{"id":115732,"date":"2025-08-03T13:47:19","date_gmt":"2025-08-03T13:47:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/115732\/"},"modified":"2025-08-03T13:47:19","modified_gmt":"2025-08-03T13:47:19","slug":"paul-stanley-looks-back-at-the-rude-interview-moment-that-unmasked-kiss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/115732\/","title":{"rendered":"Paul Stanley Looks Back at the Rude Interview Moment That Unmasked KISS"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a recent episode of Billy Corgan\u2019s The Magnificent Ones podcast, the Smashing Pumpkins frontman spoke with KISS<\/a>\u2019 Paul Stanley about the heyday of the band. For those who were around to see it live in action, the rock band famously opted not to don their signature face paint and costumes that they had become known for. That moment took place in 1983. The band stuck to avoiding their signature costumes and \u201clook\u201d for over a decade.<\/p>\n

KISS eventually went back to the fantastical characters and aesthetics they were known for in 1996. And even Stanley himself said that the era was pretty subpar. And not just because of the lack of flashy costumes, either. Though, we did get \u201cCrazy Crazy Nights\u201d for that particular era.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That being said, to avoid their signature aesthetics for over 13 years is quite a big change. And according to Stanley, a bullying interaction during a press interview led to the choice to go normie-mode.<\/p>\n

Paul Stanley Said That Some People Were \u201cAngered\u201d by KISS\u2019 Success<\/p>\n

Even before the infamous interview took place, Paul Stanley admitted that KISS\u2019 outfits \u201cgot ridiculous.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe looked like we got dressed in the dark in a costume store!\u201d Stanley told Corgan on The Magnificent Ones. \u201c\u2018What do you think of my feather earrings?\u2019 \u2018Oh, good \u2013 goes with your eye makeup!\u2019 But it was a way for us to continue, I wanted the band to continue. Nobody can tell me when this band is over.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stanley went on to say that interviews with music journalists toward the end of their initial costumed era had taken a sinister turn.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did do interviews with journalists towards the end of the makeup period, where there could be such vitriol [because] somebody has joy in making you squirm,\u201d said Stanley.<\/p>\n

He went on to note that he believed people were \u201cangered\u201d by \u201chow long [KISS] had succeeded.\u201d And it all culminated in an interview that Stanley described as a \u201cdeath knell.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2019How does it feel to be on the Titanic?\u2019\u201d Stanley recalled the interviewer saying, likely alluding that KISS was a sinking ship. \u201cIt was kind of like, \u2018I\u2019m a human being. How, how could you say that?\u2019 And all I could think was, \u2018Nobody\u2019s going to tell me when this ends. And watch this.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The band changed their look, and that era yielded some excellent songs and some bad moments. But KISS was far from over in the early 1990s, and they thrived for several more decades. It looks like Stanley had the last laugh.<\/p>\n

Photo by Ron Wolfson\/Michael Ochs Archives\/Getty Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a recent episode of Billy Corgan\u2019s The Magnificent Ones podcast, the Smashing Pumpkins frontman spoke with KISS\u2019…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":115733,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[185,171,11756,72611,4185,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-115732","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-kiss","11":"tag-paul-stanley","12":"tag-rock-music","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114965148033815165","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115732"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115732\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/115733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}