With KISS wrapping up the final shows of its End of the Road farewell tour earlier this month, one publication is paying homage to the group. A new article featuring current and former band members discusses the under appreciated guitar prowess of frontman Paul Stanley.
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Leading the tributes in Guitar Player is KISS co-founder and co-leader Gene Simmons, who insisted Stanley doesn’t receive “the respect and recognition he deserves” for his musical contributions to the band.
“When we first started the band in 1972, there was this sense that Paul and [original KISS lead guitarist] Ace [Frehley] would complement each other and try not to play in the same chord range,” Simmons explained to Guitar Player. “The result would be this big guitar sound with different voicings of the same chord. But clearly, a lot of that came from Paul.”
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The bassist added Stanley was adept at playing both rhythm and lead guitar, pointing out that his leads were an important element of such tunes as “A World Without Heroes,” “Detroit Rock City,” and “C’mon and Love Me.” He also credited Stanley with coming up with “the chordal intro” to the Simmons-penned song “Deuce.”
“Without those chords opening the song, it simply wouldn’t have the same impact,” Simmons maintained. “‘Deuce’ without Paul’s opening chords is more one-dimensional.”
Simmons also noted that Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page was one of Stanley’s main inspirations.
“Paul’s vibrato, when he bends a note, is overlooked for some reason,” he added. “But any good guitar player will tell you his vibrato is as sweet as honey.”
Frehley certainly has had his personal differences with Stanley throughout the years, but he had plenty of positive things to say about his former bandmate’s musical contributions to KISS.
“Paul’s a really good rhythm player, Gene’s an underrated bass player, and I was the icing on the cake,” Frehley noted, adding, “Paul and I had a strong chemistry together, which really worked well.”
He also gave kudos to Stanley’s lead guitar work, which he said was “simple, straight to the point and melodic.”
Original KISS drummer Peter Criss told Guitar Player the music Stanley helped create “speaks for itself.”
“Paul has always strived to be creative. He’s accomplished that,” Criss said. “His guitar playing is part of our creation of KISS, which has inspired many. That in itself is a great honor for him as a musician. … He’s touched people’s lives musically, in a good way.”
Current KISS lead guitarist Tommy Thayer, who joined the band in 2003, told Guitar Player that Stanley’s approach to playing his instrument is a major part of the group’s sound.
“It’s very rhythmic and very soulful, with a lot of feeling,” Thayer noted. “But his style is not a super-clean style; it’s kind of rough and loose and not a precise kind of approach. It’s a ‘feel’ thing, so it creates a certain kind of a sound when you put all the guitars together.”
Longtime and current KISS drummer Eric Singer compares Stanley’s guitar contributions to the band to what Keith Richards brings to The Rolling Stones.
“Some people play really tight and on the money, and others play with a looser, scrappier approach,” Singer explained. “And that scrappiness, that rawness, is what helps create a person’s style and feel. I’ve noticed when somebody else plays a KISS riff, they play it differently. … With Paul, since he wrote a lot of those riffs and those parts, it always sounds right. It’s his idea and his feel and interpretation of it, which makes it him.”
Other musicians who shared their feelings about Stanley’s musicianship with Guitar Player include ex-KISS guitarist Bruce Kulick, Aerosmith’s Joe Perry, Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello, Cheap Trick’s Rick Nielsen, and Def Leppard’s Phil Collen.
