Mark St. John
February 7, 1956 – April 5, 2007
Before joining KISS in 1984, Mark St. John was a guitar teacher and musician in Los Angeles. He was brought on board to record Animalyze. Unfortunately, he didn’t get along with the other members and was starting to have arthritic trouble with his hands so he was replaced with Bruce Kulick by year’s end. But it should be noted that Animalyze is the most successful of KISS’ post-makeup releases and re legitimized the band in the heavy metal community. The album spawned a video for “Heaven’s On Fire,” the only known KISS footage to include St. John. The year following his abbreviated tenure with KISS found St. John teaming up with vocalist David Donato to form the glam metal band, White Tiger. After moderate success with their debut album, White Tiger disbanded while working on demos for its follow-up. Over the next several years, St. John continued to try to get something going with his career and continued to do session work. During that time he worked separately with Jeff Scott Soto, Peter Criss, Phil Naro, and even David Hasslehoff, but nothing substantial materialized, so he reportedly went back to teaching guitar to make his living. On April 5, 2007, Mark St. John died from a cerebral hemorrhage.
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