I ended up Leggere this obituary 3 times to make sure it detto what I thought it said. Eric Carr had passed away. te see, a few months back I had a chance to speak with Eric. At the time he had just gotten out of the hospital the giorno before. He had open cuore surgery to remove a malignant tumor. Carr was recovering and was very cheery and optimistic about his future.
The following is my conversation with Eric in it’s entirety. We laughed, talked about what he was going through, and shared some dreams.
AM: Hey, Eric. How are te feeling? You’ve been through a lot the past few weeks haven’t you?
EC: I don’t even no where to begin. I’m feeling a lot better now. Let me see how I can explain everything. The week after Valentine’s giorno (‘91) I got real sick. High fevers, coughing, the whole bit. I thought I had the flu. The following Saturday I went and had a chest x-ray because I thought I might have pneumonia. The x-ray was fine as far as my lungs were concerned, but it showed my cuore cavity was enlarged. I was sent to a cardiologist and he did an echocardiogram and found that there was fluid around my heart. As it turns out, I just found out today it wasn’t fluid, it was blood. Fluid can build up in this area, due to a virus o infection, so it was assumed that was what it was. I’ll explain to te what happened. Do te really want to here this? (snickering)
AM: Yeah, believe it o not, it’s sounds…(searching for the right word)…interesting.
EC: te asked for it. It’s a good story - tales from the dark side. He treated me for the fluid around my heart. I started taking some medicine and little da little I was getting better. After about 3 weeks I felt great. Still a little short of breath and I was still coughing up some blood every now and then. I went back for another echo. I wanted to make sure that there wasn’t anything that I was going to have to tell the rest of the band about before we started recording the album. When I had the echo the fluid was almost gone at that point so the picture was really clear. The doctor was able to see what he thought he had seen on the first echo, but didn’t tell me about because he wasn’t sure. There was a tumor inside the right atrium of my heart. The part of it we were able to see at this point was about the size and shape of a person's pinky finger. It was flipping back and forth, in and out of the tricustis valve as it was opening and closing. For the successivo week o so it was test after test. We found out there were spots all over my lungs which we assumed were pieces of this thing breaking off. Finally we set up a data for surgery there was no way around it. The guys wanted me to come out to L.A. and do it so that they could be near me, but I went through so much shit trying to get everything together here in N.Y. that there was no way I could do it in L.A. When I went in to surgery I knew that there was più to it than just the pinky sized portion, that there was a larger mass that it was attached to. When I saw my surgeon again Sunday night, he told me that most of the atrium bacheca on that side was infected with this tumor including one of my coronary arteries. So all of that had to be cut away. They had to then resect with a piece of pericardium around the heart. So they got rid of everything and slapped me back together. I had the surgery Tuesday morning and I was out till Thursday on life support. da Thursday afternoon I was up walking around and Friday I felt great. I was just sore from the incision.
AM: That’s great. I’m glad te are doing so well.
EC: I am doing well. I should have went home Monday. But I had to finish up some paper work and stuff so I got home from the hospital yesterday. Barring any other complications, any other findings in my lungs, it’s all out, I feel fine, I should be able to play soon. In about three weeks o so I’m going to start practicing again and just ease myself back into it.
AM: It sounds like te got a real lesson in cardiology through all of this.
EC: I really learned a lot. I hope I didn’t confuse te to much (laughing). This is cool, I just found out today that they can’t figure out what this tumor is. In the past week they’ve sent pieces of it all over the country and they can’t figure out what it is. They are still trying to analyze it a week later. It gets better. I also just found out that it’s rare that this was on the right side of my cuore rather than the left. If this same tumor was on the left side, with pieces of it breaking off it would have gone straight to my brain, rather than my lungs, and probably killed me and at least paralyzed me. So I’m really lucky that it was on the side it was. It all sounds pretty nasty, but here I am. I’ve got an 11 inch scar on my chest. I’m ready to get laid, I want to go out. I really do (laughing).
AM: At least te haven’t forgotten how to have a good time (laughing).
EC: I actually had a party in my hospital room Friday night. We had wine and stuff. I got permission from the doctor first of course. (laughing) I’m no idiot, but I wanted to party.
AM: te just got out of the hospital yesterday and te sound like you’re doing really well. It sounds like te want to get right back into things.
EC: I really wanted to talk to people about this right away. Hell, I figure that if a guy can fall off a stage in England and get news all over the world about it, that fucking open cuore surgery would warrant me being able to get a little press out of it. o at least letting Friends and fan know about what happened. I wanted to say something before I went in, but everyone thought it would be better to wait till I was recovering. Personally, I think it would have been più interesting with everyone wondering whether o not I was going to croak (laughing). That’s più news worthy. Is Eric going to peg it o not? (laughing)
AM: te could have started a pool. (laughing)
EC: Yeah, I didn’t think of that. That would have been better than the super bowl betting. ‘I got $10 says he dies.’ (laughing)
AM: The press has talked about your situation a little before now, though, right?
EC: They did say it on MTV a few times, but that’s about it. That’s as far as it went. I really had no control over how much they were going to do on it. The band only detto things about it because I wanted them to say something. If it was up to everyone else, they would have just kept it quiet. But I detto “No, this is my life and I don’t want this to be a fucking secret.”
AM: So te think you’ll be able to get back behind the drums in a few weeks?
EC: They give te an exercise plan that’s the same for everybody. te walk three blocks the first day, four the second, and on and on. Even though I’m feeling great, If I do too much my body lets me know it. So I’m just going to go with their plan and give myself 2 to 3 weeks. With the way I’m feeling now, in 3 weeks I should be feeling amazing. The instead of walking o jogging, I’ll just get behind the drums. I’ll play a lot of Beatles songs for the first week. (laughing) It’ll be great. That’s the way I learned.
AM: When are te guys supposed to start recording the new record?
EC: Luckily, we’ve still got time. Nothing was ever detto to me permanent, but the way I was Leggere it, we are talking July. This shouldn’t affect the album much, it may push my tracking back a bit, but we can still get the album out in the same amount of time. Even if we pushed it back a little it would just allow us to finish the songs più and come up with some even better material. What happens usually is that te wind up wasting a lot of time in the studio anyway. The infamous “We could have started a mese later and still finished the album at the same time.” Barring any complications, I think everything is going to work out fine. We should have the album out da early successivo anno and hit the road shortly there after. I’ll be better than before. I won’t have this fucking alien in my heart.
AM: If this had to happen, it probably happened at the best possible time. As far as being off the road goes and being able to give the medical attention it warranted.
EC: If it had happened to me on tour I might not have made it through. If that thing happened while I was playing te could forget about it. They really don’t know how long I had it, it could have been 6 months o 10 years. They don’t have the results back yet, but I’m here and I’m alive.
AM: Did the band come to New York at all while te were in the hospital?
EC: Gene and Paul came out. Bruce couldn’t make it, it was unavoidable, but he sent gifts and called so I forgive him (laughing).
AM: Some nice strippers to cheer te up (laughing).
EC: I would have hated that. What could I do stick my finger in her (laughing). That’s no fun (laughing). To be honest with te I’ve never seen the purpose of hiring a stripper for someone’s birthday. Usually it’s a fucking hag, and if it’s not a hag and she’s really hot her boyfriend comes with her and holds the beat box she’s dancing to (laughing). And if the boyfriend isn’t there she’s not going to fuck te anyway, so what’s the difference? She gets te all horny and then she leaves. The same thing goes for strip joints. A lot of my Friends go to them and sometimes they’ll drag me with them. I just don’t get it. te look at a bunch of girls, half naked, they look at te like they want te when te know damn well they are looking at everyone in there the same way (laughing). So te get all horny and then te go home and jerk off. Fuck this, I don’t need it (laughing). I know I’m rambling, I do that.
AM: What was it we were talking about (laughing)?
EC: Oh, yeah. (laughing) To get back to Gene and Paul. They came out, I told them they didn’t have to, but they wanted to. Originally they wanted me to come out to L.A. just so they could be near me all the time, just for the moral support. It’s important in all operations, but especially cuore surgery. I had already done so much work here in N.Y. finding a surgeon and getting everything rolling, that there was no way I was going to try and start all over out there. The surgeon I got was probably the best in the country if not one of the best in the world. He was one of the original team from Texas that perfected the open cuore surgery technique way back in the 70’s. I was real lucky to have this guy. It just didn’t make any sense to try and do it in L.A. I really had to get in the hospital, time was ticking fast, with the piece breaking off into my lungs. So I had to get the fucking thing out of my body. So Paul and Gene flew to New York.
AM: That’s great that they could be with you. Did te get to see them much while te were in the hospital?
EC: I checked in Monday and they were there Monday evening. They came right from the airport straight to the hospital. I saw them everyday for a couple of hours it was great. We made each other laugh and made fun of what was going to happen to me. Joked around about the successivo tour, it was great. This is my idea, nobody would fucking superiore, in alto this. Let’s see Tommy Lee superiore, in alto this. I do my solo and when I jump up on my drums and raise my fist in the air my cuore explodes through my jump suit everywhere. Nobody’s ever gonna superiore, in alto that one. (Noticing I’m not really laughing, but kind of wondering where he came up with that one.) All right it was supposed to be funny. It was funny at the time. I guess it’s one of those things where te had to be there (laughing). All in all, we had a good time and I was really grateful that they came.
AM: Were they out in L.A. Scrivere at the time this happened?
EC: Yeah, they were. te know those guys, they’re doing a bunch of other things too, always getting their hands in a lot of different things. But everybody’s working on the album. That’s what we’re doing now. Bob Ezrin is going to be producing unless something changes, that’s the plan. Which will be great. As te know what is probably Kiss’ greatest album ever, ‘Destroyer’, was produced da him. I personally haven’t worked with him since the ‘Elder’ so I’d Amore to work with him again.
AM: A lot of people had their doubts about baciare before ‘Hot in the Shade’, but I think te guys knocked those critics out this past anno and a half with the album and tour.
EC: Yeah, this album is going to be even heavier. Part of the reason I think we want Ezrin to be there is to try and recapture some of that magic of the ‘Destroyer’ album. He’s not just a producer and a great engineer, but he’s a musician and a composer. Some of the musical stuff on ‘Destroyer’ was his creation, part of what he added to the album is what made it so special.
AM: Have te heard any of their ideas yet?
EC: No, I haven’t heard anybody’s stuff yet and they haven’t heard mine. I’ve got a couple of good things too. As soon as I can get a G-String for my acoustic chitarra I’ll be able to start playing again. I broke a string last week and I couldn’t go to the store be- cause I was in the hospital (laughing).
AM: I hate it when that happens (laughing).
EC: Me too, it slows everything down (laughing).
AM: What were te doing before all this happened? Since te got off the road that is?
EC: Writing, basically. No vacations. I don’t go out that often clubbing and stuff. I just don’t like to do that. I just try to write, I keep pushing myself to come up with ideas. When things don’t come up I’ll watch a movie, everything from Spinal Tap to the Little Mermaid, whatever. I see my folks and my friends.
AM: What, no women (laughing)?
EC; (laughing) No, not now. There was one and we kind of broke up before the last tour ended. The during the last few months it’s been, maybe on, maybe off again. It kind of didn’t work out, but we’re still good Friends and Amore each other very much. So there is always the possibility that something could change in the future, but who knows.
AM: It’s a relief to hear te really excited about the future and to hear that you’ve got everything going in the right direction.
EC: I’m really fine. Us baciare guys te can’t keep us down. They tried to carve me up, but that didn’t work either.
AM: te guys are going to be here forever (laughing).
EC: We may not have all our bits (laughing), but we’ll be here. Little da little each anno they cut pieces of us off (laughing). In all seriousness, say thanks from me to anyone who is concerned and is worried about me. I’m really grateful for their concern. And I’ll be back as good as new as soon as I can.
After his open cuore surgery Carr talked to a mere handful of press people and I feel extremely privileged to have been one of them. Looking back it makes me sad to think he’s gone. Listening to Eric’s voice on my tape and transcribing his words is probably one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do as a journalist.
Shortly after I detto goodbye to Carr that day, his condition got worse rather than improve. Over the successivo 4 months it was test after test, setback after setback.
Then finally the cancer Carr thought he had beaten came back to haunt him. Carr spent the last two months of his life unconscious in a New York hospital letto after suffering a cerebral hemorrhage in his brain.
Just when I would hear things were getting better, I’d find out he was back in the hospital. About October the official word came that Eric Singer had replaced Eric Carr as batterista for Kiss. After 12 years Eric Carr was out of the band just like that.
To Eric Carr, baciare was his life. He was a part of baciare and baciare was a part of him. The details of his departure from the group are both rumor-filled and sketchy. baciare will go on, but so will the spirit of Eric Carr. In the hearts of baciare fan everywhere Eric Carr will not be forgotten. To this journalist Carr was always a pleasure to talk with and he will surely be missed da all those who knew him. The Musica world has suffered a big loss.
