It's a question that could have changed the face of rock music in the 80's, a question that would have altered the paths of many careers, A QUESTION that could have completely altered genre's of music, and that question is...can Edward Van Halen join Kiss?!
This story is well known in the lore of both bands, but only in the last few years has there been actual confirmation from some of the major players, as Gene Simmons and Ed commented on it. To understand how the question could have even come about one has to look a little into the past.
If you don't know already, back in the day, when Van Halen was a local L.A. band on the Sunset Strip bringing the house down at the Starwood, the band was in the middle of a show at a locla club, when their show was seen by an incognito Gene Simmons who was there to see another band. This lead to Gene offering to help the band break into the business, by working with them on their demo and attempting to get them signed. After, getting a luke warm reception, from both Kiss's producer Bob Ezrin and some of the members of the band, Gene ripped up the contract he had with Van Halen so they could be free to sign with another label, which they did when they signed with Warner Bros.
Van Halen kept their relationship with Kiss as they proceeded to redefine rock music in the late 70's and into the early 80's, but that trail they blazed came with consequences. Years of hard touring and divisions in wanting to evolve their sound led to fights between David Lee Roth and Ed. 1981's "Fair Warning", may have been the shining jewell of Van Halen's catalogue at the time, but it was a hard time for all in the recording of it. The album and the subsequent tour drove Edward into the ground and he needed a break from both Roth and the road.
Van Halen agreed to recording a single to release, so that the band could take a hiatus and that led to the cover of Roy Orbison's "Oh, Pretty Woman". the band would shoot a video to promote on the fledgling MTV and then take a long needed break, but the video would end up getting banned by the channel and the song would roar up the charts, breaking into the top 20. Warner Bros would pressure the band to put out another album and end their hiatus to tour for it. With his back against the wall Ed proceeded to the recording of "Diver Down", and that would spark an all out war with Roth in the studio. Fed up with how things were unfolding, Van Halen would storm out of the studio and seek guidence from good friend Gene Simmons.
Simmons was in the middle of his own issues with Kiss at the time, as the band had already pissed hard core fans off with the highly successful, but disco influenced "I Was Made For Lovin' You". The band was also feeling burnout at the end of the 70's and ended the decade recording individual solo albums by each member to cool down the inner stryfe within the band. When the releases had a mediocre result, it provided an end of founding member, Peter Criss's time in the band. He would be replaced by the young Eric Carr who would take on the character of The Fox and Kiss would begin work on their next album, "Music From the Elder". The concept album bombed and the lackluster tour that followed would see the end of Ace Frehley in the band when it came to recording their next album "Killers" which Frehley appeared on the cover even though he did not record the album, which was also the case with "Creatures Of The Night".
This would lead to the moment that could have changed everything. Edward Van Halen would find out about Ace leaving Kiss and he would meet with Gene, who was in the studio working on music with what would eventually be their new guitarist Vinnie Vincent. When meeting with Gene, Ed would ask if he could be Ace's replacement in the band, a question that would have to give anyone pause. Kiss' sound was very different from that of Van Halen, but after both Killers and Creatures, Kiss would eventually morph into a hair metal sound anyway. At the time, however Simmons would not see himself as being a part of the reason why Van Halen would lose the greatest guitarist on the planet. Gene would reason with Ed and eventually guide him back to Van Halen who would go on to have a hit album with Diver Down, a huge tour that would end with a massive paycheck to play the US Festival. Kiss would begin the decade with a lackluster performance of the Killers album, but regain their form with Creatures Of The Night. The tour would end with Kiss needing to make a change and they would eventually take off the make-up, revealing their faces to the public for the first time. Vincent would stay with the band through their next album, but would leave to form Vinnie Vincent's Invasion with Mark Slaughter, and Kiss would replace him with future White Tiger guitarist Mark St. John.
Van Halen would have one more big run with Roth, as 1984 became a massive hit for the group and the tour would be one of their biggest to date, but eventually Roth and Van Halen would reach an impasse and he would go solo to be replaced by the Red Rocker Sammy Hagar. Van Halen would continue to achieve success without Roth, but the question of what could have been if Edward left and joined Kiss is one too juicy not to dig into. What would their sound have been? What songs would still be Kiss songs and what songs would still be Van Halen ones? Who could Van Halen replace Ed with and would AL stay in the band without his brother? And, the biggest of them all, what would Ed's character be. Vinnie was the Ankh Warrior, so it's safe to say that Ed would not be that, but it is fun to play with different face paint schemes to imagine what he would be? Maybe a Frankenstein to match his guitar and he could even give it a new paint job to match. The world will never know, but it's a great what if in rock history!