Robin Leach of the Las Vegas Sun spoke with KISS frontman Paul Stanley. Excerpts from the interview appear below.
Las Vegas Sun:….it’s the first time you’re playing a residency at the Hard Rock, but why is it the icing on the cake?
Stanley: Well because it’s new territory for us, and what KISS has always been about is going against the grain and really doing things in our time and when it feels right for us. There was a time where quite honestly everyone thought of Las Vegas as an elephant burial ground.
It was the more glittery branch in Missouri for some people, but it’s so unique. There was also a time where the best food you could get was a $1.99 prime rib. Now if I want a great meal, I go to Las Vegas. You can’t get a comparable meal in Los Angeles to what you can get in Las Vegas.
Everything has changed so much, and it’s always seemed like a perfect fit for us to be in Las Vegas, but for a lot of reasons, it just wasn’t meant to be. Now the planets have lined up, and everything is as it should be, and we will come in and do what we do.
We are doing a KISS show in Las Vegas, we are not doing a Las Vegas show with KISS. We are a rock and roll band, and we will do what we do — better than any band at this point.
Las Vegas Sun: Are you changing the tour show?
Stanley: Completely different stage. At this point, our influence is so widespread that virtually any rock band you go see live is doing the KISS show. The only thing they can never be is KISS. Anybody with money can buy pyro, can buy lasers, but you can never be us. So for us to come into Las Vegas, we’ll set a different level honestly.
It’s an amazing thing for us to be able to go into a smaller venue and not downsize. Usually going into a smaller venue means doing a smaller show, but because this show isn’t portable and because this show is a permanent installation, we can do things that we couldn’t when you have to break the show down every night.
Las Vegas Sun: In terms of rock and roll, Motley Crue is calling it quits on its current world tour. Are you saying KISS will not call it quits and go on maybe with other musicians?
Stanley: Oh, totally; absolutely. We are unlike any other band. We are closer to an army. We are closer to a sports team. I’m not foolish enough to think that I’m the only person to do what I do. The Yankees continued without Babe Ruth. Time marches on, and if you’re part of a movement or part of a commitment to a cause, then when you’re time is done … look, if you fall in battle, someone picks up your gun and runs.
Somebody has to carry the flag, and that’s what KISS is about. KISS is about a lifestyle and self-empowerment and going against the odds and believing in yourself. I guess enjoying the fruits of hard work. That’s not singular to me. People who said that was not possible in terms of KISS are already 50 percent wrong. The lineup is now 40 years on, and two of the members are not the original members, but they are far better at this point than the original members.
Read more at the Las Vegas Sun.
source: lvsun.com
198 Responses
This is a crazy anology, but with someone like Randy Rhoads, he’s gone and he had a totally sick legacy. There is no way to possibly f that up. KISS, on the otherhand, just keeps lessening and lessening their legacy day by day. It is sick. They should have left on top with the farewell tour.
LOL…I thought the same thing garry, he had to get that little jab in there.
Las Vegas Sun: “On a non related note Paul, are you enjoying the Nevada weather while you’re here?”
Stanley: “It’s as lazy as Ace’s playing and as unpredictable as Peter’s drumming.”
Hmm, interesting. Paul says this:: ” Anybody with money can buy pyro, can buy lasers, but you can never be us. “……uhh really that’s BS because Eric & Tommy are doing the same exact thing in the persona’s that Ace and Peter created. So the reality is YES…you can be “KISS”….there is just so much GARBAGE here. It is like reading the same garbage from 1983.
Preach it Joe!
What Paul didn’t say … ” Anybody with money can buy new members … ”
TOOL!
OMG…Paul says..”The Yankees continued without Babe Ruth”….holy Christ….The Yankees are a SPORTS FRANCHISE…you are a rock band trying to be a franchise. The New York Yankees or sports in general have nothing to do with a rock band. This is worse than comparing Apples & Oranges. This goes well beyond the point of BS. Paul is my favorite of “KISS”…no doubt he is awesome but this is getting overly creepy.
So if Paul is the “Babe Ruth” of Kiss I imagine Gene Simmons would be the “Lou Gehrig,” Ace would be the “Mickey Mantle” and Peter would be the “Billy Martin.” Of course no one on the Yankees today is dressing up as any of those players, taking their names and impersonating them down to the very last detail. The team goes on, but out of respect for the legendary baseball players their numbers have all been retired. Kiss was supposed to have retired after their “Farewell” tour, but they lied and continued on. Now we get to deal with all of this mess!
Does not surprise me, Kiss has been reduced to a brand with side projects set up to create more money on the basis of the fame of the rockband for a long time now. It will never be different before they stop completely.
I agree and sometimes the absurd comments made by Mr Stanley lead me to wonder if in fact he is on some kind of drugs!
The drug he is on may be called ‘in total control’. I think it will be hard for everyone to not get high in some respct when you are that exposed to the public and get that much attention over decades. Still, there are other example of rockstars being completely different, like e.g. Brian May who, referring to his musical talent, is way above everyone ever being in Kiss …
paul, you’re singing better than ever and the last 2 kiss albums are amazing!
paul, i’m also lying. Sorry
That is funny, I don’t care what anyone says