Excerpt from Paul's new interview in "Guitar World":

As far as navigating the icebergs, as KISS' popularity declined, it was your idea, in 1983, to take off the makeup in order to reinvigorate interest in the band.
Paul Stanley: I didn't see any other choice at that point. And I take my hat off to Gene that, although he was uncertain about it and maybe less comfortable with it, he came to realize that it was the right move. Or at least he saw that I was very committed to the idea. I felt that we had diluted everything the band was to the point where it was becoming a farce. What happened was, we kicked Peter out of the band -- "we" meaning Ace, Gene and myself. But rather than saying, "We've built these iconic figures together and we're going on to continue on with what we build,t' we bought into the idea of, "We have to have a new character." That watered it down. Some people may argue with me, but I feel that Batman is Batman whether he's played by George Clooney, Christian Bale, Val Kilmer and on and on.

So are you saying that when Eric Carr replaced Peter and Vinnie Vincent replaced Ace, you feel they should have come into the band as the Catman and the Spaceman, respectively?
PS: Absolutely.

Was there ever talk of doing that?
PS: No. Never. So to suddenly have the Fox, who takes the place of the Cat, and the Ankh, who takes the place of the Spaceman...it just din't hold. And then couple that with the music we were making, which was marginal at best. Although we were giving 100 percent, when you're more involved with who you're hanging out with and the social drama that you;re in, you wind up gumming things. Your teeth don't bite anymore.

Where do you feel that things got back on track for the band?
PS: "Creatures Of The Night." I wanted us to take the makeup off for that record. But we missed the opportunity, and it was met with a tepid response. But by "Lick It Up" Gene was willing to do it. And coincidentally tha talcum sold, I don't know, seven times what [Creatures] did.

"felt that we had diluted everything the band was to the point where it was becoming a farce"

Funny he says that NOW about what happend THEN............the irony.............

Give us a break Paul. What's happening now is a farce.

Let's not forget that Ace and Peter still owned their makeup so you HAD to have new characters, plus it made sense. It is what the public wanted, at least when Eric replaced Peter.

thattimeofyear87 wrote:
So are you saying that when Eric Carr replaced Peter and Vinnie Vincent replaced Ace, you feel they should have come into the band as the Catman and the Spaceman, respectively?
PS: Absolutely.

That is such a ridiculous statement. I respected the fact that they created new identities and alter-egos for Eric and Vinnie. I think Peter and Ace had much more power back then to shut them down if they would have even considered doing that.

dega wrote:

thattimeofyear87 wrote:
So are you saying that when Eric Carr replaced Peter and Vinnie Vincent replaced Ace, you feel they should have come into the band as the Catman and the Spaceman, respectively?
PS: Absolutely.

That is such a ridiculous statement. I respected the fact that they created new identities and alter-egos for Eric and Vinnie. I think Peter and Ace had much more power back then to shut them down if they would have even considered doing that.

The POWER was that Ace and Peter still owned their makeup at that point.
Stupidly selling it years later because they thought it was worthless .
I believe that Ace may still own a percentage in his design.

Genebaby wrote:Give us a break Paul. What's happening now is a farce.

Let's not forget that Ace and Peter still owned their makeup so you HAD to have new characters, plus it made sense. It is what the public wanted, at least when Eric replaced Peter.

100% correctamundo Vic. I loved it when the new characters came on board. It made me more passionate about KISS cause I had a feeling these New Guns where guns. I was only young when I saw the Fox being introduced to the world, pretty much when they announced the Australian tour. I was over the moon when I saw that TV week Giant fold out (which I still have)

of the NEW!!! KISS LINEUP. Eric was behind that double bass kick kit & it looked beyond awesome. Even though I was young I knew this was the future of how drum kits would look like. (little did I know Ron Tutt & Larrie Londin of 'Taking Care of Business' , Elvis Presley’s band were doing this since 1969.) )
Then when I saw this other new guy, 'this psycho, no holds barred , take no prisoners pyro-Messiah, guitarist Vinnie Vincent (who had this freaky V shaped guitar I'd never seen b4 & had this 'thing' mounted on it that he'd pull on like a mad man & it would make all the strings bend in unison) had joined KISS, which made me even more of a hard core fan. (At a time in Australia that it made you an instant outcast to be a KISS fan. And being a teen it wasn't much fun.....more on that another day)

I agree totally with you Vic....what KISS are doing now is a farce. It makes a lot more sense that each new band member introduced (in make-up) should be their own character. It makes NO sense that someone like Vinnie would come into the band wearing Ace's make-up and playing like the demon he was with a killer V shaped guitar.

Now that KISS is more tribute band than anything else, Tommy is essentially a 'tribute' to Ace, as Eric is to Peter.

Eric Carr on the other hand payed (and played) no such homage to Peter and rightfully did so. Long Live the Fox.

TheGoodDr wrote: Long Live the Fox.

Amen brother!

I'm always on the fence.. as much as I LOVE the Fox and Ankh, it would've made more sense for Carr and VV to wear the old makeup. It does start getting a little silly introducing a new character EVERY time a new member joins.

At the same time, it'd be really fukn cool to see Singer as the Hawk and maybe Thayer as the Bandit.

Once they painted themselves into a corner with new characters in the 80's, it made it harder for fans to accept new guys in the old makeup today. But of course Gene and Paul had no choice back then since Peter and Ace owned the designs.

There's no doubt the makeup is a integral ingredient when it comes to KISS. However, Paul Stanley, of all members, is one to always tote how important the actual music is. Without the music, KISS would be like [cue standard Paul Stanley cliche] a car without an engine.

On that note, who actually really cares about the makeup that Vinnie and/or Eric should have worn in 1982? How about focusing on the music that lineup produced? The music produced by that quartet was lethal. Exhibits A and B: "Creatures Of The Night" and "Lick It Up." Period. End of story.

That's what matters some 30-plus years later.

(And I happen to like the Ankh and Fox makeup. It's still KISS to me.)