KISS has been my favorite band dating back to 1975 when I was 7 years old and got the Alive! double album with a new record player for Christmas. I was a pretty rabid fan from '75 onward although Gene's wandering eye and devotion to becoming a movie star in the 80s pissed me off because I thought his contributions to the albums from about '84-'88 were half-assed .... the band might have died in the 80s if not for Paul. When I saw the Farewell tour in 2000 it pissed me off that they went back out after that with Tommy and Eric in makeup and for a time stuck to my view that the band ended when the farewell tour ended. Later, when they put out new music with the new guys in makeup, I came back around to listening to it -- and enjoying it. So, I'm still a fan, but a bit more jaded about their current incarnation.
Unlike some of the other posts here I loved HITS and thought it was a welcome return to form after the inept songwriting on Crazy Nights, then Revenge just built on what HITS reignited. I'd put Crazy Nights and Carnival of Souls at the bottom of my list for worst releases in their careers. Favorite albums would have to be Dressed to Kill, Hotter Than Hell and Rock And Roll Over.
I've seen the band 15 times dating back to the Love Gun tour in '77 and I've amassed about 200 live shows on audio and video from throughout all of their eras. There's also probably an inordinate proportion of my brain occupied with KISS trivia and historical facts.
I've also collected a fair bit of KISS memorabilia over the years -- my favorite items are two signed albums -- "Alive!" signed by the original 4 and "Creatures" signed by Gene, Paul, Eric Carr and Ace (yes, Ace, not Vinnie, even though Ace didn't play on it). I also have a copy of the KISS autobiography "Nothin' To Lose" signed by Paul and Gene and Ace and Peter's autobiographies signed by each of them.
Gene and Paul can both piss me off at times these days, especially with some of the HOF drama lately, but in the end they've been my lifelong favorite band even though at times there have been other flavors of the month I like more for a short span of time. In the end, though, if I were permitted only one band to listen to on a desert island for the rest of my life, it would be KISS.