Love & Passion Quote by Peter Criss

Peter Criss isn’t just bragging; he’s borrowing NASA’s glow to justify KISS’s appetite for spectacle. Calling the band the “John Glenns” of rock pulls rock stardom out of the usual sex-and-drugs mythology and plugs it into midcentury American heroics: bravery, novelty, national attention, the televised countdown. It’s a smart bit of self-mythmaking from a group that understood branding before “branding” became a TED Talk.

The intent is clear: KISS as pioneers, not mere entertainers. “We always have to be the first” frames excess as mission-driven. It recasts their famously engineered theatrics - makeup, pyros, merch, arena-scale personas - as innovation rather than gimmick. Criss is also signaling what membership costs. If you’re one of the “John Glenns,” you don’t get to coast. You’re trapped by your own legend, sentenced to escalation: bigger shows, louder stunts, more “firsts” to stay ahead of the market they helped create.

There’s subtextual defensiveness, too. KISS have long been the punchline for critics who prefer authenticity to commerce. Glenn is a cultural shield: you don’t mock astronauts for being showy; you applaud them for pushing limits. In the 1970s, when rock was splitting into high-art ambition, back-to-basics grit, and corporate stadium bigness, Criss plants KISS firmly in the last lane and insists it’s not hollow. It’s frontier work - with face paint.