Paul Stanley (nonfiction)
Paul Stanley (born Stanley Bert Eisen; January 20, 1952) is an American singer, songwriter and painter, best known for being the rhythm guitarist and co-lead vocalist of the rock band Kiss. He is the writer or co-writer of many of the band's highest-charting hits. Stanley established The Starchild character for his Kiss persona and is known for his distinctive wide ranging voice.
Hit Parader ranked him 18th on their list of Top 100 Metal Vocalists of All Time. Gibson.com Readers Poll also named him 13th on their list of Top 25 Frontmen.
Quotations
Q: Have there been seasons or eras when you felt the majority of critics got what you were doing?
A: I think now more than ever. I think the geriatric critics have died off, and their places have been taken by people who have always understood what we were about. Putting that aside, the band has never been better. But the early bad reviews were clearly the work of people who were afraid of us or took comfort in Quicksilver Messenger Service.
Microtia
Paul Stanley recalls when he was called “One-eared monster” due to malformation By Rafael Polcaro (05/06/2019)
Kiss vocalist Paul Stanley recalled the pain and loneliness of his childhood as he struggled to deal with being born with microtia, a deformity in which the ear is underdeveloped.
In a clip of the audio version of his new book, Backstage Pass, read by Sean Pratt, Stanley recounted the day he returned to the apartment where he spent his early years:
“When I started to attend the elementary school right next door to our apartment, P.S. 98, I didn’t have any friends,” he said. “But I was always the center of attention; and that sort of attention felt just horrific to a five-year-old. I wanted to disappear or hide, but there was no place to go.”
“It was one thing when somebody stared at me – that was bad enough. But when someone yelled out at me, that drew other people’s eyes to me. Everyone would look at me, scrutinize me; I felt violated and threatened to my core. These were the worst moments; like a kid who would point and yell, ‘Stanley, the one-eared monster!’ All I could think was, ‘You’re hurting me.’”
Paul still recalled that he “never had a shoulder to cry on” since his parents “insisted on not talking about” their problems. At one point, while still in kindergarten, his mother told him, “Fight your own battles – don’t come crying for me.”
“Kids need parents. Kids ne ed protection. When my parents didn’t empathize with me and didn’t want to hear about my problems, I felt cut off from everybody. For most of my life, West 211th Street had represented just one thing for me: pain.”
External links
- Paul Stanley @ Wikipedia