Stephen Coronel (born March 21, 1951) is an American guitarist and former member of the rock band

Wicked Lester Wicked Lester was a rock band based in New York City. Two notable members were bassist Gene Klein and rhythm guitarist Stanley Eisen. Originally formed in 1970 as Rainbow, the band changed its name to Wicked Lester in 1971 to avoid confusion with ...

. He co-wrote a handful of songs that would later be recorded by the group

Kiss A kiss is the touch or pressing of one's lips against another person or an object. Cultural connotations of kissing vary widely. Depending on the culture and context, a kiss can express sentiments of love, passion, romance, sexual attraction, ...

, a band which featured former Wicked Lester members

Paul Stanley Paul Stanley (born Stanley Bert Eisen; January 20, 1952) is an American musician who is the co-founder, frontman, rhythm guitarist and co-lead vocalist of the hard rock band Kiss. He is the writer or co-writer of many of the band's most popular ...

and

Gene Simmons Gene Simmons (born Chaim Witz; he, חיים ויץ, ; born August 25, 1949) is an Israeli-American musician. Also known by his stage persona The Demon, he is the bassist and co-lead singer of Kiss, the hard rock band he co-founded with Paul ...

. In 2014, Coronel was charged with possessing

child pornography Child pornography (also called CP, child sexual abuse material, CSAM, child porn, or kiddie porn) is pornography that unlawfully exploits children for sexual stimulation. It may be produced with the direct involvement or sexual assault of a chi ...

, and has been incarcerated at Kershaw Correctional Institution in

South Carolina )''Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no) , anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind" , Former = Province of South Carolina , seat = Columbia , LargestCity = Charleston , LargestMetro = ...

since 2016.

Musical career

A veteran of several New York City-area bands such as The Long Island Sounds, Bullfrog Bheer (with

), Tree (with

), Cathedral, Coffee, and Rainbow (unrelated to the

Ritchie Blackmore Richard Hugh Blackmore (born 14 April 1945) is an English guitarist and songwriter. He was a founding member of Deep Purple in 1968, playing jam-style hard rock music that mixed guitar riffs and organ sounds. He is prolific in creating guitar ...

band of the same name), Coronel introduced Stanley to Gene Simmons at his Washington Heights apartment in the early 1970s. The trio would go on to form Wicked Lester, which later morphed into

when Simmons and Stanley decided to move in a new musical direction. Not involved in the formation of Kiss, Coronel formed the band Lover. While still a member of Wicked Lester in the early 1970s, Coronel created the riff and chord structures of future Kiss songs "

She She most commonly refers to: *She (pronoun), the third person singular, feminine, nominative case pronoun in modern English. She or S.H.E. may also refer to: Literature and films *'' She: A History of Adventure'', an 1887 novel by H. Rider Hagga ...

" and "

Goin' Blind "Goin' Blind" is a ballad by American hard rock band Kiss (band), Kiss, written by Gene Simmons and Stephen Coronel; it is sometimes referred to as "Going Blind". The song originally appeared on the band's second album, 1974 in music, 1974's '' ...

" with Simmons.

Sexual exploitation conviction

Coronel was arrested on September 26, 2014, and charged with five counts of sexual exploitation of a minor. A

U.S. Department of Justice The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and administration of justice in the United State ...

Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force investigation determined that

had been uploaded from a residence in

Bluffton, South Carolina Bluffton is a town in southern Beaufort County, South Carolina, Beaufort County, South Carolina, United States. The population as of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census was 27,716, an increase of over 120% since 2010, making it one of the fa ...

. Coronel was sentenced to six years in prison on April 27, 2016, after being found guilty of third-degree sexual exploitation of a minor. As of April 2018, he was incarcerated at the Kershaw Correctional Institution in South Carolina. Coronel was released from prison, placed on probation March 3, 2019, and transferred to South Carolina's Beaufort County Detention Center, where he is choosing to stay while awaiting approval to move to Florida.

References

External links

Legendary Rock Interviews interview with Steve Coronel by John ParksKiss army Spain interview with Steve Coronel by Javier Rueda and Fernando Martínez
Kiss (band) personnel Living people American rock guitarists American male guitarists 1951 births 20th-century American guitarists People from Manhattan People from Bluffton, Ohio American people convicted of child pornography offenses Guitarists from Ohio {{US-rock-guitarist-stub