THE BASICS ON ERIC CARR: REAL NAME: Paul Charles Caravello BIRTHDATE: July 12, 1950 BIRTHPLACE: Brooklyn, NY DIED: November 24, 1991, due to a cancer related brain hemorrhage. KISS MEMBER STATUS: mid 1980 - late 1991 KISS PERSONA: The Fox INSTRUMENTS PLAYED: Vocals, Drums, Bass, some Guitar, harmonica. INFLUENCES: The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, The Who, Neil Young, R&B MARITAL STATUS: Eric never married. CHILDREN: Eric never had any children. SOME FACTS & TIDBITS YOU MAY OR MAY NOT KNOW ABOUT ERIC CARR: * Although he played the drums right handed, Eric was left handed. * Eric became seriously involved in music after discovering the Beatles as a teenager. He considered Ringo Starr his idol. * Eric's all time favorite drummer was John Bonham from Led Zeppelin. * Eric went to the Manhattan High School of Art and Design (a subsidiary of the High School of Music & Art, where Paul Stanley attended). He majored in cartooning and then later in photography. * Eric's first band was named the Cellarmen. Eric played drums and sang lead vocals. * The band that Eric spent the most time with in his pre-Kiss days was a Top 40 cover band called Salt & Pepper (later Creation and Mother Nature/Father Time). He spent nine years in that band. * Right before auditioning for Kiss, Eric played in a rock cover band called Flasher. * Eric's side job before joining Kiss was repairing home gas ranges. * Eric's Kiss audition resume was sent in a bright florescent colored package, which caught the attention of the secretary at Aucoin management, thus giving Eric the opportunity to audition for the band. * Eric's final competitor for the drummer slot in Kiss was Bobby Rondinelli, who later went on to join both Rainbow and Black Sabbath. Eric was chosen for his strong vocal capabilities. * Eric's first performance with Kiss was on July 25, 1980 at the Palladium in New York City. * Eric's initial Kiss persona was "The Hawk." Unhappy with it, as well as the costume, Eric developed the Fox character on his own. * Before settling on his final stage name, Eric was considering renaming himself "Rusty Blade." * Like the four original members, Eric had a distinguishable color: rust. * There were brief ideas of Eric recording a solo album in the early 80's to go along with the original four. Kiss commissioned Eraldo Carugati, who painted the four solo covers to do a portrait of Eric, which currently is in the possession of Eric's family. * Eric considered "Saint and Sinner" to be his greatest drumming performance as a member of Kiss. He considered "Creatures of the Night" as his favorite Kiss album that he played on. * Eric played bass on the songs "I Still Love You" and "Little Caesar." * Eric's first successful outside songwriting contribution was with Bryan Adams on the song "Don't Leave Me Lonely" off Bryan's 1983 "Cuts Like a Knife" album. * When Eric re-recorded the vocals to Peter Criss's song "Beth" in 1988, he actually sat in the same stool that Peter sat in for the original vocal recording in 1976. * Eric almost landed a syndication deal for his cartoon characters "The Rockheads," little egg shaped creatures with big rock star hair. The project, unfortunately never came to fruition. * Eric co-wrote the song "Breakout" off of Ace Frehley's first post Kiss solo album. Both he and Ace were working on a sequel song around the time of Eric's sickness. * In the late 80's, Eric formed a management company and developed and managed an all female thrash band called Hari Kari. He also did some pre-production work with a band called Electric Thunder around 1989. * Eric died the same day as Queen vocalist Freddie Mercury. Eric is buried in Middletown, NY.