“Sweet Victory” Musician Bob Kulick Passes Away At 70

Bob Kulick, a prolific session musician perhaps best known as the composer of the SpongeBob SquarePants song “Sweet Victory”, passed away recently at the age of 70. His death was announced by his brother Bruce on Facebook.

“I know he is at peace now, with my parents, playing his guitar as loud as possible,” his brother wrote.

In his career, Kulick worked extensively with KISS, playing on several of their records after he auditioned for the role that would eventually go to Ace Frehley. Kulick also played with W.A.S.P. and Meatloaf and played on records for Diana Ross, Michael Bolton and Lou Reed. He produced Motörhead’s Grammy-winning cover of Metallica’s “Whiplash” and produced WWE wrestler Triple H’s entrance music.

While Kulick carved his living as a hard rock journeyman, he will undoubtedly be most remembered for his work on “Sweet Victory,” which even got a nod at the Super Bowl LIII halftime show after SpongeBob fans petitioned the NFL to have it played in honor of SpongeBob creator Stephen Hillenburg. In a 2016 interview with Shut Up and Rock On, Kulick said of the song, “We were told they wanted to use the majority of this song in a stadium scene with Spongebob actually singing the song, and we were just like ‘you’re kidding, right?’ So finally we got to see it and again, it was one of those seeing is believing type things. David and I both looked at each other just like, this is gonna be huge.”