19 yrs ago today...Eric Carr RIP

I remember it like it was yesterday...or somewhat yesterday..was having a horrible sophmore year at WK...why? I just didn't wanna be there..last year of my teens..friends all graduated and gone off to Acadia and Dal..was coming off a HORRIBLE summer and had put up with ALOT of BS... never in my wildest dreams could i have looked into a future which would involved graduating from Acadia U, doing years and years of higher education, trips to Japan and S Korea to teach...no no i was headed to be a janitor or unemployed or thanks to my attitude god only knows where i was headed until i pulled my head out of my ass and made some life altering decisions...here i was in 1991...stuck in high school and going nowhere fast...

Yes it was the year of grunge and hair metal was quickly on the way out... bands like Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Soundgarden were dominating walkmans and discman's (MP3 was a few yrs away...) and there were survivors like GnR and a few other bands....in Novemeber two deaths occured which shook the core of rock and roll...more than the other was Queen's Freddy Mercury...i like Queen and owned their Greatest Hits on cassette...really all i needed as i was not a maniac about the band..however fame brings renewed popularity...ask Hendrix, Morrison...a recent example being the Ramones...Wayne's World helped with putting Queen back on the charts as well...

However the big big shocker for me was Eric Carr dying of cancer...no internet then so news came from the dreaded Much Music and or the radio or Hit Parader...had really no idea he was sick... and due to Freddy Mercury dying the same day, poor Eric Carr took a backseat.. Eric Carr should not have had to take a backseat to anyone...but of course Freddy was a frontman so he got more attention from the mainstream media on this day and for weeks afterwards...KISS never performed a memorial concert for Mr Carr like Freddy got with his tribute concert with Queen, Elton and Axl and others...

I think Eric Carr stepped into some rather large shoes with the departure of Peter Criss from KISS in 1980 and filled them rather well..it got me thinking...after his unfortunate passing in 1991..if it had not happened...what if? Would the great KISS reunion with the four original members have happened? Would KISS had put their make-up back on? Would Eric Carr still be with KISS today if he was still alive? If KISS eventually gets into the Rock and Roll Hall of Shame...i mean Fame...does Eric Carr go in as well???Just little things that the mind wonders about...we can say what if over and over again...but really...if Mr Carr had lived...would all of this had happened?

RIP Eric Carr...