Promising a look at the band “on and off stage, in the photo studio, and in unguarded candid moments,” the new photo book Kiss: 1977-1980 offers a close-up view of the band’s original lineup in the period immediately after they were catapulted from struggling musicians to global rock ‘n’ roll superstars.
Scheduled to arrive in stores Oct. 10 and available to pre-order now, the 340-page collection was assembled by photographer Lynn Goldsmith, who worked in conjunction with Kiss co-founders Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley, drawing from her archive to put together a series of pictures that, according to the press release announcing the book, includes “fan favorites as well as many never-before-seen photographs.”
“I hope that these photographs can serve as meaningful relics to Kiss and the Kiss Army, who form a country of their own where the only rules are that you be in charge of your own life, be authentic to what you want to be and what you want to do, and not worry about what anyone else thinks of you,” says Goldsmith. “Let your freak flag fly!”
Appropriately for a book that seeks to capture the rise of the band’s rock legend, Kiss: 1977-1980 boasts a hardcover package that, as the publisher puts it, “could be compared to a kind of bible” — complete with a padded matte cover and a gilded-edged Kiss logo. To view samples of the shots Goldsmith took of the group during the period covered in the book, check out her video teaser posted below and visit her official site.
