Mark was my good friend and I helped him record his demo and played drums triggering a Linn drum. Mark did not bounce around with other bands before Kiss. He taught at Lears Music in CA and studied with Allen Holdsworth. He was very much a jazz guitarist from the progressive or fusion style of guitar.
Great video. The story of Mark St. John is a tragic one. So amazing KISS finally officially released a concert with Mark. I would love to see VIDEO of Mark onstage live with KISS!!
I find it hard to believe Paul's narrative that he couldn't play the same lick twice. He was a guitar teacher. I love Kiss but it also makes me think that Paul has fabricated a lot about some of the other members. If you listen to Paul recount, he sounds bitter and seems to blame everyone else, never even considering that maybe he had something to do with it.
In the year 1989 there was a US-American one-issue magazine "Kiss Guitarists". It featured an interview with Mark St. John. He sounded disillusioned there and said he that didn´t like the tradition of Kiss stage names, though he´d keep his as he had grown to fame with it. RIP, Mark.
I was privileged to have spent some time with Mark St. John. We were neighbors in Garden Grove California where he lived down the road from Gary Street. A great personality but at the time, we were into the nitty gritty (If you know what I mean). I remember seeing him in his garage grinding away on his guitars which led to me giving him a grinder which he needed, (Sorry Dad, Mark St. John needed it [White Lion, Kiss!]). I remember one night we got pretty wired and we climbed a gated apartment building and took a dip in the facility's jacuzzi. With excitement rushing through us as we scaled the gates, and then eased in the jacuzzi, I enquired what was it like to have played with Kiss. He responded with "how would you like to be around a bunch of New Yorkers" as we laughed intently. On another occasion, we were hanging out in his garage where guitars and shiny albums were crowded onto his garage walls. I was awe struck at this Kramer electric guitar that I couldn't keep my eyes off and asked if I could take it down from its pedestal. As a gentle giant that Mark was, he concurred and plug it into an amplifier, and I started jamming. I was crazy about this electric Kramer which played like a jewel. I played a rift I had created in the years that I had played guitar and he asked me to play it again. To my astonishment, Mark admired my rift asked me to forge on and to finish the song. Till this day, I haven't completed it. As I was chomping away on the guitar, Mark handed me a guitar magazine. He swiped through the pages and stopped on a page where Eddie Van Halen was holding the same guitar I held in my hand. He looked at me smiled and went on doing what he was doing. Apparently, all the famed rockers knew Mark and partied hard with him. From the likes of Motley Crue to Van Halen that came over to bark at the moon till dawn. I know he had regrets and I'm sure he would have done more and accomplished many feats if it wasn't for the arthritis. It was a pleasure to make you acquaintance Mark St. John. God bless and I know you are jamming on the other side. Btw.......KNAC rocks!!!
@edie5150 i too, had some time with mark in that very same garage at his folks house. very nice guy, very humble. and a fantastic player... i've heard what paul stanley said about him, paul sounds like a real assh*le with nothing nice to say about ANYONE. So, Fk him. i'll never forget when i met mark, i was at this female drummer's place just hanging out and messing around on an old acoustic, didn't know who he was, but comes over to me and says, "hey man, those are some pretty advanced techniques right there" looking back, thats the biggest compliment ive ever gotten...very cool dude, very sad when i heard of his passing. RIP
Really awful what happened to him. I've heard recently about that tragedy while he was in jail, expecting what would happened. RIP Mark and thanks for your work on Animalize. I'm sure you're in a better place.
Based on the comments in Paul's book, I've always wondered: if Paul was so down on Mark and Vinnie, why did they each get the gig? One would have thought, even at that fairly low ebb of their career, that Gene & Paul could have been choosier.
They "really knew how to pick 'em" back then. I get that Bob Kulick was bald, but change his name to Robert Lightning or something and make him wear a wig... or other such things... with anyone at all that they actually got along with. It was a very weird time for KISS
Both had really great musical chops. Vinnie had personality and legal issues, while Mark had a very different musical background than the other guys. As for the ebb of their career, it was not low when they hired Mark. In both cases, they had limited time to find replacements and wanted to get back into the studio to record Lick It Up and then Animalize. Vinnie was a great songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, singer, and producer as well, which added to his value. Also, at least in the case of Mark, they were thinking that having a virtuoso shredder would make them more competitive with the post-Van Halen bands, that were big at the time. Bruce was the first shredder they played with who had similar influences, was easy to get along with, and didn't feel the need to fire all guns 100 percent of the time.
Saw Kiss Southampton England Oct 1984 ( With a young Bon Jovi opening) one year after seeing em in Poole England with Vinnie Vincent! At Southampton we soon noticed Mark St John wasn't onstage and wondered who his replacement was we soon found out was Bruce Kulick we saw with em for the next few years!! A tragedy bout Mark! Would have been great to see him perform!
I love your channel man!❤🎉❤ And I had no idea he was even a member! My Dad is a huge KISS fan, and now I get to ask him about this. 😊 keep up the great work!
The live recordings with St John sounds horrendous. The guitar playing on Animalize was the weakest in Kissstory. You can hear timing problems in the solo on I’ve had enough. It’s tumbling and falling.
The comparison to Eddie Van Halen is both inaccurate and unfair, as anyone with even a modicum of musical intellect will tell you that Eddie WASN'T a "shredder", which is closer to the type of style Norton/St. John incorporated. Eddie was absolutely a guitarist who played with "feeling" and was NEVER concerned with every bit of a solo incorporating the "a-million notes-per-minute" approach, typified by shredders. Norton/St. John was closer to Vinnie Vincent in guitar-playing aptitude/approach than EVH.
I agree that Ed wasn't exactly a shredder as much as the guitarists in the genre borrowed so much of his style, and VH was the blueprint of sorts for that genre, he's simply been labeled as one in the aftermath...
I met Mark in1976 wanting to hire my friend as lead singer "Mark Ballard" for his first band "Jaberwalkie" brother Mike on bass,Mark Norton lead drummer unknown it was a unforgetfull concert performance.I lived 20 houses from Mark the true is he wrote most all of Animalized that went Double Platinum Kiss never saw a Double Platinum before Mark wrote Animalized! Paul Stanley
Maybe he truly didn’t know what he was signing up for…Dealing with PauI and Gene. One requires a certain kind of personality and temperament to be a hired gun in a band of that magnitude.
@@MattTalksVinyl That’s a fantastic observation and example! Coincidentally, I happen to be a huge fan of Kiss and Metallica, with a genuine interest in everything both of these bands do and have done.
@@MattTalksVinyl Yes, there is always a risk the new guy will become the scapegoat. That’s exactly what happened to Jason Newstead. To this very day, no members of metallica (lower case letters are intentional) have acknowledged this.
Tbh Peter and Ace are infuriating as well. Ace is like 72 and he's still crying about Thayer wearing his make up. He sounds like Kermit the Frog on Fentanyl dribbling on about - aaahhh m spaceman make up grrrrrrrrrrrr -
A sad story but it takes two maybe kiss wasn't for him and he wasn't for kiss simple as that they needed a guitarist asap and who wouldn't jump at the chance, it might have lasted longer if his illness hadn't have flared up, but still don't think he would have lasted too long in the band anyway and sometimes it's no one's fault it's just how it goes
'who wouldn't jump at the chance' - I'd rather hang myself of Brooklyn Bridge than be associated with those talentless clowns. Look at Thayer now, getting paid $300 a gig to wobble about the stage like a demented spaceman.
Great guitarist, and animalize,is my second favorite kiss album, second to creature's, of course.... .didn't know he was a troubled man,and down in the street like he was.....rest in peace, my brother.
Unfortunately the guy was a loser and he was not geared for success so it's too bad he chased success because like the old Chinese proverb says be careful what you wish for you may get it. So many other great guitar players out there that could have hooked up with kiss and gone along with the plan and gone much farther but Mark was lucky to be given a chance but he blew that chance. But you could never trust a junkie even when they recover . 😮
