[1] Criss was born in Brooklyn, New York,[2] to Loretta and Joseph Criscuola, who raised their five children (of whom Peter was the eldest) as Roman Catholics.

Criss grew up in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn[4][5] and was a childhood friend of Jerry Nolan, who would later find success as the drummer of the New York Dolls.

[7] While playing with bandleader Joey Greco, Criss ended up studying under his idol, Gene Krupa, at the Metropole Club in New York.

[8] Criss was involved with several bands through the mid- to late 1960s, starting with the Barracudas from 1962 to 1966 and including Chelsea, who had a two-album deal with Decca Records; the group released a self-titled album in 1970.

They never recorded a second album, and in August 1971 became Lips (a trio consisting of Criss and his Chelsea bandmates Michael Benvenga and Stan Penridge).

[9] In 1973, ex-Chelsea members Pete Shepley and Mike Brand recorded an unreleased album which included post-Chelsea Michael Benvenga, and pre-Kiss Peter Criss and Gene Simmons as session musicians.

The core of the band - Criss, Lucenti and keyboardist Peppi Genarelli - played together from 1966 to 1969, in the summer of 1968 as Brotherhood and from late 1968 under the name The Vintage.

[12] After the demise of his band Lips, Criss placed an advertisement in the East Coast edition of Rolling Stone Magazine, which read: EXPD.

However, Simmons describes first meeting Criss in his book Kiss And Make-Up thusly: One afternoon I run across an ad in Rolling Stone Magazine that said "Drummer available – Will do anything."

Throughout his Kiss career, in his original tenure and on the Reunion-era album Psycho Circus, Criss was the lead singer on several songs which turned out to be radio-hit and/or live favorites, including "Black Diamond", "Hard Luck Woman", and "Beth".

Criss had collaborated on a demo originally titled "Beck", a song that was eventually reworked to become the ballad "Beth", a Top 10 hit for Kiss on the U.S.

As a result, Kiss postponed the European tour until the end of August, thus giving the band enough time to find a replacement drummer, who they found in Brooklyn-born Eric Carr.

One of them was The Keep (1988-1990), which featured ex-Kiss guitarist Mark St. John and ex-Black Sabbath and White Tiger frontman David Donato.

Balls of Fire played only seven shows before Criss left the band (reportedly to enjoy his daughter Jenilee growing up).

This band went through frequent line-up changes, toured extensively and released the Criss EP in December 1993 and the Cat #1 album in August 1994.

[24] Subsequently, in April 1996, Kiss held a press conference to announce a reunion tour with all four original members.

[30] Criss released his autobiography, Makeup to Breakup: My Life In and Out of Kiss, co-written with author Larry Sloman, in late 2012.

[31] In addition to playing himself in 1978's Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park and 1999's Detroit Rock City, Criss has appeared on two television programs in minor roles.

[32] Criss played himself, as well as the cameo role of "Nice Cop", in "...Thirteen Years Later", the 1998 third-season Halloween episode of Millennium.