KISS’ PAUL STANLEY PRAISES LED ZEPPELIN, AND SAYS JIMMY PAGE IS “THE MOST IMPORTANT AND INFLUENTIAL GUITAR PLAYER”
KISS’ Paul Stanley spoke with Dean Delray’s Let There Be Talk podcast about attending a Led Zeppelin concert when he was just 17 years old in New York. Portions of the interview appear below (as per blabbermouth.net).
“I saw Zeppelin in, I think it was August of ’69 — between the first and second [records],” Stanley said. “And they were actually playing ‘What Is And What Should Never Be‘, a couple of those tracks, and Jimmy [Page] had his bow and they were panning his guitar left and right so he could point it.”
“I was just absolutely blown away,” he continued. “To this day, I’ve never seen anything that was that perfect. Not just in terms of the synchronicity and the fact that everybody was so much on the same playing field — it was the sexual energy that was coming off the stage, the flamboyance, the cocksure attitude. They backed it up. I think they knew how great they were. And I was just…
First of all, the band was spectacular and played — I won’t use any profanity — but they played tighter than a something… So, they were amazing. And Robert Plant was singing like something from another planet. He was hitting notes effortlessly, and there was such bravado in everything they were doing, it just blew me away.”
Stanley also talked about his friendship with the Led Zeppelin guitarist and what it has meant to him to connect with his idol on a personal level.
“It’s amazing to have been a young kid seeing Zeppelin and then play London and have Jimmy watching us… Jimmy saw [KISS], I think it was the tour before last,” he said. “And subsequent to that, we’ve had dinner and gone out for tea and lunch.
There’s an old adage that you should be weary of meeting your heroes and the people you look up to, because, quite frankly, a lot of them are assholes. Jimmy is the complete opposite. He lives and breathes music, and he’s a terrific, terrific guy, and I would argue the most important and influential guitar player, not only in terms of playing, but in terms of vision. What he created was symphonic. It’s not as simple as a guitar, bass and drums and a singer. What he did on those records was multilayered and a tapestry of sorts. He’s painted with an amazing brush and amazing palette of colors. So he’s right up there at the top for me.”
This past January, KISS began their second farewell tour, dubbed End Of The Road, which is expected to run through the end of 2021.
Wow, it’s been a long time since I actually totally agree with Paul! And it’s a f–king miracle, he didn’t bring up Ace & Peter and bash the sh-t out of them!!!! For once!
I totally agree with Paul here. In my opinion, Led Zeppelin was rock & roll perfection and Jimmy Page is god. People can quibble over who’s the greatest guitarist, but I don’t think you can really argue that Page (with the possible exception of Paul McCartney) is the greatest rock composer. The sheer breadth of Zeppelin’s music is staggering. Paul’s comment that what Page created was symphonic immediately made me think of The Rain Song – again, perfection.