Eric Carr
Paul Charles Caravello, better known as Eric Carr, was an American musician. He was the drummer for the rock band Kiss from 1980 until his death in 1991. Caravello was selected as the new Kiss drummer after Peter Criss departed. He created the stage name "Eric Carr" and designed his on-stage Fox persona. He remained a member of Kiss until his death from heart cancer in 1991.
Early life
Born as Paul Charles Caravello on July 12, 1950, to Albert and Connie Caravello, Carr was of Italian descent. He grew up on 1043 Belmont Avenue in the East New York section of Brooklyn in New York City. Because his father worked most of the time, Carr did not see that much of him, and "never went to a baseball game or that kind of stuff" with his father. He spent a lot of time alone in his room, playing with toy soldiers and toy monsters.Caravello attended the High School of Art and Design. He planned at first to be a cartoonist, then changed his mind quickly thereafter and decided to study photography. According to him, he ended up wasting "absolutely every day of high school. I got no work done, did nothing to further my career, wasted time, and wound up getting drunk in the darkroom with my friends all the time. We never got caught because we could see through the one-way glass whenever a teacher would come. It wasn't like I was getting drunk every day, you know. Half a cup of vodka in those days was enough to get you drunk." However, he has described himself as overall "a real good kid. I didn't do anything to make trouble."
In February 1964, Caravello watched the Beatles performance on The Ed Sullivan Show and was immediately captivated by the group, particularly Ringo Starr. He collected several books and pots from the kitchen to create a makeshift drum kit and began teaching himself how to play drums.
Caravello was one of only two students in his high school who had long hair, mostly due to his love of the Beatles. He recalled that "I used to Dippity-Do my hair down, to make it stay flat. I used to have a Beatles haircut, but my hair's curly, so I couldn't get it to lay flat like the Beatles'. So I'd get the stuff Dippity-Do, drench my hair with it, and I'd take a piece of my Mom's nylon stocking, tie a knot in one end, and pull it over my head like a burglar. I was sleeping like that for probably two years with that on my head every night."
Caravello graduated from high school in 1967. At around that time, riots started to occur in New York City, followed by white flight that started to make his neighborhood more predominantly African-American. Caravello stated that this was not a concern to him, because "I never had any problems with anybody, I had black friends, and I never grew up thinking in those kinds of terms.".
Early career
Caravello purchased a small drum kit that consisted of snare, kick, and a tom. The kit had a black oyster finish that was similar to Ringo's kit. Within a few months he added a floor tom. Sometime in 1965 he joined his first band, The Allures. They played a blend of Latino music and Beatles songs. The Allures did not last long, perhaps only a few months.Caravello then asked his friend in junior high school, Thomas, to join him on bass while they looked for other musicians. Shortly after starting high school he met John, who was interested in learning to play the guitar. The three young musicians called the group The Cellarmen because they practiced in Caravello's cellar. Thomas and Caravello soon began working as a team and eventually wrote two Beatles-inspired songs, "Your Turn to Cry" and "I Cry at Night." The drummer felt confident in the band and soon designed stylized lettering of the band's name and printed The Cellarmen on the front of his kick drum. However, the band broke up in late 1965 or early 1966.
In March 1966, Caravello met keyboardist Victor Cohen and bassist Dave Bartky. Guitarist Bob Pryor joined the band within a few weeks. They played cover songs and their goal was to become good enough to play in the clubs. They practiced several times a week and soon had considerable number of songs ready. They kept The Cellarmen name because at the time they did not have enough money to purchase a new kick drum skin. Besides, the band still practiced in Caravello's cellar, so the name was appropriate. The Cellarmen's first gig was in August 1966. They were strictly a cover band playing popular music of the times.
The Cellarmen played together until late 1968. In the two year and a half years together they had progressed musically and financially, and were represented by Ruston & Brenner, a large booking agency in New York City. They also recorded the two songs Caravello had written with the previous iteration of The Cellarmen. The two songs appear on the Jody Records label.
During the last few months with The Cellarmen, Caravello added a second kick drum to his kit. He began exploring heavier music, such as Cream and Jimi Hendrix. After The Cellarmen disbanded. Caravello formed a new band called Things That Go Bump In The Night. This band played heavy music, but failed to gain traction in the clubs and soon disbanded.
In the spring of 1969, Caravello joined his three former bandmates from The Cellarmen and vocalist Gary Fray in their band, Smack. Caravello insisted he would work with this cover band only until the fall. Ruston & Brenner continued booking Smack through the summer and band was soon in demand in the clubs.
In the fall of 1969, Caravello left Smack, but he did not have another band to join. In November 1970 he joined a band called Salt & Pepper, a cover band playing music from multiple genres; the band was named that because half of the members were black and half were white. His old bandmate, Victor Cohen, was the keyboardist and recommended Caravello to the band. Salt & Pepper played mostly Top 40 songs. As he described it later, "Top-40 in those days was everything – funk, ballads, rock, country, and everything. It was a great time for radio.". Salt & Pepper had marginal success playing other events, such as opening for Nina Simone in December 1971 at the Academy of Music.
In 1973 the band changed their name to Creation, now performing disco music as well as Top 40, Motown, and funk. In March 1973, Salt & Pepper opened for Stevie Wonder at a benefit concert. By this time Caravello was playing an acrylic kit.
In 1974 a fire broke out during a discothèque gig at Gulliver's nightclub in Port Chester, New York, killing dozens of people including the band's keyboardist, Damon DeFreis, and lead singer George D. Chase. Caravello escaped and was credited with saving two people, the other two members of Creation, husband and wife John and Sarita Henderson. It was determined that the fire had been started by a thief in an adjacent building hoping to cover his tracks.
Ruston & Brenner held a benefit to replace their ruined equipment. and Creation was back playing the clubs by the end of the year.
In 1975, Creation changed its name to Mother Nature-Father Time. They continued playing the mostly disco songs in the clubs.
In early 1978 Gregg Diamond, who had recently released an album titled Bionic Boogie, hired Mother Nature-Father Time to play as the touring band, however Gregg did not go on tour as he was strictly a studio musician. Over the next year, Mother Nature-Father Time played gigs under that name and as Bionic Boogie. They enjoyed some success, such as playing in Walt Disney World in Florida, and playing on disco TV shows in Florida and Canada.
In the spring of 1979, producer Lewis Merenstein, who knew Casablanca Records founder Neil Bogart, received an offer to produce a disco record. He soon recruited Mother Nature-Father Time with guitarist Tom Siano writing three of the five songs. Caravello sang background vocals and played drums on the record. The album was titled Lightning and Casablanca released the band's self-titled album on August 13, 1979.
The Lightning album and Diamond's latest album Tiger, Tiger both failed to chart. The result was the end of the Caravello's work with people he had known since 1970. Diamond did not hire Mother Nature-Father Time to tour and Mother Nature-Father Time broke up in October 1979. Caravello later described the band as "like my family basically for nine years."
In December 1979, Caravello successfully auditioned for a four-piece rock 'n' roll cover band called Flasher. After three weeks of rehearsals, they started playing at clubs. Flasher played the club circuit in New York City and Long Island for several months before Paul Turino, their keyboard player, quit to join a band that was signed to a record label and touring. Flasher continued as a power trio, with the three sharing vocal duties. They played songs by Joe Jackson, Van Halen, Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix, among others.
Eventually, bookings diminished and Caravello become discouraged about his musical future after so many years trying to make it without a break and considered settling down with a non-musical career. "We were making real money – something like $10, $7 a night, whatever it was it was. Really, really terrible. Just by contrast, I used to make $15 a night when I was like 16 years old, and here I am almost 30 years old, and I'm making like $7 a night! So I wasn't doing better, obviously – I was going in reverse." Caravello handed in his resignation in late May 1980 but agreed to play the remaining shows the band were booked for. At that point, he considered quitting music, having reached the age of 30 without any real success. In early June, Caravello had a chance meeting with Turino in a club in Queens called Poets. Caravello invited Turino to see Flasher play the following night at the same club. The next night, Turino told Caravello about Peter Criss's departure from Kiss, and urged Caravello to audition to become Kiss' drummer.