In 1991, Star magazine published an article claiming that founding Kiss drummer Peter Criss was homeless and living on the streets of Los Angeles. The story was eye catching and alarming — it was also completely false.

Around the same time, the rocker had been tending to family matters in New York following the death of his mother. When he returned to his Southern California home, he was inundated with questions about his well being. “They say you’re totally broke and you’re sleeping in the toilets of Santa Monica,” Criss was told, as recounted in the rocker’s memoir Makeup to Breakup: My Life in and Out of Kiss.

“I was blown away,” the rocker admitted, adding that he immediately got his hands on a copy of the tabloid….