“Perfection, that's not what I consider music,” the KISS lead vocalist told PEOPLE
Patrick T. Fallon / AFP via Getty; Michael Putland/Getty
NEED TO KNOW
- Paul Stanley attended Clive Davis’ pre-Grammys party with his wife, Erin Sutton Stanley, on Jan. 31
- Speaking exclusively to PEOPLE, he revealed what he hopes to see from the next generation of rockers
- “Perfection, that’s not what I consider music,” said the lead vocalist and guitarist of KISS
Paul Stanley has high hopes for the next generation of rockers.
While attending Clive Davis’ pre-Grammys party on Jan. 31 alongside his wife of 20 years, Erin Sutton Stanley, the KISS lead vocalist and guitarist, 74, revealed what he hopes future musicians will embrace throughout their journey.
“I'd like to see people playing instruments,” Stanley exclusively told PEOPLE. “I'd like to see people relying less on computers and technology and relying more on passion.”
“Perfection, that's not what I consider music,” he added. “Music is passion.”
Gilbert Flores/Billboard via Getty
While KISS has undoubtedly been known for its flamboyant theatricality and elaborate costumes, Stanley previously admitted that some of the band’s rarities are no longer “age appropriate.”
"It’s really funny because some of those songs, some of our songs are not really age-appropriate anymore," he explained during the November KISS Kruise in Las Vegas. "I couldn't imagine writing a song today."
Indeed, Stanley went on to point out a few questionable lyrics from the 1976 song, “Take Me.”
"Put your hand in my pocket / Grab onto my rocket,” the lyrics state, to which the musician quipped, "Nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there.”
As for whether he would do anything differently if given that chance to restart his career? Rather than changing anything about the music itself, Stanley expressed that he would’ve focused more on his relationship with his bandmates.
"If I have any regrets, my hand to God, it's that I sometimes — and I think we all go through this sometimes — wish we were smarter and better at trying to help Ace [Frehley] and Peter [Criss] have better lives," he said at the time.
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
Michael Ochs Archives/Getty
Echoing his sentiment, Gene Simmons explained that he and his bandmates were often “guilty” of neglecting important conversations to avoid arguments.
"Let's just continue doing the tour because you want to get through it for selfish reasons because it's working, and the chicks, and the money, and you don't want to ruin anything," said Simmons. "Meantime, somebody who might be your brother is ruining their life by bad decisions."
Back in June, Stanley recalled being “really miserable” during the band’s 2000-2001 tour, which was meant to be their farewell tour until they ultimately reunited for the End of the Road World Tour in 2019.
"The music was erratic at best,” he recalled during an episode of The Magnificent Others with Bill Corgan. “Some nights [were] awful, there was no sense of camaraderie or joy in what we were doing."
"It's different when you go, 'They have their heads up their asses' or they want to attack what you're doing, but when you read things and go, 'This is right and I'm really unhappy,' " he added of the bad reviews they were receiving at the time. "So it really felt like let's put the horse down, let's just shoot it. It went against everything that we had always believed and that's that the band is bigger than us."
Read the full article here
