Paul Stanley still wants KISS to continue without any original members

Paul Stanley still wants KISS to continue without any original members

KISS singer, guitarist and founder Paul Stanley has revealed in a recent interview that he would still like KISS to continue without any original members once he and long-time KISS bandmate Gene Simmons are no longer playing in the band.

In an interview with 16-year-old radio host Miles “The Shoe” Schuman at David Fishof’s Rock ‘N’ Roll Fantasy Camp and as reported by Blabbermouth, Stanley answered a number of questions including whether we can expect a new studio album from KISS:

On the possibility of KISS one day carrying on without any original members, including Stanley and Simmons:

Stanley: “It sounds more sterile and more… It sounds like something that it’s really not. But truth be told, I didn’t invent the wheel. What I do on stage is a mixture of all the people that inspired me. I don’t know what I’ve done that’s truly original; I stole from a lot of good people and mixed it all together. KISS has a forty-year history now and a point of view and how we relate to our audience and how we relate to each other. We sing about self-empowerment and about celebrating being alive — things that are pretty timeless. And once the original band was no more, it just became clear to us that, in some ways, we’re much more a sports team. We don’t fall into the limitations of other bands, because we’re not other bands. So, yeah, at some point, I’d love to see somebody in the band in my place, and it’s because I love the band.”

On how he would go about finding someone to replace him:

Stanley: “Honestly, I think all the KISS tribute bands are great, but none of them have a good ‘Paul.’ So I’d like to see somebody who incorporates what I’ve done with a lot of the things that inspired me. You have to remember, when we go on tour… I mean, the last tour we did was just stadiums in South America and Europe, and nobody in the audience is going, ‘Where’s so-and-so?’ They’re there to see KISS. And the people who think, or thought, that the band couldn’t exist without the original members are fifty percent wrong now. So, to me, it’s just another step. Some people may not understand it, but I do. I’d love to see the band continue. And it’s not a matter of a puppet being me; it’s somebody who comes in and contributes and adds something new to it while still following the template that’s been set.”

On whether it’s still worth making a new KISS album now that the band already has so many classic songs that everybody knows:

Stanley: “It’s only worth doing it if, artistically, you wanna do it. Every time we finish an album, I kind of go, ‘Well, that’s it.’ Whenever we’ve done an album… When we did ‘Sonic Boom‘, it was because the band was so good that I just thought to not capture the band and do new material would be a shame. But once we did ‘Sonic Boom‘, I said, ‘Well, we’ve made the point.’ And then, a few years later, it was, like, ‘Wow, why don’t we dig deeper and get a little closer to the roots and the people that we loved and kind of do something else,’ so we did that, and then I said, ‘We’re done.’ But lately I’ve been thinking, yeah, we should do another. There’s no secret that when anybody who’s considered classic or of our generation does a new album, most people are not interested in hearing that stuff; they tolerate it at best. If you turn the sound off and you put on a live [The Rolling Stones] concert or a live [Paul] McCartney concert, I’ll tell you every time they’re playing a new song, ’cause the audience sits down. You tolerate the new song, ’cause you wanna hear ‘Brown Sugar’. You tolerate the new song, because you wanna hear ‘She Loves You’, ‘Strawberry Fields’…. whatever it is. So I’m aware that doing an album is more for my own satisfaction than anybody else’s. That being said, if I don’t feel the need to do it, then there’s no need to do it.”

You can read more portions of the transcribed interview at Blabbermouth.

Paul Stanley Interviewed by 16 Year Old Miles Schuman

Legendary KISS frontman Paul Stanley stopped by David Fishof’s Rock n Roll Fantasy Camp and participated in a Q/A style interview hosted by 16 year old radio…