The OC Weekly spoke with KISS frontman Paul Stanley about his new autobiography, Face The Music: A Life Exposed.
In it the singer recounts many stories including one that claimed drummer Peter Criss went on a racist rant at a Chinese restaurant and quitting the band for a few days and crawling back. “[Peter] didn’t crawl back,” Stanley says. “He swallowed his pride and pseudo machismo and came back. But part of the dynamic of the band was to have to pragmatically deal with the fact that two of the guys were often times more interested in sabotaging the band, sabotaging [bassist/vocalist] Gene [Simmons] and I, than doing the right thing. And they (Criss and guitarist Ace Frehley) also wanted equal say when they didn’t do equal work.”
He continued: “Part of what we gave the public was the myth that the four of us did everything together and contributed equally. That was something we wanted to maintain in the spirit of the bands that we loved and pictured doing that. The problem was that the guys in the band began to believe it themselves!”
When asked what it is about he and Simmons that they have managed to stay together over 40 years, Stanley said: “It’s hard to define and distinguish between friendship and brotherhood. I certainly see him as a brother, although we don’t always agree on how to treat your brother. At the end of the day, I know he will be there for me and me for him. My issues have always been more rooted in participating evenly and equally and still ending up with a equal share of money. I didn’t want it with Peter and Ace, why would I want it with Gene? He wasn’t doing his job and he was off doing other things and being paid for those things. I felt like if he wasn’t going to do his job and gonna go elsewhere. It was like he took less here or he gave me some of what he was doing elsewhere. That was an ongoing problem. But look, at this point we made the life for each other that each of us could only have dreamed of, and those lives have very little in common. I’m sure Gene would no more want to live my life than I live his. But there’s a bond there because we made it possible for each of us.”
source: ocweekly.com
192 Responses
If Ace had anything Kiss after his Chapter 7 please let me know. I think Kiss 20,000 deep at the L.A. Forum to Ace at the Canyon supper club off the 101 is not a destroyer, nor is 35,000 units and done 3 weeks in. Monster did 10,000 in NYC the first day.
Kiss sold 56000 and Ace did 17000 there first week get your facts straight Lee! your making up number that don’t exist! I actually look it up and got the real numbers.
Ace to date sold 500.000 copy’s of Anomaly. Sonic boom 116.000 and Ace was on the billboard top 30. It’s all on the internet not my numbers just do what I did and look it up for your self. The billboards and the Kiss Wikipedia site and rolling stone all say this so ace is far from chapter anything except for his book that has many chapters.
So you’re claiming Anomaly went gold? You’re smoking crack.
Look it up your self! Odiously you have know ability to type in how many copy’s to date has Anomaly sold if you did you wouldn’t be treating Ed and I like crap. It kills me that know one bothers to get there facts straight! Ed could post a billboard in the sky with real facts and people still would tell him he’s wrong and I feel sorry for him. Like I said look the facts up instead of knocking people who bother to take the time to look up the facts but you won’t I’m sure
In the beginning Kiss was such a primordial disclosure, this was a polemic engagement with the world, they were very confrontational, and they didn’t level down…..American Idol, a lot of disco and “hair metal,” that is a leveling down, or dumbing down, if you will. Kiss was an existential awakening, they actually awoke you out of your dogmatic slumber and got you to move…to act on what you thought were just frivolous notions. They became homogenized in the 80s, but they still had deep album tracks: “I’ve Had Enough” is a great example of a song that is not trying to compose you, but to get you to break out of the social programming. That song used lyrics to make its point, but in the beginning Kiss didn’t need deep lyrics, their message was fully disclosed in their performance art, and, in fact, any attempt to put that message into lyrics on top of that performance would’ve diluted the message and weakened its impact to the point of impotency. This is a huge contribution to humanity. Don’t take this lightly for one second.This stuff about charity work, is so irrelevant to the discussion at hand, and, as I attempted to make clear, it is even unnecessary.
Having said that, I really don’t care what they do anymore, they have given me more than enough, I do disagree with the Kiss Party Line very much, but that’s not my problem, I am done caring what the hell they say, but, it is really funny. I am thinking of Gene’s Peter Criss impersonation in his audio book, it is so funny, these guys, you have to take what they say about each other and then figure they are all about half way right. That’s what I do anyway.
A great philosopher once said, “great thinking leads to great erring.” All the guys in Kiss fall under that, Ace, I think, the most.
Your opinion is about as credible as Ted Nugent’s.
Funny, this sight posts this, but not a thing about the tour so far ? The Dude up above stating what he considers facts about Seattle. well he LIED.
Yep, the tour is doing really well so far. But even Trunk won’t even admit that, because that would be something positive about the current lineup. If Def Leppard was “carrying” Kiss on this tour, the DL fans would bail after that show and many seats would be empty during the Kiss show…… that’s not the case.
Doing well? Okay so you need the truth? They are giving tickets away! Groupon, two for one, etc. It’s called papering the house! I hear about it in every city. Wake up! If you can’t help but demand I give you my take on Kiss then deal with reality instead of what they sell you. I’m sure it’s okay in some markets but it is struggling in others with TWO established bands co-headlining. Get it? My info is based on facts and promoters, what is yours based on? Oh and those last two amazing Kiss records they told you were the best with the best lineup? Odd NO songs from either in their set. Enjoy your Kool Aid, delicious this time of year..
lol I knew that was coming. Paul and Gene still not returning your calls huh, Eddie? You need to get over the sour grapes and grow up. You sound like a bitter child. If that is the case, and I can get 2 tickets for the price of one – fucking fantastic! The footage I’ve seen on youtube shows huge crowds and the stage show is fantastic. For the love of God stop living in 1977! And here comes the delete button…. go ahead, so no one sees anyone disagreeing with you on this board.
Really dude? Never deleted one post. I live in the past huh? But Kiss doesn’t when THEY can’t move on past 1977 with their set list and having others impersonating what past members CREATED IN 1973? Enjoy the Kool Aid. Can’t wait to see your spin on the no original members all tribute band tour coming very soon… And thanks for spending your time and posting on MY site. Believe what you are sold today, always. You are a good soldier for sure. Don’t dare question ever anything, perfect.