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From: BURRN! Magazine/KISSOnline "He Still Has Stars In His Eyes!" Interview by John "Shooter" Harrell In the past GENE SIMMONS has described PAUL STANLEY as the ringmaster of KISS and that is not far from the truth. He is a total front man, dancing, prancing, performing high leg kicks and belting out every memorable KISS song you can imagine; total MR. ‘non-stop’ ENTERTAINMENT! So what is the trick to doing it for over 33 years? Passion, in a word, which seems to be the common denominator with all of the members of KISS. And how could it not be a passion, as it’s the greatest show on earth! As Gene fills his plate with projects, marketing, merchandising, television shows and business opportunities, PAUL STANLEY has also been busy with his first solo album since 1978, a new wife, a baby on the way, painting and the release of several of his art paintings, actually all tributes to his original colleagues in KISS that fine-art prints are available from and if that is not enough in the last several months he has been recuperating from two hip replacement surgeries. In this interview the ‘star child’ PAUL STANLEY will talk about his solo album, life with GENE SIMMONS, KISS, the next stage and doing the hokey pokey. This is a really great interview because talking to Paul is more like just having a conversation and he gives you a really good picture about things in general. He’s honest, matter-of-factly and is truly a rock star’s rock star. Here is PAUL STANLEY. JH: How have you been? I know you’ve had hip replacement surgery, you got married and now have a child on the way; all kind of great things going on. Tell me about your hip; what happened there? PS: Well over the years I just literally wore out my left hip from doing roundhouse kicks; it really had nothing to do with the boots because my right hip is fine. But my left hip I use to pivot on all the time and turn on and if I was kicking I would stay on my left foot, left leg till the last moment and when the torque was as extreme as it could be is when you lift and rotate your body. So in any case I just wore out the socket and it’s been giving me problems really since 1988 pretty much. JH: Jesus! Have you been in pain that entire time? Eighteen years of pain? PS: Yeah, it got progressively worse and since the reunion tour I have been getting shots while I was on any tour. By the middle of the ROCK THE NATION Tour, I just found that even the adrenaline and the rush of being onstage didn’t and couldn’t any longer mask the pain or the problem and so I found myself limping when I was onstage and I also had to literally hop up the steps onto the stage. It reached a point where something had to happen so I went in and had a total hip replacement. Although statistically people would say that 95% of them go great, well somebody has to fall into the 5% and it was me. We always want to think that we’re on the other side of the percentage and the risk but it didn’t go well (the hip replacement surgery) and I found that pretty much after I started walking it would come out; not totally but I could feel it slipping (the hip bone out of the joint socket) so I went back in for a second surgery. JH: Will you need a third one? PS: Uh, honestly there is a problem that would take a third surgery to possibly fix but my thought for the foreseeable future is to do nothing. I’m ready and prepared to play and do the shows in Japan and I’ve been training and back to everything that I’ve been doing before and in two weeks we have our VH-1 Rock Honors Show so I’m fine. JH: You’re better than you were though. PS: Yeah, better than I was but not where I want it to be. JH: Would you estimate that you’re close to 100%? You can at least tour and this will be your first touring since the surgery. PS: Well actually not too long, probably like four weeks or so after I did the second surgery we played for the troops at Camp Pendleton so to be up there and to be playing all the songs and go what the hell am I doing up here, you know it was for the troops. Since then we’ve also done one concert in Ohio and you know I’m fine. If I say that I’m not where I wanted to be people should realize that for years I haven’t been where I wanted to be (laughs). I mean it’s been a progressively deteriorating situation where I did many tours in pain so it’s business as usual as they say. JH: But the good thing about it is that KISS is even more metal now (laughs). PS: Yeah you know if I wasn’t a metal God before I am now. If you want any proof just take me through a metal detector at the airport (laughs). JH: Or any high school in Los Angeles (laughs). PS: There you go. So I’m fine and looking forward to everything and doing the shoot for BURRN! I was pleased and happy that I was kicking over my head with the leg that was operated on so I’m fine. It’s disappointing to do a surgery twice and still not have the results that you hoped for after the first but I am ready to do major damage. JH: Gene describes you as the brother that he never had. So what is your relationship with this guy and how do you feel about him really? PS: I’m the brother that he never will have (laughs). JH: (laughs) PS: You know my relationship with Gene is family and there is a bond that comes with time that there is no substitute for. What time and experiences together create is a bond that has the tremendous depth because it’s based on life together. It is family and yet the relationship also depends upon both us knowing what the boundaries are. If you don’t have unrealistic expectations of someone then you won’t be disappointed and people get lost sometimes, they lose that. We are family, we are like brothers but that doesn’t mean that we spend our time together. We’ve been together since we literally lived in our parents’ homes so it’s been a long time and I think the great thing is that neither one of us is ever driven by having our way or by being right. Both of us are driven to do what’s right for the band and very often that means one of us saying to the other, if you feel strongly let’s do it your way. That’s a great relationship. JH: It’s a very trusting relationship. PS: Yeah, because the concern for the band is pure, it’s not tainted by selfish ulterior motives so it’s great and what each of us does outside of the band is really neither one’s business and my relationship revolves purely around what we do as part of KISS. JH: The interesting thing that I notice about KISS was the BEATLES comparison that Gene always seems to bring up or slip into conversation. He always says, we have more Gold records in America than the BEATLES, this with the BEATLES and that with the BEATLES and what really clicked in my head was the fact that the BEATLES always used their first names, like John, Paul, George and Ringo and with KISS it’s the same thing, Gene, Paul, Ace and Peter. But now it’s Tommy and Eric but Tommy doesn’t have the ring to it so it should be shortened to just ‘Tom’ (laughs) so you all will sound more like apostles. PS: I think that what has evolved to and I would only make the BEATLES comparison in the most superficial and obvious ways because to put ourselves in that company would be incredibly short-sided to the depth of what the BEATLES did and I certainly am not. I think the comparison stands in the sense that we’ve always wanted to establish the four individuals and what it really has evolved to is the four iconic images, the four characters more than the people. You know I’ve said before that you can go virtually anywhere in the world and people can identify KISS from a photograph. Most of them can’t name all the members but they may be able to say the Cat, the Spaceman and what have you but I think what we realized when members started to have different agendas or what was important to them it became clear that what we built as those four characters should never be diluted by introducing the Giraffe Boy or Tiger Man so it really has become about those four icons. And at this point when you see KISS what’s most important to me is that you see the embodiment of the legend and everything that we have created and believe in. JH: I’ve heard Gene say that these personalities that you’ve created were actually your alter egos. PS: I think they did grow out of aspects of our personalities but alter ego, it’s really not a Jekyll and Hyde situation. I think that it came about from four individuals creating four individual embodiments of their personalities. With that being said once again those personalities and those characters have taken on a life of their own. JH: Do you think it bothers the fans with you and Gene who have their characters but with Tommy and Eric are wearing former members original ones? PS: I’m sure and it probably bothers some on a given night if we don’t play "Parasite". You know everybody can’t be happy all the time with our decisions. If you got into loving the band because the band does things our own way then you can’t get upset if it’s not always your way. Ultimately it has always become more important in the long run that the band survive and go forward rather than alter course because of any member and to dilute the band and what we’ve built over 30 years because somebody feels that we should create a new character is ultimately short-changing the band and the fans. So although I understand it I believe that it’s well-intentioned but a misplaced desire. JH: It finally sunk into me when I’ve been told that KISS will go on forever and I now understand it because with the four personalities and characters in place you can keep changing members until the end of time. Spiro has taken over for Gene before and now he’s working in your organization and so it could become an entirely different band in 5 or 10 years. PS: Well Spiro certainly has never played with the band but the point I believe is well taken that the band should and will continue well past any original member in it. Look, I’ve been there since the beginning and I know every night that we step out onstage it’s KISS. I’ve been there through every member and every lineup permutation, call if what you will and interestingly enough whatever questions anyone in the audience has ever had before the band starts playing and they’ve heard that the lineup is Tommy and Eric, as soon as that curtain drops and they see us and hear us not only is that not an issue but they forget that they even thought it because it’s KISS, pure and simple. If I’m taken in by being a part of it you can bet your butt that a fan is going to be taken in. If they choose not to that’s really a conscious decision because emotionally seeing KISS is the same as seeing KISS always has been except when KISS wasn’t at its best. KISS now is as good and better in some ways than KISS ever has been. When we toured last time and did Australia and America and did the ROCK THE NATION Tour and could change the set list every night, that was something that we haven’t been able to do in ten years! And it wasn’t a recreation of anything, it was a continuation of a state of mind, a belief and a standard. That can sound maybe as though those words have been rehearsed or well thought out but as I said I’m there every night and have been since the very first day that we got together and I’m telling you that there were nights in the small theaters of Australia when we did some special one/off shows where it was eerie to me because it just as easily could have been the Paramount Theater in Portland, Oregon in l974 or 1975. The band has the heart, soul, drive and sound it did back then. JH: It must be a great feeling for you then. I know that I’ve been watching the band since 1975 and towards the end with the reunion thing there Peter was playing slower and slower, the songs were weighted down and it just didn’t have the drive and the oomph to it that KISS is known for. You guys pulled it off but I could hear that there was a difference and now with Eric and Tommy in place it’s like having new parts, a new engine. PS: It’s like I say to people, anybody that would believe that by putting together for example the original lineup, by putting that together you would get 1976 or even 1996 is kidding themselves. It’s over, it’s done for many, many reasons. Look I like Ace more than probably I did when he was in the band. I look forward to talking to him, we’ve been on the phone an hour at a time and in fact I spoke to him last week. So time moves on and that doesn’t mean that you disconnect from the great things you’ve done but just realize maybe that your bond is what you did and not what you can do. JH: You mentioned the set list and changing songs. So was there a period there for you and Gene where it was like ‘safe’ to do only the standards? PS: Safe isn’t the word, it was just awful! I mean it reached a point for me where it was hard to be able to rationalize to people who asked why we were playing the same songs, any good reason without coming out and saying we don’t have any choice. I felt as the fans did; we were playing virtually the same set from the Reunion tour through the Farewell tour and there was no reason or there shouldn’t have been any reason to do that. We have too many songs to choose from and unfortunately too many other aspects came into play and again it wasn’t fair to the band and it wasn’t fair to the fans. JH: So does Eric and Tommy push you and Gene or inspire you enough to want to do other things? PS: Yeah, absolutely and that’s the way that it’s supposed to be! Everybody is supposed to help the other up their game and that’s why during sound checks we play every possible KISS song. It’s great to know them and honestly to hear for example, "Got To Choose" played the way I know it was meant to be played and sound glorious to me. And mind you I’m not taking anything away from; I mean since we’re on the makeup era I’m not taking anything away from the original lineup. What we got back together to do we did and we accomplished it and we scaled the highest mountain again. We couldn’t go forward to a new height and unfortunately personalities and outside influences become a factor and old scenarios seem to play out again. So it was a dream come true and a thrill to come full circle and to have the curtain drop at Tiger Stadium and see 50,000 people waiting to see a band that hadn’t been together in 17 years. So I thank everybody in the band and I have nothing but good things to say. JH: But it’s time to move on now. PS: You know I’ve said when a marriage doesn’t work out you may not want to be with that person but maybe you have a bond and you’re grateful for the child you made. Well we made a beautiful child and we should all be proud of it. JH: Do you see the band slowing down a bit right now? PS: When we tour there is nothing slow about it. The frequency at which we tour will probably be less. JH: And what is that due to, Paul? PS: It’s due to outside interests that deserve to be enjoyed and nurtured, explored. You know I’ve always said there is no rehearsal; life is a one-time deal as far as I know and I believe and know for myself there are other interests that need time and I want to give them time. It doesn’t mean stopping KISS by any means, it just means whether touring with my solo album, which I’ll do or being home with my family. Those are the luxuries that I worked for and I’m grateful to have them but one thing you realize as time moves on is that time is precious. So slowed down only in the sense perhaps that we won’t tour as often but by no means does that mean we’re not going to tour. |
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