘while he’s sick.’ He was dying.”

Gene Simmons, who was also present at the interview, also gave his opinion. “We flew to Eric’s bedside immediately, as soon as we knew he went to the hospital, and [asked], ‘Is there anything we can do?’ All that. And Paul’s right — you just [think], ‘Oh, he’s sick, he’s in the hospital.’ You just don’t think he’s going to pass away.”

Kiss wrapped up their Revenge album from 1992 with an instrumental tune that featured a lengthy drum solo by Carr as a way of honoring him for his contributions to the band.