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14 Questions With PAUL STANLEYFrom: AskMen.com Posted: November 30, 2008 Q1:First off, congratulations on the future new addition to your family. Do you have any fatherly advice you’d like to offer to our readers who are first-time dads? Yeah, I’m expecting a daughter in January. If you’re not prepared to surrender the center of the universe, don’t do it. Q2: Can fans look forward to new KISS material in the near future? Actually, it looks like we’ll be going in the studio shortly to do the first new KISS album in 10 years. It’s going to be very much a vintage, classic, ‘70s KISS album without much regard to what’s happened since then; it’s back to the roots. Q3:Generally speaking, you were the last KISS member to pursue outside interests; how does it feel to be actively promoting your music from Live to Win and One Live KISS? Are there any surprises on the DVD for fans? Maybe I just do my outside interests more quietly than others; it doesn’t mean less successfully. There’s a difference between standing up and telling people what you’re planning to do and standing up and going and accomplishing something. I tend to fly a bit under the radar. Certainly, doing a solo album 28 years after the first one, there was some time between them, but I wanted to protect KISS and make sure that there was a KISS. In terms of shooting the DVD, it was very important that it be more than just a cheesy concert video. So it was shot with 14 cameras and a great director, Louis Antonelli. The purpose in my doing that tour was really to reconnect with the roots, my roots, in the sense that I remember going to the Fillmoore in New York where 2,500 people would see Jimi Hendrix or Led Zeppelin or The Who or Derek and the Dominos, and it was really a very communal thing -- [there's just] something about a band on stage communicating and having this bombastic and yet very intimate relationship with an audience. Q4:How did painting start being more than a personal outlet; how did it become public? What style do you consider yourself? Doing my art came out of something very solitary and something that I had no intention of showing anybody, and yet once people saw pieces in my house, it became really clear that there was a great demand for my art. Again, it all stems from the foundation, being: I want to please myself. Perhaps the art connects so much with other people because it truly is connected to me in the best way; I’m not second guessing what someone else wants to see, I’m trying to do something I like. The only thing I can say is consistent in all my paintings is vivid color. Because I’ve had such great success so quickly, people really see me on this journey [and] they’re almost on this journey with me. People see my art taking all kinds of turns because it’s exciting and new for me. It certainly goes from abstract to abstract-impressionist to almost an ‘80s Pop Art feel, so it’s something that’s always changing, but that’s part of the excitement, for me at least. I’m also very grateful to know that people love what I’m doing and it’s not only KISS fans, but [that] it’s finding its way into some collectors’ collections with some other artists that I’m certainly happy and proud to be with. Q5:What’s your priority right now in terms of promoting: painting or music? It’s really not about promoting, it’s about doing. Promoting is just the end product of creating. You want people to know what you’re doing if you want to be successful at it, and if people enjoy what you’re doing, you certainly want them to know. I’d have to say that I’ve been devoting a lot of my time to art, although when I was on tour with KISS I never picked up a paint brush or thought about it. Q6:You’ve also been busy promoting the KISS Alive/35 tour, celebrating the 35th anniversary of KISS. Can you share some details about that? Alive/35 has been the celebration of 35 years since KISS Alive! We did 30 shows in Europe in seven weeks; it was the biggest most successful KISS tour in Europe, ever. We played the entire KISS Alive! album and we also did about six encores of all kinds of other great classics. It was very invigorating and very reassuring to us that the KISS Army is more than alive and well; it’s vibrant and vicious. We played to about 400,000 people, and we’ll pick up where we left off [in] the middle of next year, summer/fall, and to the States and Europe. Q7:In your years with KISS, what has been your favorite moment? Oh my God. I think the most momentous occasion and moment for me was probably in Dayton, Ohio, or Toledo when I realized that we were virtually selling out every show and that was something new for us. And I realized, looking out at a crowd before going on, that we were going to be everything that we planned; we were going to be as big as we designed it and as big as we fought for. Q8:What’s your favorite KISS album and why? I think Destroyer is a great album and I think KISS Alive! is a very important album. I love KISS Alive! because it’s the album that broke us on a much bigger scale; it’s the album that made us superstars. Q9:Back in the ‘80s, a decision was made in order to respect the fans that Vinnie and Carr would have to wear new face makeup; why was the decision made to allow Singer and Thayer to wear the makeup of original members? It wasn’t to respect the fans; it was a misstep if anything. The idea that we should dilute the four icons, which are world-known (not by name, but by character) and come up with like "Frog Man" or "Turtle Boy" was a big misstep. Those iconic figures are known worldwide; you show anybody in the world a photo of KISS and they’ll tell you it’s KISS. So, it just sold everybody short to think that when somebody left the band that they should take those characters with them. In a sense, we all created each others’ characters because it was the four of us together and the synergy between the four of us that made those characters. Could we have done it on our own? I don’t think so. It was all of us together that came up with it. Q10:Is there any truth to the rumors about a KISS II reality show? It’s kind of gotten distorted into something that it really isn’t. The idea that some guys are going to take our place and we’re going to go home is never going to happen. Really, what it was and remains is the idea that Gene and I have created and nurtured something for 35 years… [and] as successful and consistent as we’ve been kind of makes people wonder what it would be like if we put together another band and gave [them] that experience. It’s much closer to that. Q11:You’ve suffered some physical ailments in recent years; what are you doing to stay in shape these days? Today I did a workout that would probably give most people a heart attack. My physical injuries (what a lot of them have been) really come from the amount of punishment I [do to] my body. That’s just par for the course. My workout is pretty exhaustive and exhausting; I do a lot of hill-climbing, a lot of abdominal work and crunches, upper body weights, lower body stretching and weights -- it’s a lot of light weights and lots of reps, a lot of floor stuff and core exercises. Q12:What’s your biggest career secret, and what advice do you have for readers wishing to become rock stars? My advice to anybody who wants to succeed is: Stop listening to advice. The most important thing is to assess yourself as honestly as possible and then pursue something that you feel you can do. Only a fool would attempt something that they weren’t reasonably sure they could attain; that’s a dangerous waste of time and life. So, if you listen to people who tell you what’s impossible, they’re usually the ones who failed. My advice is always: Don’t listen to advice. You have all the support and knowledge you need inside. Q13:What’s the one quality you think all men should have? Integrity. Q14:Who’s the hottest woman alive? Thank god the world is full of beautiful women. I love women. As an artist and as a man, the aesthetics of women, the physicality of them -- they’re all pretty stunning. |
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