PAUL STANLEY Deals With Birth Defect And Deafness In Upcoming Memoir

Although he swore he would never pen his memoirs, KISS' Paul Stanley will be the final member of the original lineup to publish his autobiography on April 22, 2014. Stanley promises that the book, titled "Face The Music: A Life Exposed", won't be the standard rock star fare, which doubles as being both an ego trip and press release highlighting a glorious career.

Stanley explained to The Pulse Of Radio that if his book was going to follow the pattern of some of the other books he's read, he would've passed on writing it all together. "I think I took a tact different than a lot of these books," he said. "Y'know, rock n' roll autobiographies tend to be a love letter — to the author. And they tend to be about how smart and creative and how this person was responsible for the creation of the world. And if that were the tact for the book, I never would've written the book."

In "Face The Music", Stanley talks frankly about his early struggles with hearing — he was born with Level 3 Microtia and is deaf in his right ear. Microtia is a congenital deformity of the cartilage of the outer ear that can affect normal hearing.

Stanley, who grew up half-deaf and scarred with a deformed right ear, explained to The Pulse Of Radio that by touching upon the more difficult episodes in his life, he's not seeking sympathy from the reader, but simply highlighting the path into who he became. "Y'know, my book is about my life starting from the very beginning and certainly a certain amount of adversity and having a birth defect and being deaf on one side and the family that I came from," he said. "Certainly people have had more adversity in their lives — and some less — but I, I would think some people would get a certain amount of inspiration and a sense that positivity and belief in yourself will ultimately lead you to a great place."

Microtia is a congenital deformity of the cartilage of the outer ear that can affect normal hearing.

There are four grades of Microtia, ranging from a small ear, to a complete absence of the external ear and ear canal.

The lack of ear canal leads to conductive hearing loss. Microtia occurs in every one out of 8,000 to 10,000 births.

It usually occurs on only one side (more commonly on the right side) and this can lead to single-sided deafness.

Original KISS drummer Peter Criss' memoir, "Makeup To Breakup: My Life In And Out Of Kiss", landed at position No. 7 on the New York Times "Hardcover Nonfiction" best-sellers list. The book arrived in October 2012 via the Simon & Schuster imprint Scribner.

Former KISS guitarist Ace Frehley's book, "No Regrets: A Rock 'N' Roll Memoir", debuted on the New York Times "Hardcover Nonfiction" best sellers list at No. 10. The book, which was described as a look back at Ace's "life of sex, drugs, and rock and roll," arrived on November 1, 2011 via Gallery Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster.