R.I.P. Bob Kulick: 5 Great Songs That the Session Guitarist Played On

Famed session guitarist Bob Kulick has reportedly died at age 70.

The musician's brother, former Kiss guitarist Bruce Kulick, announced the passing on social media Friday.

"I am heartbroken to have to share the news of the passing of my brother Bob Kulick. His love of music, and his talent as a musician and producer should always be celebrated," he wrote.

Kulick had a vast career performing mostly with hard rock artists. According to an interview with Rockstar Weekly, he auditioned for shock-rock icons Kiss in 1973, but lost out to guitarist Ace Frehely. His brother Bruce Kulick later joined the band in 1984, but Bob still made contributions to the band.

Kulick had a long musical career and was very accomplished both as a guitarist and producer. Here are five songs to remember him by.

Kiss - "Nowhere to Run"

Even though Kulick never became an official member of Kiss like his brother, he still contributed to a handful of the band's songs from the Alive II, Unmasked and Killers albums. He also played on Kiss singer-guitarist Paul Stanley's self-titled solo record. While he didn't play on any of Kiss' biggest hits, "Nowhere to Run" is a great mid-tempo song for the band with a great solo by Kulick. Often playing uncredited, he told The Metal Voice in a November interview about his experiences playing for Kiss: "Did they ever say thank you? No never. Paul then said to me, 'Bob you can't tell anybody you played on these songs.'"

Lou Reed - "Charley Girl"

Despite being best known as a hard-rocker, Kulick contributed guitar leads to Lou Reed's 1975 album Coney Island Baby. Even though it's more laidback than other songs on this list, Kulick added flourishes that show his prowess as a guitarist. He often played along, with short riffs that punctuate Reed's lyrics.

Motorhead - "Whiplash"

While most known as a guitarist, Kulick was also an acclaimed producer in his own right. He produced punk-metal crossover greats Motorhead's 2004 cover of Metallica's "Whiplash" for the tribute album Metallic Attack, which featured contributions from other metal greats like Death Angel, Rainbow's Joe Lynn Turner, and Anthrax guitarist Scott Ian. The cover earned the 2005 Grammy award for "Best Metal Performance."

Meat Loaf - "Modern Girl"

Kulick was a frequent collaborator with theatrical rocker Meat Loaf. He contributed arrangements for his Live at Wembley album and played guitar for the Bad Attitude album. Even though Meat Loaf's vocals are at the forefront at this track, the fist-pumping guitar work is a good showing of what a tight guitarist Kulick was, including the excellent solo.

David Eisley & Bob Kulick - "Sweet Victory"

To a generation of children who loved SpongeBob SquarePants, Kulick was one of the writers for the song "Sweet Victory" in the 2001 episode "Band Geeks." A short stadium rock anthem, the song is epic in that it's just over two minutes. It's instantly recognizable as soon as the first horns sound or the keyboard riff in the intro plays. Naturally, Kulick contributed an excellent guitar solo.