Eric Singer (born Eric Doyle Mensinger) was born in Cleveland, Ohio, on May 12th, 1958. He is an American hard rock and heavy metal drummer, best known as the drummer of the legendary Kiss, where he portrayed The Catman which Peter Criss originally played.
Eric’s father, Johnny Mensinger, who was a local bandleader, had a significant influence on him, and Eric started to play drums at an early age. Eric’s inspiration came from bands such as Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Humble Pie, The Who, The Beatles, and Queen. Drummers that he admired were Keith Moon, Roger Taylor, Bill Ward, John Bonham, and Buddy Rich.
His career is impressive and besides Kiss, he also performed with Black Sabbath, Alice Cooper, Lita Ford, Brian May, Gary Moore, Badlands, and his own band ESP. Eric made appearances on over 75 albums and 11 EPs.
His professional career as a hard rock and heavy metal drummer started in 1984. His first drumming job was with the Cleveland band Beau Coup after which he joined Lita Ford’s tour as a touring drummer.
After Lita Ford’s tour, he replaced Bill Ward and became Black Sabbath’s drummer in 1985, and he participated in the albums Seventh Star and The Eternal Idol. In 1987 he joined the Gary Moore tour for his album, Wild Frontier. After Gary Moore’s tour, he joined Bandlands, a blues-rock band founded by the members of the Black Sabbath and former Ozzy Osbourne guitarist Jake E. Lee.
In 1989 he left the band and joined Paul Stanley for the United States solo tour. After the tour, Eric joined Alice Cooper in his ‘Trash’ album support tour, and he also appeared in his music videos.
KISS
It was 1973 when Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons, Peter Criss, and Ace Frehley founded the legendary KISS in New York City. The Kiss became one of the best-selling bands of all time with more than 75 million sold records.
The stats speak for themselves; with 30 Gold albums Kiss is America’s number one Gold record award-winning group of all time, 14 albums are platinum and three albums are multi-platinum.
MTV ranked Kiss as the ninth greatest metal band of all time, and VH1’s placed Kiss in 10th place in the 100 greatest artists of the hard rock list. The founding members were introduced to the Rock Hall of Fame on April 10th, 2014.
The Kiss became known for visual performance, fiery shows, and stage effects. Group members’ face painting and costumes became legendary and part of the rock culture. Comic book-style characters were the inspiration for their appearance and each member represented different characters. Bassist and co-lead singer Gene Simmons invented the persona The Demon. Paul Stanley, rhythm guitarist, and co-lead singer is The Starchild. Original lead guitarist Ace Frehley invented The Spaceman persona whose role Tommy Thayer took over. Eric Singer took over The Catman persona from the founding member and former drummer Peter Criss. There were two more personas that were used by former members, Eric Carr was The Fox, and Vinnie Vincent was The Ankh Warrior.
KISS: LINEUP CHANGES AND ERIC SINGER
The original lineup changed in 1982 when drummer Peter Criss and lead guitarist Ace Frehley left Kiss due to creative differences. Eric Carr was selected as the new drummer of the Kiss, and in 1983 new era of the band’s unmasked performance started and lasted for a decade.
First unmasked and eleventh-in-the-row album was ‘Lick it up’ and it was platinum-certified. The new era of Kiss opened new markets and attract a new group of fans, music videos were aired all the time and the popularity was sky-high. Unfortunately, Eric Carr lost a battle against heart cancer and passed away in November 1991.
Eric Singer, who performed two years earlier with Paul Stanley, was hired as a new drummer and made a debut on the album Revenge which was released on May 19th, 1992.
In 1997 a new album, ‘Carnival of Souls: The Final Sessions’ was released and it was the seventeenth album of the band. Eric Singer performed and toured with the Kiss from 1991 till 1997, and then he was replaced by the original drummer and founding member, Peter Criss.
Both Peter Criss and Ace Frehley reunited with the band for the ‘Alive/Worldwide Tour’, and it was their first appearance in the original lineup since 1979 and the Dynasty Tour. To this day, the Dynasty Tour is the most successful Kiss tour.
In 2001, Eric Singer rejoined the band and for the first time took over the persona of The Catman with a short break from 2002 until 2004 when he was once again replaced by Peter Criss. From 2004 until this day, Eric Singer holds the role of the permanent Kiss drummer.
KISS ALBUMS WITH ERIC SINGER
- Revenge (1992)
- Alive III (1993)
- Kiss Unplugged (1996)
- Carnival of Souls: The Final Sessions (1997)
- Sonic Boom (2009)
- Monster (2012)
- Kiss Rocks Vegas (2016)
END OF THE ROAD WORLD TOUR
In September 2018, the band announced that they will do one final worldwide concert tour, and the tour started on January 31st, 2019 at the Rogers Arena in Vancouver, Canada. The tour represents a celebration of the 45 years of their work, and the tour will end symbolically in New York City where everything started.
The tour is split into eight legs, and the last concert is planned to be held on July 17, 2021. Concerts will be held around the world in some most amazing places, and just in Europe, there will be 35 concerts. With the End of the Road World Tour, fans have a great opportunity to combine travel with concerts.
They can visit Europe, enjoy the show, see what’s Europe’s history all about and what are the things to see in Trogir. Why Trogir, you might wonder? Well, is the Blue Lagoon Trogir enough? If not, then because of hundreds of our fans who keep sending us beautiful photos from Croatia. Last time I saw some awesome video messages sent to me by a fellow fan, which were taken on a Krka National park tour from Split.
ERIC SINGER PROJECTS
Before joining Kiss, Eric performed with Alice Cooper, and in the breaks, from touring with Kiss he continued playing with him. The first time that he played for Alice Cooper was for the album Trash, and he continued with the album Brutal Planet in 2000. In total, he was in three Alice Cooper albums, Brutal Planet, The Eyes of Alice Cooper, and Along Came a Spider.
Since 2008 he is no longer a member of his band, yet he focused on Kiss and ESP. Besides music, Eric had an appearance in the movies in 1989 in the Wes Craven film Shocker. Eric’s hobbies and passion are watches, and in 2015 he was elected to the jury of watchmaking highest awards; the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève (GPHG).
On top of that, he found a new love in small unmanned vehicles, more commonly referred to as drones. Toy drones are a great pastime, and it seems as though Eric realized this a while back. Some of his favorite toy drones can be found in these drones under $200 guide by DronesGlobe.