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
LONG LIVE KISS!!!!!
Me and the wife are taking 15 and 12 year old sons to see them in August. It’s gonna be great seeing their reactions!! Happy July 4th!!
A little FYI to Paul……..Ace has a new book coming out & it is going to be a lot more heavier than Aces’ first book…….So I’m sure some secrets which have been kept secret will be let out, or I hope so……Joe in The Cuse
Like what Joe…he drank more battery acid than anybody else. That him and Peter slept together even more. Oh no, Paul and Gene wear wigs…shocking. I wonder if he’ll mention Paul and Gene footing the bill for his facelift before the reunion tour. Gee, I wonder what is in Paul’s “secret” bag of goodies….I mean why would normal tranquilizers even interest Ace at this point in his career when the guy ingested half of Bolivia and drank all of Kentucky. Or maybe we’ll hear “again” how he was held back from writing more classics like Torpedo Girl…thank goodness the world has Torpedo Girl. Oh, here’s a new one…my solo album sold the most, I was the only one to have a hit. Those guys suck, they only gave me 2 million for the tour…how do they expect me to blow a half a mill in Atlantic City now. Gee Ace, rinse and repeat. Yes, another great read.
I was actually being sarcastic when I said that…….Like you were on the albums…….He could mention when Ace & him made out on several occasions and touched each other but…..YOU NEVER KNOW JB… 😉
Sorry Joe, that one flew right over my head.
Don’t be sorry brother….it’s all fine…They did have killer albums back in the Eric Carr/Bruce Kulick days………Joe in The Cuse
I hope you are being ironic, because otherwise one might come to think that you are repeating the A & P bashing and old stories just as much as people that you keep criticizing for being biased keep bashing P and G for them old stories … on the other hand, it would not surprise me.
Does Paul run VH-1 for Viacom?
Kiss, bringing it on large in ’14. The Crue’s show is a bloated train wreck, Vince looking bloated himself directing the audience vocals…that’s the real mess out there in ’14…..and Alice Cooper kickin’ ass like 1975 again. A lot of people collect Nazi stuff…..Keith Moon wore Nazi uniforms. Ace can collect any Nazi stuff he wants. I’d get my M-80’s in Yonkers. You can’t set off sparklers anymore.
I am a lifelong huge kiss fan of all eras of rhis group UNTIL this current lineup. Say what you will on fourth of july. But its called free speech . Freedom . Unlike any other country in the world were u can speak ur mind . Only in america. With that said I wanna say I was a huge fan and I am not no longer supporting them as a fan . If anything personally I can wait for them to retire. I am so disgusted by what direction paul and I mean paul has taking this band . And to one extent I think in many ways was this all planned out this way . I mean going back to farewell u had doc pushing them saying put tommy in makeup if ace didn’t show up at a show u had them do a farewell and it seems they already had thr rights to makeup after that tour and if thats the case im sure you could easily fill in the blanks. I think paul has really over reached his own peak in quality in terms of decisions about kiss n music in general I mean his own solo albums live to win was to me horrible and his writing material lately suck. So he is in my opinion has lost it musically and he is destroying their legacy. I mean this kinda of crap their doing today is exactly why people dont take them so serious . I wonder why
Destroying their legacy LOL
I thought you were done with this website?
Sorry, but you obviously do not know anything about the world outside the US, freedom of speech is not an American invention and can be found in many other (Western) countries. Since the Patriot Act the freedom in the US has been substantially endangered and become eroded even though many people just do not want to realize that. – Other than that I agree it is sad to see that instead of having fun on their last ride(s) and showing a positive attitude they seem to use this final phase to once and for all present themselves to the public as half bitter, half sullen superheroes when they cannot sing or move anymore like they used to, which makes them look like a parody of themselves. the more they keep talking about about being better than ever the more it becomes obvious that they are not. I would have liked my favourite band to end on a high note instead of this, but it is what it is.