It’s hard to believe that rock bands have humble origins.

When you see acts like Kiss on stage, playing to the masses and looking untouchable while doing so, you would think they were born into this crazy life; in fact, when people first went to see them perform live, they reacted to it like it was something completely new, and that’s because it was. The sound itself was good, catchy, fun to nod along to, but their image, set design, and affinity for all things fireworks meant that the gig was unlike anything else which was available at the time.

When they went on tour with Black Sabbath, Geezer Butler said he borderline regretted asking them out on the road, as despite Sabbath being one of the most cutting-edge metal bands on the market, they were getting upstaged by the elaborate nature of Kiss’s live show. You know you’re onto a winner when people are leaving a Sabbath gig and thinking more about you, the support band, than Ozzy Osbourne and co.

“Kiss was the first one to use pyro,” said Butler, “You’ve never seen that. I mean, the shock of that. And they were supporting us, so they weren’t even headlining. I went out and watched them. There were all these flames coming out the stage and everything. It was like ‘Oh my God, what’s going on here?’”

Even Questlove, who has had a star-studded career meeting and working with some of the biggest names in sound, remembers specifically bumping into Kiss when he was young and thinking they were superheroes, which is the level of impact they left on people, as their look, dominant stature, and generally the way they carried themselves, meant that people thought they were an unrelenting force.

“The elevator doors open, and it’s them! Gene Simmons was still in make-up,” said The Roots drummer, recalling the chance encounter, “They came straight from the gig, and they were staying on the same floor.”

When you have such an impact on audiences and people, you would think that a band always has this undeniable level of authority, and assume they met somewhere exclusive, the kind of place reserved for future rockstars and superheroes. Of course, that’s never the case, for bands like Kiss are born through a bunch of mutual minds coming together and deciding that they should be making music together; it’s as simple as that. The band have been called ahead of their time because of their appearance, but initially, Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons were just two Beatles fans and budding musicians who found themselves in the same apartment.

It was in New York when the two of them met. They were both in bands that weren’t really going anywhere, as Gene Simmons was playing in a group called Bullfrog Bheer while Paul Stanley was in a group with a man called Steve Cornell, who was the one who introduced the two would-be Kiss frontmen, as he and Stanley were writing some music at his house when Simmons came round to pick up some equipment.

This is the setting where Kiss would be born, a humble New York apartment, with two people passing, who had no idea the impact they were about to have on each other’s lives, but perhaps, what’s even more interesting is that the way Gene Simmons acted during this meeting, which almost brought Kiss to an end before they had even started. He was arrogant and self-obsessed, which meant that when he asked Stanley to start a band, the ‘Star Child’ was hesitant to do so.

“I think he thought Lennon, McCartney and Gene were the only three songwriters in the world,” said Stanley, “And all of a sudden he had to make room for a fourth.” One of the biggest rock bands in the world was born and almost died, all within the space of the same four walls.