Kiss News

KISS frontman Paul Stanley wants to watch KISS playing live without him.

http://www.news.com.au

Not due to illness (it�s only happened once in 40 years) or simply taking a breather.

Rather Stanley believes Kiss is immortal and will continue on once he�s hung up the feathers, codpiece, jumpsuit, platform boots, big hair and Starchild make-up for good.

�KISS is immortal,� Stanley says.

�I look forward to a day when I�ll see Kiss play without me,� Stanley says. �Don�t want to do it next week, haven�t penciled anything in, but it would be the culmination of what we�ve built and a consistent progression.�

The US rock band formed in 1973 and have survived several line-up changes due to ego, death and drama and weathered everything from low sales to high guitarists.

Frontman Stanley, 63, and Gene Simmons, 65, are the last two original men standing, but the singer insists everyone in Kiss is replaceable, even them.

�The people who said it had to be all the original members to be Kiss are already 50 per cent wrong. Do I cast a big shadow? Sure. But am I crazy enough to think I�m the only person who can do this? That would be ridiculous. Do you go to a Yankees ballgame and hold up a sign �Where�s Babe Ruth?� The team continues because the ideal is met. The standard is met.

�If someone else can be a great frontman and reflect the philosophy of Kiss, it doesn�t have to be me. Is there someone else out there either in their teens or early 20s now who is going to pick up the torch? I�m sure there is.�

Stanley is the first to point out that an all-new rebooted Kiss would still be called Kiss.

�There�s no need to call it anything except Kiss. The idea that every time we change members we�re going to be Kiss 2.0, Kiss 2.1 is ridiculous. It�s Kiss. Kiss is a philosophy and a way of presenting music and presenting ourselves. If I say that the band can have personnel changes and still be Kiss, why would I exclude myself from that? I feel very strongly about it.�

The last decade has changed Stanley�s mind on his life in Kiss. It�s no longer his entire life like it used to be, rather just a facet of it.

The healthier mindset began with his second marriage in 2005 and having three children in five years, in addition to his oldest son, Evan, now 20.

�My life is wonderful,� Stanley says.

�There are so many performers and actors who don�t want to go home because they have nothing. Their lifeblood and oxygen is adulation and recognition and without that they wilt and wither. I see guys in other bands who have to be out on tour because they�re miserable without it. Well, roll up your sleeves and get a life. It will only enhance what you�re doing. At the end of the day it�s great to have people fantasise about who you are but at the end of the day you always have to face who you really are.�

Stanley did that last year by writing his refreshingly honest autobiography Face the Music, a candid book that wiped away more than the make-up

He documented an unhappy childhood, anti-Semitism in his own band and being so lonely he�d be eating soup in a deli alone just hours after playing a sold-out Madison Square Garden.

Yes, there was a string of ladies � including on Kiss� first tour of Australia in 1980, where the band were so popular they were prisoners in their five-star hotel rooms. Except unlike actual prisoners, they had a string of Penthouse Pets providing a special kind of room service.

�I�ve always had a soft spot and a not-so-soft spot for Australian women,� Stanley jokes.

That makes him sound like his bandmate Gene Simmons, who skipped the usual rock star addiction to drugs for bedding thousands of women instead.

�I love women,� Stanley says. �But the idea of having intimacy with a woman is totally contradicted by putting it out in the press. Publicity is an betrayal of intimacy.�

And while he�s no stranger to the perks of mammoth, global fame, he also remained aware of the aphrodisiac power of being a rock star.

�For a fat, unpopular kid with one ear to look up at the mirror on the ceiling and see the Playmate of the Month ... I mean, pinch me,� Stanley says.

CLICK HERE to read the rest of the story at www.news.com.au

By John Katic - www.GuitarWorld.com

Kiss guitarists and Les Pauls just seem to go together. Just ask Tommy Thayer, who just introduced his new Epiphone White Lightning Les Paul.

We caught up with Thayer�just days before he headed out on a whirlwind tour of Japan�to discuss the new guitar, Kiss and a whole lot more.

GUITAR WORLD: It�s been two years since you teamed up with Epiphone to release your signature Spaceman Les Paul. How is the new White Lightning Les Paul different?

There are a lot of similarities. The look, design and color scheme are different, obviously. The pickups are different too. In the last year or two, I started using Seymour Duncan JB pickups again.

I used them a long time ago. I was using Gibson pickups for a long time. I�m not sure why, but one day we put a set of JB�s back in the guitar and it sounded great. It was just one of those things where you are chasing the sound; it was something different that peaked my interest.

As far as the neck and the body shape, is it pretty similar to your other model?

It is. The neck is the same. It's somewhere between a 1960 and a 1959 profile. It�s not a baseball bat, but it�s not super-thin either. It�s kind of in between, which I like more. The cool thing is it has this great white metallic finish [see the photo gallery below]. It�s a really stark white. It isn�t a pearl color like some of the Gibson Custom models. I wanted it to be a really striking guitar that would look great on stage. I wanted to have all the chrome parts to offset that.

The pickup rings and pick guard are all chrome. Originally the idea was to do a chrome binding as well. It became difficult even for Gibson to figure out exactly how to do that. When they did the original two guitars last summer, the ones that were the inspiration for the Epiphone, we couldn�t figure out how to do a chrome binding. I ended up using a three-ply black-and-white binding, which actually was a better idea. I think it looks great.

I think any manufacturer would admit it�s hard to get chrome on wood.

They cut those Les Paul shapes out of wood and they leave a strip or a channel on it for the binding. Even before they paint them, they put the binding on and they sand them with the binding on. That�s the traditional process and why it was so difficult to do with chrome. It was funny; we went back and forth with Gibson for months trying to figure out what to do. It turned out great in the long run.

On the Spaceman Epiphone, you had gone back and forth with Epiphone on the size of the flake. When you are doing a finish like this and you're playing on one of the biggest stages with the lights, do you have to play around with and give consideration to how these guitars look on stage?

Absolutely. It�s very important to have a guitar that on stage pops out and looks like it works on a Kiss stage. A lot of that is taken into consideration. It�s a very flamboyant, theatrical show so you need flamboyant, theatrical guitars. Coincidentally, that is the kind of guitar I like the looks of anyway. I�m sure Paul [Stanley] and Gene [Simmons] feel the same way. You don�t want to just do something plain or generic. You need some pop to it. We know what works by experience.

Are you a tinkerer, guitar-wise? Do you mess around with a lot of configurations, or do you have a pretty good handle on what you like?

I used to do a little bit of that back in the old days. I messed up a couple of good guitars fooling around. I had a few Les Paul Jr�s., a �58 or '59 Sunburst Jr., and I took the pickup out of it and I don�t know what I did. I did stuff you shouldn�t do by today�s standards with vintage guitars. That was 30 or 35 years ago. There was a point where I had a few Strats, even though I was always more of a Les Paul guy, and I messed around with the necks and parts. These days I try to stay away from that stuff and let others deal with that. I�m not really interested in messing around and tinkering. I just like to play them.

In the Eighties, there was a dip in the vintage guitar market with everyone going to the �super� Strats. The guitars everyone prizes now weren�t quite as valuable back then, and people took a lot of liberties with those guitars that they wouldn�t dare now.

There was a time in the Eighties when no one wanted Les Pauls. Everyone wanted Charvels and Jacksons. I actually bought one of my best guitars back then. This one was a �72 Deluxe that was routed out for regular humbuckers. I bought it at this guitar shop in Hollywood in 1985 or 1986 for like $350. No one wanted them, but I sure did and I took advantage of the great prices. By the time Guns N' Roses came out, things changed and Gibsons became real popular again.

This is your 12th or 13th year with Kiss if I�m not mistaken.

It�s not exactly clear when I started. The first gig I did with them was in 2002 as a filling-in situation. The first official gig was in early 2003. It could be 12 or 13, depending on how you look at it.

You guys have a lot of tour dates coming up including Japan, and you're hitting every continent outside of Antarctica. Is the entire year mapped out at this point?

This year is fairly well mapped out, even though we haven�t announced what is going on specifically later this year. It is primarily international tour dates, which starts in Japan for a few weeks. By the way, we have a Number 1 single in Japan right now with Momoiro Clover Z [a female Japanese band].

How did that come together?

That was very interesting. I don�t even know whose idea it was. There is a teen idol band over there called Momoiro Clover Z. They are all in their late teens and early 20s. You wouldn�t know it; they look like they're about 13 [laughs]. We did a collaboration with them, and it�s very Kiss and has a very Japanese flavor and taste to it. We filmed the video for the song, which is spectacular. It�s become very popular over there now and has gone to Number 1.

You guys are also doing South America pretty hard. Are there places you still haven't gone?

I�ve been there on two or three tours with Kiss, and it's a mega-market for us. In April we are doing several weeks. I think we are doing about five in Brazil and going to a couple of places we haven�t been before. We haven�t played Montevideo, Uruguay. There might be a couple others. It seems we have covered every country down there at one time or another. It is really over the top down there. The fans are crazy, crazier than almost anywhere in the world. Kiss fans are crazy everywhere, but down there is especially insane.

During the tour, are you able to get away and enjoy some of the culture of the places you visit?

I like to do that, actually. I�m not a stay-in-the-hotel-room guy. Sometimes it�s a little bit of a challenge because you are traveling on days off. A lot of times you just need to rest. Some days you just have to recharge the batteries. Other days getting out seeing the culture and the people and enjoying the food is exciting. It is an amazing opportunity when you do these tours because you go to places you may not otherwise have the chance to visit. We are lucky in that regard. I like to regard those extra pleasures along the way.

Kiss kick off their South American tour April 10 in Bogota, Colombia and have 10 shows planned in South America, culminating with Monsters of Rock in Sao Paulo, Brazil. They return to Europe in May with dates throughout June, and they're back Australia in October. Visit tommythayerguitar.com for more info about Thayer�s White Lightening Les Paul. Visit kissonline.com for more about Kiss.

Gene Simmons appears in the new Al Pacino movie, Danny Collins. The films opens Friday, March 20th.

We wish everyone a wonderful day!

Thanks to Francie Holt for sharing these KISS cookies with us!

KISS IS EVERYWHERE!

Emji sings KISS' " I Was Made for Lovin ' You" during Nouvelle Star's 2015 finale show.

Thanks Thierry Agar for sharing the clip with us!

KISS IS EVERYWHERE!

Here's a promo still from the upcoming "Paul Blart 2" movie.

Fan letter:

For the longest time I had wanted to get a tattoo that showed my love for the band........all of the band with each of the ten members. Finally it has been completed and to say I am proud would be an understatement. Thanks to all ten members who have made and continue to make KISS the hottest band in the world!!! See you on KISS Kruise V this fall.

John Beckett

John - You've got KISS covered! We love it!

To celebrate the fifth anniversary of the KISS Kruise, Paul Stanley is offering a maximum of 50 members of the KISS Navy a very special Guitar + Meet & Greet opportunity aboard KISS Kruise V!

You'll get:

- A Paul Stanley Limited Edition Special Custom KISS Kruise V Ibanez guitar autographed to you, in person, by the Starchild!

- An intimate Q&A session aboard the KISS Kruise V with Paul Stanley. This event is open ONLY to buyers of this guitar and their guest. You are allowed to bring ONE guest to attend the Q&A. (Parents with minor children are welcome to bring their children too.)

- A photo with Paul and your new guitar! (If you'd like your guest in the photo too, he or she is welcome to join you!)

* Note. Paul will ONLY be signing the KKV guitar at this event - no additional memorabilia.

CLICK HERE to order now.

BBC 6 Music's Mary Anne Hobbs recently presented her show as Paul Stanley!

Awesome! We love it!