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
Has anyone on here seen Lydia Criss’ book? Recently I just saw some photos from it and wouldn’t you know, there was a photo of Paul with Peter circa the 70’s in Nazi garb! My guess is that not many have bothered checking her book out and it’s this hidden gem out there that not many know about. If they did these photos would’ve been posted all over the place back when Paul’s accusation that Ace and Peter are anti-semites was in the news.
So what we can deduce from Paul is it’s ok for him to dress like a Nazi, but if Peter does it then it’s wrong and he’s a racist. Gene doesn’t pull his weight in the 80’s like Paul claims Ace and Peter didn’t during the 70’s, but because the ends justify the means with where he is today with Gene and the Kiss brand, it’s all good. The only thing Paul has proven this year is aside from his voice being embarrassingly shot as the country witnessed on American Idol is that his hypocritical evidence just might even surpass his lack of accountability evident from blaming nearly everyone throughout his book for any shortcoming on his part. Paul clearly had an addiction for buying exorbitant, frivolous things in addition to his sex addiction, which was only overshadowed by Gene. Paul even admits to doing some drugs early on in his life, got wasted and passed out during the Hotter Than Hell photo shoot, and even talks to the crowd on the Alive album about who like’s to get high and what they like to drink; yet today he crucifies Ace and Peter for being into those things. Seriously, it makes me wonder if that wig of his has cut off the circulation to his brain to think that no one sees through all this bs.
Well said. It is always the dog barking the loudest who gets all the attention, even though it might all be a lie.
Agreed Nic. But even Lydia Criss questions the validity on alot of Peter’s claims in his own book. And I have to trust she would be the best source for all things Peter.
I wish KISS broke up in 1983, maybe earlier. Came back for the Reunion Tour in 1996 and broke up again. THAT would be the ideal KISSTORY.
Yes, I do too…then we wouldn’t have Lick It Up, Animalize, Asylum or Revenge. How dare them.
Those were great albums JB…..I do miss that version of KISS…..Joe in the Cuse
Not for me. Long live KISS !!! Too much good came after 83.
peter later apologized to ace for mocking his heritage.
…I was there…I remember very clearly the Kiss mystique…what these rock stars don’t get sometimes is that it’s the FANS, that’s right, us sheltered people that have the clearest, most objective viewpoint, we aren’t emotionally tangled up in it…Peter and Ace added so much to Gene and Paul’s material, he is omitting that.
Clear and objective viewpoint? No. Not hardly. Fans often have the most extreme and emotional viewpoint of all. It’s why we’re fans. Clear and objective would mean that we as fans didn’t buy into everything the band was selling in the beginning. That all the members were equal, that somehow, someway these guys weren’t your typical drugged out, alcoholic, ego laden rock stars. That we didn’t buy into the mystique. When in reality, Kiss was really no different than any other dysfunctional band once the makeup came off. Because in reality, that is exactly what they are. Clear and objective? Where is the fun in that.
Your post is based on the assumption that all fans think the same way. It’s the endgame that I’m talking about, I don’t give a shit what goes on backstage, that’s why it’s called backstage. It’s what’s onstage and what’s on the records that matters. So, as a fan, the Kisst hat was, by far, the most potent, was the first one. It was the combination of those four, it doesn’t matter if someone did more than the other.
So…being his fan for 37 years……he is flat out contradicting himself from his previous statements…about producing Animalize, about Ace….No one twisted this guy’s arm and made him do any of the work he has done for Kiss…so what? so he can now sit on his throne some 30 odd years later and say this stuff? It’s like there is a Twin Paul.. and uh…