Aucoin also created a short-lived NBC show called Flipside, which followed pop stars like Stevie Wonder and John Lennon into the studio.

ENTER GENE SIMMONS

Simmons, then an unknown New York rocker, loved it, and pestered Aucoin into checking out his band. The musicians wore studded black jeans and black-and-white makeup: an early version of their famous Kiss faces.

A week later, Aucoin signed on as the band's manager.

He said in the interview that he told the band: `` `If I can't get you a deal in 30 days, you can decide to leave me or you can stay and we'll work together.' Well, I got the Casablanca [record label] deal in 30 days, and that was kind of the beginning of it.''

He financed the band's first tour with his American Express card. Three years later, Kiss hit it big with Rock and Roll All Nite.

Criss told the AP that Aucoin had an eye for what was visually striking, and was quick to recognize the band's merchandising potential, which extended to belt buckles, Halloween costumes, makeup kits, action figurines, vitamins and a Kiss pinball machine.

Aucoin and Kiss parted ways in 1982, amicably, over ``creative differences,'' said Weinflash, a partner in Aucoin Globe Entertainment in New York. ``He didn't want them to take off their makeup. He'd spent years getting their faces trademarked in the Library of Congress.''

Aucoin went on to manage Billy Idol, Billy Squier, Lordi, Crossbreed, Nothing Rhymes with Orange, Evan Russell Saffer, The Early Strike, and Dreaming in Stereo, and Tantric.

``He had enormous success in the '70s and '80s, and he really enjoyed his fortune and his life,'' Weinflash said. He took a break in the '90s, then returned ``a couple of years ago when the music industry was in shambles. He decided he was the one to go for it,'' and launched Aucoin Globe in 2007.

Fernandez and Aucoin met in 1994, when Fernandez, then a Hialeah-Miami Lakes High School graduate in his 20s, was playing bass with the Derek Cintron Band.

Within a year, they were a couple.

In addition to Fernandez, Aucoin is survived by sisters Betty Britton, of Rhode Island, and Janet Bankowski, of Virginia.

Loved ones are planning a private celebration of his life. He was cremated.