News broke today that long-time session guitarist Bob Kulick died today at the age of 70. While Bob may not be a household name, he had a very good career in music and got to work with the likes of Meatloaf, Michael Bolton, WASP and most notably KISS and Paul Stanley on his 1978 solo album. Bob is the brother of Bruce Kulick who would go on to be an official member of KISS in 1984 until the reunion of the original band in 1996.
Bob himself came close to being Kiss' guitar player. He auditioned when they were looking for a guitar player and he apparently nailed the audition, but Ace Frehley came in right after and was more what the band was looking for as a member of Kiss. While Bob missed out on the gig, he would do session work with Kiss, playing guitar on the studio disc side of Alive II (1977) and the new songs on the Kiss compilation album Killers (1982). When Kiss released individual solo albums in 1978, Paul Stanley enlisted Bob Kulick to play all the lead guitar on the album, so if you want as close of an idea as you're going to get as to what Kiss may have sounded like with Bob, give Paul Stanley's '78 record a listen. It's a good album, but in my personal opinion, Ace's would be the most solid of the 4 solo records released by Kiss in 1978.
Along with his session work with various artists from Lou Reed to Diana Ross including those mentioned above, he also worked as a producer on a number of tribute albums throughout the 2000's. A storied career and working closely with some of the biggest names in music. Even though he didn't land that Kiss gig, things seemed to work out for Bob as a session player.
Rest in peace, Bob Kulick.
-CMM
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