Guitarist Bruce Kulick, who was with KISS from 1984 – 1996 during the band's unmasked era, recently sat down with Rolling Stone for a career-spanning interview. Following is an excerpt.

How did you first hear about the possibility of playing with KISS?

Kulick: "I have never really discussed it publicly, but I auditioned for them when they had the cattle call to replace Ace (in 1981). My brother always told them, 'Bruce is great. You gotta hear Bruce.' But I was not ready to walk into that band, especially where they were at, wearing makeup and what they were doing. All I remember from the audition is I couldn’t hear myself, but Gene said, 'Nice vibrato.' That was it.

Years later, Mitch Weissman, who looked like a Jewish Paul McCartney and was in (the 1977 Broadway musical) Beatlemania, told Paul 'If you need a ghost guitar guy, call Bruce. He can really play.' I don’t even know how he knew about my playing. But all of a sudden, where my brother used to always get the ghost-guitarwork calls, I get the call. And so I helped them out on one song on (1984’s) Animalize and a little bit at the end of another (Editor’s note: Kulick appears on "Lonely Is The Hunter" and "Murder In High-Heels").

Paul knew me since I’d sometimes hang out with him socially when my brother would take me into the city. Now I get a chance to plug in and play my guitar for Paul. He was happy with what I did, and before I left, he says to me, 'Don’t cut your hair.' I’m like, 'What the hell is that about?' It was about shoulder length. Within a month from that, I get a call from the KISS office. They’re asking me to fill in for Mark St. John, the new guitar player. He has an arthritic condition where his hand got swollen. I was like, 'I just won the lottery. I might be in KISS for two to six weeks.'"

Read the complete interview here.

Kulick appears on the KISS albums Animalize (1984 - two songs), Asylum (1985), Crazy Nights (1987), Hot In The Shade (1989), Revenge (1992), Alive III (1993), MTV Unplugged (1996), Carnival Of Souls: The Final Sessions (1997),  and contributed bass and guitar tracks to Psycho Circus (1998).