It must have been 1986. I was 14 years old. Still in high school and a huge KISS fan. I received an audio tape of an early Frehley’s Comet concert. I could not put that recording away. I kept listening to this over and over again. Who was that guy singing lead vocals with Ace? Who was that per-son playing guitar? I had no clue. Turned out it was Richie Scarlet. I managed to track down a copy of Hit for Hit, I was scarletized. I followed Richie’s career for years. Living in Europe, it wasn’t al-ways easy, as many of his solo records weren’t released here. I grew up with VHS copies of live shows from the early nineties, the Trou-ble Walkin’ album, Mountain, Sebastian Bach. I remained a fan. After seeing Richie play with Corky Laing in Belgium, I decided to dig deeper into the history. I learned that he shared the stage with Alice Cooper, Lemmy, Noel Redding, Carmine Appice. Just to name a few. The more I learned, the bigger fan I became. I decided to wri-te a book. I figured I would fill 80-100 pages and it would take me 6 months. It actually turned out to be 320 pages over the course of 1,5 year. I talked to Richie numerous times. I interviewed countless musicians. Magic. If I was a fan in 1986, I am most certainly now.

Jean “Ramsey” Lejeune 2022