PAUL STANLEY INTERVIEW VIA ATLANTA

KISS-INTERVIEW

Paul Stanley

on Art, American Idol &

His Band's Latest "Comeback"
Courtesy of Atlanta Entertianment Monthly

/INSIGHT

by Dave Cohen

photo by J. Frank Hagan

With KISS having recently come off of a huge stadium tour across South America, Paul Stanley continues to keep busy. About ten years ago, as the result of a divorce, a friend suggested he try painting as a cathartic way of helping to express his emotions. He went and purchased brushes and canvasses and he’s been at it ever since. Stanley has never been one to stand on the sideline. In the past he’s played the lead in the Phantom of the Opera in Toronto and toured on his own in support of his solo release “Live to Win.” He's currently producing the forthcoming KISS album, the band's first release of new material in eleven years, and continues to show his art work at Wentworth Galleries across the country. He recently took time out of his hectic schedule to speak with us.
Between touring with KISS, producing the new album, your growing family, your artwork, you’ve got a lot going on.
It’s been busy. Four months ago I had a little baby girl. Other than that we just finished a stadium tour of South America playing to anywhere from forty to sixty thousand people a night. Before that we did our biggest, most successful tour of Europe playing seven weeks, thirty shows to over four hundred thousand people. Then, I’ve got my art shows, which are normally once a month in different cities and I’m about a week from completing the first KISS album in eleven years which should be out in September. Other than that, I’m taking it easy!
With regards to your artwork, having begun to paint as a way to express emotions from the divorce ten years ago, with that now well behind you, has your approach changed with so many positive things going on in your life?
Any creative outlet will come from whatever inspiration or desperation happens to be going on. Certainly as life evolves you hopefully draw from other experiences. My life, it couldn’t be a better story if I wrote it myself, so there’s no shortage of inspiration. I tell people; “If you’re not inspired every day when you wake up then you should either go back to sleep or change your life.”
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