PAUL STANLEY Talks Art, Possibility Of Another KISS Studio Album

Celebrity Extra recently conducted an interview with KISS guitarist/vocalist Paul Stanley. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Celebrity Extra: I think it is going to come a surprise to a lot of your fans that you are such a great artist. You fairly recently started showing and selling your artwork to the public. What made you decide to share it with the masses?

Stanley: I've been doing it for quite a few years now. I started painting 10 years ago really as a way of finding another creative outlet. I'm always looking for another way to express myself, and that's how I attempted to find myself. So whether it was doing "Phantom of the Opera" or painting or doing what I do in KISS, they're all ways for me to emote stay creative. That's who I am, that's what's in my blood. I originally painted with no expectations of ever doing a show or of ever showing anybody my art. It came about because I hung the piece in my house, and people kept saying, "Who did that painting?" And funny because I wasn't very secure or confident in my ability, I never signed it. To this day that piece isn't signed, but it gave me food for thought, because people seem to connect so much with it that I got talked into doing a show. At this point I've been averaging probably anywhere from 12 to 15 shows a year around the county, and they've been amazingly successful in a way that quite honestly leaves me speechless.

Celebrity Extra: I know late last year KISS was touring in the U.S., and you begin touring in Europe in May. Is there a noticeable difference between the American KISS Army and the European fans?

Stanley: Interesting question. I have to say, worldwide it's very much the same. I really believe that KISS has transcended everything that is rock and roll in the sense that rock and roll tends to be music that's owned by a specific age group and to think of it as purely their music, when in fact with KISS, it's more of a tribal gathering. It's all ages and everybody feels a part of it because everybody believes in the same lifestyle and the same values — or lack of values. KISS transcends everything that other fans have to live within, and rightfully so.

Celebrity Extra: Fans were thrilled that you released "Sonic Boom" back in October. Am I jumping the gun, but can we expect another KISS album within the next few years?

Stanley: Making that album was so much fun, and it reinvigorated and restated everything that we are that yeah, I think that we'll see another album.

Celebrity Extra: Can you tell me about the experience of appearing on "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition"?

Stanley: It was terrific, because, basically, a lot of schools and the school system in general is losing all it's funding for music. It's really criminal because any scientific study has shown that programs in schools involving music only help with the academics and other forms of education. So the fact that they're pulling the plug on so much of the music education is something that's alarming. On that particular episode of "Extreme Makeover Home Edition", there was a family who basically were losing their house and they were big champions of music and music education and gave lessons. They had their home rebuilt, and through the Mr. Holland's Opus Foundation we gave a very, very handsome amount of instruments to a school that very much needed it.

Read the entire interview from Celebrity Extra.