KISS And Tell: A Long Islander's Time With The Classic Rock Band

Robert V. Conte was a young student at the St. Rose of Lima school in Massapequa in 1980 when his friend gave him a model kit of a custom KISS Chevy van. It was just one piece in a wide range of merchandise that the band had released.

Conte had never listened to KISS before, but he was intrigued by the model. He put it together, taking time to paint and detail it. Soon after, he started buying KISS trading cards and other merchandise.

He didn't know it at the time, it was the start of a life-long obsession with KISS that culminated in working with the band on numerous projects. Now, as KISS is playing one of their last shows ever at Nassau Coliseum, Conte is getting ready to release his memoir about his time with the band, called "My KISS Story."

"The book is basically about a KISS fan’s dream come true, to work with KISS," Conte said. "It’s a cross between 'Almost Famous' and 'No One Gets Out of Here Alive.' It’s telling the story of this kid who didn’t have two cents to rub together growing up in Massapequa and Huntington Station and got to work with the hottest band in the world."

Conte's love of the band started with the model he got, but really blossomed after watching them perform on MTV in 1983, he said. They played a small set, and he was enthralled with their music. A year later, his uncle Brandon took Conte to his first KISS concert, at Nassau Coliseum.

In 1989, when he was 19, Conte wrote a comic book biography of the band with a friend. It was unauthorized, and a labor of love for the two. There was a company in San Diego that was publishing comic books about rock bands, and on a whim, Conte sent his to them.

"And the publisher called me the next day and said he loved it so much he was going to publish it." It was published in 1990.

A few years later, Conte managed to meet the band after a show at the Ritz in New York. He had a copy of his comic with him, and Gene Simmons told him, "You did not have my permission to do that."

Later, Conte met the band again at a meet-and-greet at a Tower Records in Carle Place. Simmons recognized him, Conte said, and said, "You're the guy that did that unauthorized comic book."

Conte was talking to the band about how their albums had changed over the years as their record labels changed. He had a thick folder with him of all the errors that were in the records -- mistakes in liner notes, songs not sequenced correctly and more -- and the band was impressed with the breadth and depth of his knowledge. He told them he had every album they every put out, in multiple formats, and they were aghast.

The reason Conte had so many albums, he said, was from a job he had at The Wax Museum Records, a record store in Massapequa. He would work on the weekends, and instead of cash, he would get paid in records. It allowed him to amass a huge collection of KISS albums, and while grading the used records with the store's owner, he also learned about all the differences between them.

A year after the meet-and-greet at Tower Recrods, Conte said he got a call from KISS frontman Gene Simmons. At the time, Conte was living in Los Angeles and was working as the editor in chief of a line of rock n' roll comic books. Simmons wanted to meet with him to talk about working on projects.

The band was looking to remaster all of their records, and they wanted to make sure it was done right. So Simmons called up Conte, the guy who knew even more about albums KISS than KISS did.

"And a few months later, I was told I had to move back to New York because we were working with KISS to repackage and remaster all their records," Conte said.

Over the course of about 18 months, Conte worked to restore all of KISS's albums and release them on CD and cassette. KISS albums used to have special things inside, Conte said -- small posters, temporary tattoos, small books, and other small goodies -- but they were cut out when the band's label changed over the years. Conte said they restored all of those thing for the remaster. He also got to write the liner notes for all of the records.

Though his full-time job with the band ended after the remastering work, Conte has continued to work with them over the years. He's designed merchandise like lunch boxes, trading cards and even solo CDs. He worked with the band from 1995 through 2001.

The remastered albums that Conte worked on are still the versions on sale today.

"A couple of years ago, I took my kids to a record convention on Long Island, and we were going through the KISS records," he said. "The first one I worked on was 'You Want the Best, You Got the Best.' And on the back cover was one of my essays with my name at the bottom."

Conte, who works as a writer now, is publishing his memoir this year. "My KISS Story" will be available later this year, Conte said. But the book is available for pre-order now. Conte said the publishers are creating a limited run version of the book that's 12x12, and will contain surprises inside like many of the classic KISS records. You can find more information about the book at www.studiochikara.com.