American musician Paul Stanley: biography, personal life, Kiss band, solo career

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Paul Stanley is the world famous rock guitarist, vocalist and musician of Kiss. The favorite of millions won the hearts of listeners with his talent for creating real rock masterpieces. How the musician achieved such tremendous success, we will tell in our article.

Childhood and adolescence

Paul Stanley (Stanley Harvey Eisen) was born on January 20, 1952 in New York City. The boy grew up in Upper Manhattan. It should be noted that Paul's Jewish family was the only one in the quarter. Mostly immigrants from Hungary, Ireland and Germany lived here.

Paul is not the only child in the family. His sister Julia is 2 years older than his brother. In 1960, when Aizen Jr. was 8 years old, the family decides to move to Queens (New York). It was in this place that Paul entered the Higher School of Music and Art, which he graduated with success in 1970. In the same year, Stanley takes the entrance exams to a college called Bronx Community College.

As the musician himself recalls, at that time the parents of his friends were preparing them for admission to legal andmedical colleges, and Stanley was filled with dreams of a future rock star. To earn money for his first guitar, Paul worked as a taxi driver for a local company. The boy often drove people to Madison Square Garden and secretly dreamed that someday he would perform on this great stage along with other world rock stars.

The beginning of a musical career

Stanley founded his first musical group at the age of 14. At that time, the boy did not yet have outstanding guitar playing skills, but the whole district already knew about Paul's amazing vocals. The inability to cope with musical instruments did not stop him from singing in a group called Incubus, which included two other guys of the same age - Matt Rel and Neil Teeman. For a year the trio existed in the same composition, but the leader of the group decided to change the name of the musical group. Now the guys were called Uncle Joe.

The young and promising band lacked only a bassist. But since it was quite difficult to find such a “virtuoso” in their area, the guys managed to survive as best they could.

The group lasted until 1970 and even left behind a demo song called Stop, Look And Listen, which was recorded on a regular household tape recorder.

After the collapse of the band, Paul was offered to participate in the Tree group, where the now famous US rock musicians Stephen Coronel, Marty Cohen and Stan Singer play with him.

The fateful meeting that determined the future of the musician

Meeting Gene Simmonsbecame fateful for the musician. As Paul Stanley later admitted, he did not immediately like Jean. He seemed to him too arrogant and spoiled. But later, Paul's opinion about the musician will quickly change. "You just need to get through his thick protective shell, which he put on himself, and then his real - kind essence will be revealed," Paul said in an interview about Gene.

Later, two friends decide to create a musical group that will later go down in rock history. Paul dominated the band, as he came up with the band's name, he worked on ideas for the show, and also looked for plots for creating songs.

Stanley got the most difficult job - wearing heels, making various tricks on stage, performing music and songs at the same time. Needless to say, Kiss listeners also indicated Paul's primacy in the group.

By the way, when asked by journalists why Stanley's makeup involves applying a star around the eye, the musician replied: "I have always dreamed of becoming a star, so I use it as the main makeup element."

Work outside the team

Paul Stanley (Kiss) rarely wrote music outside of the band. In 1987, his first solo album was released. The album is written in the style of Kiss. According to Paul, this record revealed his nature and showed the musician's subtle susceptibility to reality.

Unlike his friend Simmons, Stanley continued to look for new song ideas and keep the band alive untilJin was active in films and was looking for new talent on the side.

Paul knew that if he turned his back on the band and devoted himself entirely to his solo career, that would be the end of Kiss. And for him - the founder of this team - it was quite difficult to put up with this idea. That's why Paul tried his best not to step aside.

First tour

In 1989, Stanley went on his first tour, where he was supposed to perform only Kiss compositions. He assembled a musical group in a fairly short period of time (only 3 weeks). But that didn't stop him from making a lasting impression on his listeners. The band consisted of guitarist Bob Kulick and drummer Eric Singer, who later joined Kiss.

It is worth saying that, despite the fact that his group was a dizzying success, Paul Stanley still continued to play in the band and create songs for him. The compositions that the musician wrote for his solo album were later included in the Kiss compilation. Thus, Paul showed true love for his creation, while Simmons completely retired.

A few years later, Stanley is preparing to release his second record called Live to Win. It is worth noting that the title of the first song from the album is mentioned in an episode of the animated series South Park.

In 2006, Paul went on tour to support the released album Live to Win. The band then consisted of keyboardist Paul Mirkovich, guitarist Jim McGorman, lead guitarist Rafael Moreira, drummer NateMorton and bass player Sasha Krivtsov.

Paul Stanley (height 183 cm) continued to tour with the team until 2007. Along the way, the team "dropped in" to Australia (Melbourne, Adelaide, Sydney, Newcastle, Wollongong, Cullangatt).

It should be noted that portions of the concerts were filmed for the production of Paul Stanley's documentary Live to Dream. And the band's performance in 2008 was recorded on tape and subsequently released on DVD.

Paul Stanley's Parallel Projects

Besides Kiss (band), Stanley is involved in other projects as well. They included a 1989 soundtrack recording for a tape called Shocker (directed by Wace Craven). The composition was written by Stanley's colleagues Jean Beauvoir and Desmond Child. It was performed by a band calling themselves The Dudes Of Wrath.

In 1999, Paul was offered a role in the musical The Phantom of the Opera in Toronto. He got the performance of the Ghost.

In 2005, it became known that Stanley showed his artistic abilities. He sold his paintings at exhibitions. As it turned out, he was inspired to create on canvas by the desire to recover after a divorce.

It is also noteworthy that in 2008 Sarah Brightman invited Paul to perform a joint composition called I Will Be with You, which was included in the artist's album Symphony.

It is also curious that on February 19, 2009, Stanley writes two compositions for the Russian band from St. Petersburg Pushking. Both were included in the record of a well-known rock band in Russia. The record saw the light of day 28February 2011 and is called The World As We Love It. The album also includes songs recorded by the band's leader Konstantin Shustarev with other world rock artists.

In 2014 Paul Stanley's autobiography Face The Music: A Life Exposed is released. It should be noted that the book in the future took second place in the list of world bestsellers The New York Times.

Awards and achievements of the musician

In 2006, Paul was inducted into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame. In 2008, the musician was awarded the title of "showman of the year". Awarded by Classic Rock.

Not to be overlooked is the fact that in 2009 Stanley won the Telly Awards for his solo DVD One Live Kiss.

Paul Stanley's personal life

In 1992, Paul marries the beautiful Pamela Bowen, who gives the musician a son, Evan. This couple separated in 1994. Pamela filed for divorce, tired of her husband's constant touring and the abundant attention of numerous fans.

In 2005, Stanley marries Erin Sutton. The wedding took place in Pasadena, California.

A year later, the wife made Paul happy and gave birth to his son Colin, and 4 years later the second child appeared in the family - a girl, Sarah. Stanley became a dad again in 2001. Erin gave him a daughter, Emily.

Interesting facts

Few people know that Paul Stanley in his youth was afraid of the public and the stage. Before each of his concerts, the musician was very worried, but after a few minutes he calmed down, because he felt the love and support of the audience.

It's also interesting that Paul Stanley ("Kiss") can't hear in one ear. As the musician admitted, this does not prevent him from writing songs and making music. As you know, he has been partially deaf since birth.

Operation

In 2004, when Kiss (the band) was on tour, the fans heard the bad news that Stanley needed urgent surgery. The reason was problems with the rib, which the famous musician had for a long time.

Doctors said that Paul would need at least a replacement joint with an artificial one. The first surgical intervention took place in 2004 (in October), after which serious complications followed. It took another operation, which was quite successful.

Paul's fans no longer hoped to see him on stage, but after 2 years Stanley was seen again at the next concert. The musician performed in the same form and with the same fantastic mobility.

Paul Stanley, whose quotes are known all over the world, is still the idol of millions of viewers. Unfortunately, while he is in no hurry to please us with his new compositions. We hope to hear more rock hits from him in the near future.