Spiro Papadatos
Spiro Papadatos
KISS' graphic designer/head of merchandising
The first time Spiro Papadatos saw KISS was on an American TV show on Halloween in 1976. They played three songs on The Paul Lynde Halloween Special and he was hooked and immediately asked his parents to give him the new Destroyer album for Christmas. It was and still is his favorite KISS record.
Spiro started working for KISS in 1995 on the Official KISS Convention Tour. He was responsible for setting up the KISS Museum that included original KISS costumes, guitars, drums, artwork and memorabilia from the band's personal collections. He filmed the rehearsals and behind the scenes footage that was used on KISS MTV Unplugged, KISS: The Second Coming and KISSOLOGY 3. He also played in the opening band at 10 shows on the tour.
He went on to become a graphic designer for the band. While on tour in the USA in 1996, he was wearing a bootleg KISS shirt when he ran into Gene Simmons backstage. Gene was not impressed. Spiro explained that he didn't really like their shirts, to which Gene asked, "Why don't you come up with something then?" So Spiro submitted a couple of designs to the band for their approval and then sent the approved designs to Sony Signatures. Those designs became the best selling t-shirts on the tour. Signatures then asked him to come up with more ideas. Merchandise sales increased dramatically and suddenly he was designing entire product lines for the KISS tours that followed.
Spiro was born in Montreal, Canada but both of his parents are originally from Greece. His mother is a Spartan and his father was from the island of Zakynthos. Spiro owns a house in Zakynthos. He always loves going back home to Greece and believes it's the most beautiful country in the world!