Originally Posted by
chefcraig
According to the book KISS: Behind the Mask (which was published with the "band's" consent), it was Derringer who did play guitar on the Alive II studio tracks. This is also verified in the book Rory Gallagher, Steve Marriott, Rick Derringer And Robin Trower, by Dan Muise. The thing is, who indeed played what on some KISS albums tends to lead into a very gray area. For instance, Simmons would more often than not fork over his bass if another player had a better idea, and Peter Criss was removed from the drums altogether for the recording of Dynasty. Trying to name which player did what on a KISS record is a difficult task, mainly because when it came to recording, this was a band that existed only in theory. Believe it or not, a bizarre form of quality control was in place, with the song being far more important than who actually played on it. This does sound laughable when given the results, yet it was the standard operating procedure at the time. And considering the lead guitar parts on the current Sonic Boom album are little more than "samples" from Ace Frehley's work in the past, very little has changed.