Paul Stanley
Paul Stanley
Stanley Bert Eisen, known professionally by his stage name Paul Stanley, is an American musician, singer, songwriter and painter best known for being the rhythm guitarist and co-lead singer of the rock band Kiss. He is the writer or co-writer of many of the band's highest-charting hits. Stanley established The Starchild character for his Kiss persona...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionGuitarist
Date of Birth20 January 1952
CityNew York City, NY
CountryUnited States of America
Our audience is young and vibrant; we retain our previous following; we are three generations into it. Unlike other bands that are very demographically specific, who they appeal to and who their fans are, we're the antithesis of that. If you see your younger brother or a parent of yours or a neighbor at most rock concerts, that's not cool but with us and kids, it's a tribal gathering. Whether it's kids or neighbors - they're all part of a secret society.
I was lucky enough as a kid to spend most of my weekends at the Fillmore East. On a great night, that was like a Holy Roller evangelical church.
The only exercise I got as a kid was fork to mouth. Food was equated with love in my household. I thought you left the table when the zipper was down and you'd explode if you took another bite. I'd eat my plate and then everyone else's leftovers.
To go from being an unpopular, chubby little kid who was chasing girls and couldn't seem to catch them, to being chased after and making sure I ran slow enough that I did get caught, it was 180 degree turn. It was being given the keys to the candy store.
Don't kid yourself; the guy who's onstage in ripped-up jeans is wearing as much a costume as I am.
People want a thrill, people love spectacle and people love to be entertained,
I've seen people around me write books, and somehow they're always in the center of everything that happened; they were the one who made it happen. There's been a lot of those books that didn't really interest me much.
What it comes down to is, Kiss has always been a beast that has this tendency to run wild, and it needs attention and nurturing. If people are always running off and doing other projects, which has been the case, somebody has to be there for stability.
As big as my ego may be, I'm really not of the belief that I can't be replaced. I didn't invent the wheel. There's someone else out there who can do what I do, maybe a little differently. I believe that Kiss is bigger than its individual members.
Democracy in the studio is overrated. What you wind up getting is compromise on everybody's part, which means that nobody has their way, and that means nobody wins, including the fans.
It's one way of showing there are no junkies on patrol.
The non-makeup version of the band sold 10 Million albums, so it's nothing to dismiss.
I don't know what's more embarrassing, these musicians and actors talking about politics in interviews or the media actually giving them credibility about it. It's absurd that a celebrity could speak out on the economy or politics with no more justification than a hit album or a movie.
I'm a great believer in not over-thinking lyrics. You might become technically better as a songwriter, but you lose what originally made your songs great.