Classic Rock Magazine interviewed KISS frontman Paul Stanley about the Rock N’ Roll Hall of Fame. Read the interview below.
Classic Rock: Did you feel honored at being inducted in the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame?
Paul Stanley: No, it was done begrudgingly and because it had become absolutely ludicrous that they were choosing to ignore us. At the end of the day most people don’t realize that the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame was a privately created establishment and that it has a self-appointed board. It’s a perfect case of perception becoming reality. People heard “Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame” and gave it credibility. So whether it deserves the title has to be weighed against who it inducts. So was it an honor to be nominated? No. It means a lot to the fans and I understand it because it’s validation for them. So for that reason I accept graciously and accept on their behalf.
My feelings and my ambivalence about the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame hasn’t changed any. Their attitude is elitist and it doesn’t reflect the public. It reflects a small group who dictate who meets the criteria that they set up as “rock and roll”. I’ve always felt the spirit of rock and roll meant not only ignoring your critics, but ignoring your peers and going your own way. I think we’ve done that pretty much with few exceptions for forty years. So that same criteria that kept us out has not gotten us in. I scratch my head a little and I also take issue with a certain arrogance within that group.
Nonetheless I look at some of the inductees and any club that has Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton and The Who and the Beatles and the Stones is company I don’t mind being in and my feelings have nothing to do with any of them, it purely has to do with a system which I think is tainted, corrupted and distorted.
Classic Rock: Are you looking forward to playing it?
Paul Stanley: Honestly, I have no plans at the moment to do anything, and that includes playing with Ace and Peter or anyone else. My plan at the moment is to go and accept the award. Anything else, we’ll see how it unfolds or unravels. It was interesting to me, or offensive to me, that when the question was broached with the hierarchy about inducting additional members it was shut down immediately as “a non starter,” which to me is arrogant. People who sit behind desks need to respect the people who are actually either inductees or possible inductees into this so-called hallowed organization. So the fact that there are 30 or 40 or 50 or some absurd number of Grateful Dead members all inducted, the fact that all of the Chili Peppers, including people who played on early albums that never amounted to very much are not inducted, the fact that John Rutsey, the drummer on the first Rush album is not inducted, the fact that Rob Trujillo, who’s a great guy but didn’t play on any of the classic Metallica albums, was inducted after being in the band six years makes me wonder exactly what are the rules? If the rules don’t apply to everybody then they’re not rules.
Classic Rock: Do you plan to bring Ace and Peter up on stage with you?
Paul Stanley: Of course it goes without saying that Ace and Peter deserve this moment in the spotlight. We wouldn’t be here without them. We couldn’t have built what we did without them at the foundation. That being said, we couldn’t have built what we built without a lot of people who followed them. We couldn’t have been here without them and we couldn’t be here today with them. So absolutely, of course they deserve and belong up there.
Classic Rock: Ace and Peter jammed together at recent party for That Metal Show presenter [and radio DJ] Eddie Trunk. How did you feel about that?
Paul Stanley: I didn’t feel one way or the other. I don’t own those songs, I only wrote ‘em. There’s nothing to guard or lock away. Those songs are public domain and they played on those songs so why wouldn’t they play them? For that matter, why wouldn’t anybody play them?
source: classicrockmagazine.com
115 Responses
All things considered, this was a well-responded interview, particularly the parts about the ‘rules’ surrounding induction.
I agree with many points he makes about the HOF. Just a quick FYI, Ace played Parasite at my party, which to my knowledge Paul did not write.. But his points are spot on about the HOF in general.
Yep – Ace wrote Parasite. Gene sang it on HTH.
Paul makes some valid points. Huge exaggeration with the Grateful Dead analogy, but I get it. With the Dead, you had a band that created and sustained a massive audience for about 30 years. The original keyboardists (Constanten, Pigpen and Godchaux – not that anyone cares on this site) were there for the creation of some of their best material and performances. Mydland was there for their greatest success, and the last guy Welnick – I didn’t feel should’ve been inducted, but was still there playing to 100s of 1000s of people.
I agree with some of the comments, as well as some of Eddie’s points. Paul is really screwed for performance at the RRHOF. Best bet for him would be to grab the award with the original band members and have everyone do their speech, and then perform with the new guys. A lot of the audience will be pissed. If they are planning another reunion tour – which wouldn’t surprise me, then have the new guys in the audience and accept the induction and do the live performance with the original four. FWIW That’s my solution!
Let Eric and Thommy suit up like Paul and Gene for a change. Leave the whining Paul at home
Gee, that was intelligent. Really immature.
One other point – the Heart induction is probably the best comparison to the KISS induction and the way Heart did it really pissed me off.
The Wilson sisters (Ann in particular) have borderline contempt for the original lead guitarist (the guy who made them millions by coming up with the Crazy on You riff and Barracuda among others and gave them cred among the hard rock audience.) They have had a ton of members pass through Heart over the past 35 years. They performed ONE damn song with the original band, and they didn’t really even do that, since Ann had an additional member from the new band onstage playing additional keyboards – which was completely unnecessary. Then it was a jam session with the other big names at the induction. The originals got to do one damn song. Fans waited 35 years to see the band get back together and Ann couldn’t even placate them for 20 minutes. Hope KISS fans get better treatment!
I could not disagree more, John G. I was at the induction, and the band played one song with the original lineup, one song just the sisters, and one song with the current lineup and some fellow Seattle musicians. The lead guitarist you made reference to is named Roger Fisher, and as talented as he is the fact is he did some pretty horrible things that got him thrown out of the band. the sisters managed to put all of that aside and reunite for one song, which os more than you could say for acts like Blondie(fighting ONSTAGE during the induction) or Van Halen(only the replacement lead singer and bass player showed up). The truth is the Wilson sisters handled what could have been a terrible situation about as well as they could have. They stood onstage with the members of the band that they do not get along with and accepted their award and played one song, without incident. Well done. Hopefully EVERYONE in Kiss can put their big boy pants on, show up and PERFORM. If it is truly about the fans, as Paul Stanley claims(bullshit-it’s about him folks)then he’ll perform with Ace and Peter. PERIOD. There is nothing more to discuss. Of course they could include the other members-the HOF is definitely worng on that one-but don’t spite the fans if the HOF gets that part wrong.
We will agree to disagree regarding Heart. I would give them a C- as a grade for how they handled it. Fans wanted to see the original lineup perform, and most importantly that’s the lineup that got inducted. The “All Star” jams are disappointing and anyone can buy a ticket and see the so-called “Heart” play now. Us older fans wanted a reunion. Yes, Van Halen and Blondie were worse, but Ann and Nancy could’ve handled it a lot better.
Ann’s a big joke. All the drama regarding Roger Fisher was silly. It came down to the Wilson’s taking musical control of the band and I’m sure that fed into Roger’s attitude. And relationship-wise (I read the Wilson’s book) Ann knew exactly what Nancy was getting into when she hooked up with Roger. Once a snake, always a snake! For better or worse…..
And despite what most sycophant Heart fans think, Roger Fisher and the other guys’ contributions were huge to their early success. The Wilson’s took control of the band and drove it into the ground. Look at the set they play now – it’s 50% or more old stuff and frankly they sound awful apart from the sisters. All the musical magical sounds are gone. None of the stuff they’ve come up with in the last 3 decades comes close to what they did with the originals.
Couldn’t agree more about the original Heart line up comments. What a band that was! Mike D on drums Steve Fossen on bass and Roger Fisher on guitar. With all due respect to both Ann and Nancy who are great and wrote great songs and deserve all the accolades, that stuff from back in the day had the balls and muscle it had because of the guys behind them. A great band!
The people that liked Heart after the first couple albums enjoyed the beautiful talented women fronting a powerful band that had a lot of Zeppelin in their roots. Heart played a lot of shows with Ted Nugent, Aerosmith, Van Halen and others in their primes, and often stole the show. Roger Fisher and his brother Mike KNEW that the way to get the biggest audience and sustain/gain momentum was pursuing a hard rock direction. The sisters, left to their own devices, were more into Joni Mitchell and the Beatles. The power struggle started with “Dog and Butterfly” and though that was a great LP, it was clear that the hard rock direction was taking a back seat. After that it was downhill. I saw the band in 1980 and people in the audience weren’t happy. The show was OK, not great. In 1982, I enjoyed the couple shows I saw, but their audience was changing into a mellower crowd. By 1983 they were toast. Nobody showed up – aka KISS during the same timeframe. Wilsons got the power they wanted and had no idea what to do with it or what people liked. They’ll NEVER EVER ADMIT IT, but it was true.
Roger’s last solo CD was fantastic, and if the Wilson Sisters had been on it, it would’ve been something.
But the Wilsons always think they can have it their own way. Now they’ve gone back to the old material and their old logo and their old roots. They’ve never once given the original guys credit and I was absolutely THRILLED to see only the original lineup get in to the RRHOF, despite the makeover, super-corporate lineup selling more records and having greater chart success.
That seems an honest answer. He is right to question them. I say that if you were in the band, you deserve to be there, period. When Purple go in, it is gonna be interesting – will the classic lineup only go in – and snub Coverdale, Hughes, Bolin, Morse, Joe Lynn Turner,Nick Simper, Rod Evans and Don Airey??? I think that’s the real reason they aren’t in yet – how do you snub Coverdale and Hughes???? That and Ritchie probably could care less and is a very loose cannon – he could do or say anything.
Ritchie and Gillan on the same stage – that would take both of them a great deal of self-composure, I do not see it. although, of course, I’d like to see it …
You’re assuming they go in! You put in the Mark 2 lineup. That’s it. As much as I like Coverdale, Hughes and Bolin, Mark 2 (the classic lineup) was the one that put DP on the map.