Peter Criss, the founding drummer of KISS, has announced he will release his first solo album in 18 years, an unexpected yet fitting development for an artist who has long stood slightly outside the frame of rock’s spotlight. Now 78, Criss isn’t attempting to recapture past fame. Instead, he’s turning inward, focusing on something more personal and lasting: music that speaks to where he’s been, and who he truly is outside the shadow of face paint and arena stages.
While millions remember Peter Criss as the “Catman,” his earliest musical education came not from hard rock but from the swinging, expressive language of jazz. Raised in Brooklyn, he idolized players like Gene Krupa and Joe Morello: drummers who played with energy but also nuance. That influence quietly followed him through his time in KISS. Even at the band’s commercial peak in the ’70s, his playing often carried a looser, more dynamic feel than his contemporaries. There was groove in his rock drumming, and restraint when needed, a rarity in an era that worshipped bombast.
This upcoming record won’t aim to recreate the stadium-sized sound of his earlier career. It’s said to draw on Criss’s long-held love for blues, jazz standards, and classic American soul, a shift that may seem surprising to casual fans, but not to those who’ve followed his solo work over the years. His 2007 release One for All hinted at this softer direction, and the forthcoming album looks set to expand on that: less about spectacle, more about storytelling.
Though he hasn’t toured in years, Peter Criss hasn’t left music behind. He’s continued playing in small, private settings, often returning to jazz and swing roots for inspiration. This new project, recorded independently, is being described by those close to it as deeply personal—his “most honest” work, shaped not by commercial aims but by experience, reflection, and a desire to reconnect with the music that first inspired him.
No major label or press tour has been announced. There are no grand promotional stunts. And that seems fitting. This isn’t a comeback album, it’s a statement from a veteran artist choosing, at last, to speak without noise around him.
Criss’s reemergence is a reminder that drumming isn’t always about speed, volume, or technique. Sometimes, it’s about telling the truth: one brushstroke at a time.