Rolling Stone | Kory Grow

This fall, Kiss singer-guitarist Paul Stanley will begin a surprising new gig: soul singer. His new side group, Soul Station, which plays a mix of Sixties and Seventies soul classics, will perform its first-ever concert at Los Angeles’ Roxy Theatre on September 11th. “I don’t play guitar in the band and we don’t do a single Kiss song,” Stanley said in a statement. “That’s not what this is about.”

The Kiss vocalist’s nine-person Soul Station backing band consists of musicians who have played with artists ranging from Christina Aguilera to Bobby Brown. Its drummer, Eric Singer, also plays with Stanley in Kiss. The group will play a mix of songs by the Stylistics, Dramatics, Temptations, Smokey and the Miracles and Blue Magic, among others. Their repertoire includes the Miracles’ “Ooo Baby Baby,” the Temptations’ “Just My Imagination” and the Stylistics’ “You Are My Everything.”

“We’re living in a time of being fed canned pre-programmed backing tracks and lip syncing in place of the electricity and passion of real live R&B,” Stanley said. “When I was a boy, before I ever saw the Who or Led Zeppelin, I saw Solomon Burke and Otis Redding. I saw the Temptations and all that music is part of the foundation of the music I’ve made. Soul Station is my chance to celebrate it for a night that’s real, live and faithfully recreates the sound with the respect it deserves…. These songs, arrangements and sound just blow you away.”

In the meantime, Kiss remain as active as ever. After Stanley’s Soul Station gig, the band will play a run of shows in Australia and New Zealand in October.

In other Kiss news, the group recently partnered with the makers of Scooby-Doo for a new feature-length cartoon, and the band was honored by songwriting-royalties organization ASCAP with a “Founders Award” at a gala where Dave Grohl called them his childhood superheroes. The band’s singer-bassist, Gene Simmons, has also launched a film venture with WWE studios, which will make “elevated horror movies.”