PAUL STANLEY Still Slamming ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME

Just because KISS will finally be inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame next month doesn't mean that Paul Stanley isn't still offended that the band had to wait a humiliating 14 years to gain entry. According to The Pulse Of Radio, Stanley, who'll be inducted with Gene Simmons and estranged guitarist Ace Frehley and drummer Peter Criss, told the Associated Press that he's upset that only the band's co-founders and not current and other key members of KISS will be getting the nod on April 10, explaining, "In the GRATEFUL DEAD's case, (they) also inducted a writer who never played an instrument. Or they've inducted rap artists, or they've inducted people who have been in the band for seven years as opposed to. . . 25 years or 20 years — whatever their criteria of this week is."

Frehley left KISS after the band's 2002 "Farewell Tour" dates, saying afterwards that he took the word "farewell" seriously. Peter Criss has claimed that his contract with KISS wasn't renewed in March 2004. Both charges have been disputed by Stanley and Simmons.

Paul Stanley says that the powers that be at the Rock Hall "tried to strong-arm us into playing in original lineup… Their craving of nostalgia or for wanting to have us play by their rules in many ways jeopardizes what we have spent 40 years building.

"I've been there since the beginning, and when I put on my KISS gear, I do it with great pride, and anything that may jeopardize that by going out with a lineup that I might question is a nonstarter for me."

Stanley went on to explain why current KISS members — guitarist Tommy Thayer and drummer Eric Singer, both of whom dress as Criss and Frehley's respective alter egos, "The Spaceman" and "The Catman" — should be inducted, saying that they "have been in the band for decades and played on multi-platinum albums and toured the world."

Stanley admitted to The Pulse Of Radio that his contempt for the Rock Hall — which is based on the Rock Hall's apparent contempt for KISS — has been brewing for quite some time now. “It starts decades ago, it starts years ago that it's 14 years on and we're getting into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame is a clear indication that the people who hide behind that moniker don't like us," he said. "And it clearly reached a point where it was so absurd and ludicrous that they caved. The part is, as I've said before that I'm most proud of, is the same criteria that kept us out is now getting us in — we didn't change. But, when I feel that we're being treated unfairly and that the rules, clearly, are no rules, 'cause they don't apply to everybody, and the criteria for how and who gets in based entirely on a personal like or dislike, I have issues with that."