KISS, indefatigable glam/rock pioneers who spawned a billion Halloween costumes and its own teenage army, returns to Las Vegas on Saturday night for a show at Pearl Theater at the Palms. This fall, the band, powered still by founding members Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons, released its first studio album in 11 years, "Sonic Boom."
This week the Las Vegas Sun corralled the 57-year-old KISS vocalist and guitarist as the band prepared for a show in Anaheim, Calif., this week. Following is the conversation as our BlackBerry chimed with Stanley's eagerly awaited call:
Paul Stanley is co-founder and part-owner of an endlessly diversifying entertainment company called KISS. As "The Starchild," he sings, plays rhythm guitar and writes songs for the band. There's a new album to promote, Sonic Boom, which Stanley's really proud of, and a world tour that brought him to Staples Center last night.
Born in the middle of the baby boom, Stanley Eisen turned 12 when the Beatles played The Ed Sullivan Show. He grew up in Queens, New York, and attended the High School of Music and Art, alma mater of entertainers, hip designers, real-life Mad Men and MAD magazine luminaries. Stanley studied art there, though he also dabbled in rhythm guitar and was under the heavy sway of those first, unstoppable Zeppelin albums.
As you celebrate Thanksgiving today, please take a moment to think of all you can be thankful for. We can all stop and count our blessings, let those we love know our feelings and make a commitment to help those less fortunate.
"I have been asking for quite a while to put together a show in Dubai," says Paul Stanley, the lead singer of Kiss. "It's a fascinating region. I plan on playing there in the not too distant future."
It's hard to imagine that Kiss will not make it to the United Arab Emirates. They've played everywhere else in their storied career.
Right now, they are in the middle of their biggest superstar schlep around the world. The Kiss 35 tour, to support Sonic Boom, their first original album for 11 years, started in March 2008 and will play 101 venues before it closes on December 15, having taken in Bulgaria, Greece, Latvia, Russia, Luxembourg, Colombia, Peru and Venezuela for the first time in the band's career. According to Stanley, 57, who's never afraid of a little self-promotion, it's all going swimmingly.
KISS will gladly sell you the whole seat at one of their concerts -- but you're only going to need the edge of it.
Sure, it's cliched slogan, one used primarily to sell tickets to monster truck events. But the description fits. KISS concerts, after all, are unlike anything the world has ever seen.
"We want to entertain you, and when you pay for a high-priced ticket it should get you more than a guy on stool," said Paul Stanley, the group's singer-guitarist. "When you get a ticket from us, we'll pummel you, deafen you, blind you, cover you in confetti, and you'll leave very satisfied."
Heavy-metal glam-rock legends light up MTS Centre on Monday
Interview with Paul Stanley
By: Brian McCollum
Iconic rockers KISS play a sold-out show at MTS Centre Monday night for the first time in nine years.
This time, founders Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons are joined by guitarist Tommy Thayer and drummer Eric Singer as KISS tours in support of Sonic Boom, which was released last month and is being hailed as the best Kiss album since Destroyer.
It's the first KISS album since 1998's Psycho Circus, recorded as the reunited lineup was starting to disintegrate. (The band launched a farewell tour in 2000.)
Stanley, who produced Sonic Boom, recently spoke with the Detroit Free Press from his home in Los Angeles.
