When a 15-year-old Eddy Teixeira heard the galvanizing thumps of Kiss blasting from the stereo of a friend’s car in 1975, he was stupefied. “My first love was the Beatles. Kiss was the Beatles on steroids.” Then, when he saw what the band looked like, he felt his brain liquefying. “They had so much theatrical appeal. Every member stood out; they each had their own look,” he says.
The first piece of memorabilia Teixeira bought, in 1978, was a pack of Kiss trading cards from a corner store. A collector by nature, he didn’t stop there. Over the years, Teixeira has seen Kiss in concert 22 times, collected thousands of pieces of memorabilia (spending about $60,000) and gotten several Kiss-themed tattoos.
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In 2000, when Teixeira moved into a new home in Vaughan with his wife, Christine, and daughter, Bianca, he decided to transform his basement into a shrine to the band. Collecting, he says, helped him get sober 10 years ago (he realized he could spend the money he saved on collectibles) and cope with the grief of losing his parents. “My collection is my sanctuary,” he adds. “I can just go downstairs and get lost. Any collector will tell you: the objects bring you back to a happy time.”
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Isabel Slone is a fashion and culture journalist living in Toronto. She writes for Toronto Life, the New York Times, the Guardian, the Wall Street Journal, Architectural Digest and more. She has a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia Journalism School.