I found them very satisfying because I got a chance to be out there without makeup, which I craved at that point. Those years, Stanley noted, "were fine for me. In his book Sex Money Kiss, Gene Simmons says Stanley was the driving force for KISS during the period in the 1980s when the band performed without makeup. Stanley singing " Love Gun" in Montreal, Quebec I always loved stars and always identified with them – so, when it came time to put something on my face, I knew it would be a star." "I looked like a longhaired tomato! Before settling on the star, I'd just paint a black ring around my eye… Each of us wears something that reflects who we are. "I even tried painting my face all red," he admitted. This make-up design was used during a few 1973–74 shows and photo-shoots, some of which he was photographed with both designs in the same session. For a brief time, Stanley tried out a new character "the Bandit", with a " Lone Ranger" style mask design make-up pattern. Stanley's persona in Kiss is "the Starchild" displaying one star over his right eye. Inspired by Paul McCartney and Paul Rodgers, he legally changed his name to Paul Stanley. Kiss released their self-titled debut album in February 1974.Īt this point, Stanley had the idea of changing his name not only for marketing purposes but also the fact he had always hated his birth name. Ace Frehley won the group over with his playing, and was nearly a perfect fit to the group's sound. Soon after recruiting Criss, they held auditions for a lead guitarist, with Stanley placing an ad in the Village Voice. Wicked Lester fell apart and Stanley and Simmons answered Peter Criss's advertisement in Rolling Stone. The band recorded an album in 1972, but it was never officially released. Through a mutual friend of Gene Simmons, Stanley joined Simmons' band Wicked Lester in the early 1970s. Kiss īefore Kiss, Stanley was in a local band, Rainbow and was a member of Uncle Joe and Post War Baby Boom. Īll through his childhood Stanley had been recognized for his talent at graphic arts, so he attended the High School of Music & Art in New York City, graduating in 1970. He played tunes by Bob Dylan, the Byrds, the Lovin' Spoonful and more. Stanley received his first real guitar at age 13, an acoustic one that he would have preferred to be electric. television he was inspired by the performance aspect, which he thought was not out of his reach. He listened to a lot of doo-wop music, but when the Beatles and the Rolling Stones played on U.S. Stanley's family relocated to the Kew Gardens neighborhood in Queens in 1960. Stanley learned to sing harmony with his family, and he was given a child's guitar at age seven. His favorite musical artists included Eddie Cochran, Dion and the Belmonts, Jerry Lee Lewis and Little Richard. ĭespite his hearing problem, Stanley enjoyed listening to music, and he watched American Bandstand on television.
Attending PS 98, he was taunted by other children for his deformed ear. Stanley's right ear was misshapen from a birth defect called microtia until having reconstructive surgery at age 30 in 1982 he was unable to hear on that side, he found it difficult to determine the direction of a sound, and he could not understand speech in a noisy environment. His parents listened to classical music and light opera Stanley was greatly moved by Beethoven's works. Stanley was raised Jewish, although he did not consider his family very observant and did not celebrate his bar mitzvah.
Their mother came from a family that fled Nazi Germany to Amsterdam, Netherlands, and then to New York City. He was the second of two children his sister Julia was born two years earlier. and Broadway the Inwood neighborhood near Inwood Hill Park. Stanley Bert Eisen was born January 20, 1952, in upper Manhattan, New York City, near 211th St.