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
KISS has always been outside of the borders of what other bands can do. Not that some of these other bands wouldn't want to do it - the fact that they may snicker or look down their noses at what we do is more out of jealously than anything else.
We are still not in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame but there are 3,000 Kiss products, a Kiss musical toothbrush, everything from Kiss caskets to Kiss condoms. There are no Radiohead condoms....
The premise of Kiss has always been to not live within the confinements and boundaries other people set for themselves. We set our own limitations, and those are no limitations.
I love being a member of KISS.
Nothing could ever stop Kiss. I've seen the band in down times where critics were like vultures circling overhead saying things like, 'Well, you know it's the end of your career.'
Anybody with money can put on a KISS show, but they can't be KISS.
A Kiss concert experience is like sex or anything else that's done with more that one person. It's the give and take that makes it so great. When the audience takes it to the next level, we can kick it up another notch.
I think KISS has always been about celebrating self-empowerment. Celebrating the idea that anything is possible with determination and hard work.
There are no fans more rabid or devoted than KISS fans. KISS fans are what all other fans are measured against. That's how it came to be known as the KISS Army.
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.