Paul Stanley
Paul Stanley (born Stanley Bert Eisen; January 20, 1952) is an American musician who is the co-founder, frontman, rhythm guitarist and co-lead vocalist of the rock band Kiss. He is the writer or co-writer of many of the band's most popular songs. Stanley established The Starchild character for his Kiss persona. In 2006, "Hit Parader" ranked him 18th on their list of the Top 100 Metal Vocalists of All Time. A Gibson.com readers' poll in 2010 named him 13th on their list of Top 25 Frontmen. Early life. Stanley Bert Eisen was born January  20, 1952, in upper Manhattan, New York City, near 211th St. and Broadway; the Inwood neighborhood near Inwood Hill Park. Both of his parents are Jewish. He was the second of two children; his sister Julia was born two years earlier. Their mother came from a family that fled Nazi Germany to Amsterdam, Netherlands, and then to New York City. His father's parents were from Poland. Stanley was raised Jewish, although he did not consider his family very observant and did not celebrate his bar mitzvah. His parents listened to classical music and light opera; Stanley was greatly moved  by Beethoven's works. Stanley's right ear was misshapen from a birth defect called microtia until having reconstructive surgery at age 30 in 1982; he was unable to hear on that side, he found it difficult to determine the direction of a sound, and he could not understand speech in a noisy environment. Attending PS 98, he was taunted by other children for his deformed ear. Despite his hearing problem, Stanley enjoyed listening to music, and he watched "American Bandstand" on television. His favorite musical artists included Eddie Cochran, Dion and the Belmonts, Jerry Lee Lewis and Little Richard . Stanley learned to sing harmony with his family, and he was given a child's guitar at age seven. Stanley's family relocated to the Kew Gardens neighborhood in Queens in 1960. He listened to a lot of doo-wop music, but when the Beatles and the Rolling Stones played on U.S. television he was inspired by the performance aspect, which he thought was not out of his reach. Stanley received his first real guitar at age 13, an acoustic one that he would have preferred to be electric. He played tunes by Bob Dylan, the Byrds, the Lovin' Spoonful  and more. All through his childhood Stanley had been recognized for his talent at graphic arts, so he attended the High School of Music & Art in New York City, graduating in 1970. Kiss. Before Kiss, Stanley was in a local band, Rainbow and was a member of Uncle Joe and Post War Baby Boom. Through a mutual friend of Gene Simmons, Stanley joined Simmons' band Wicked Lester in the early 1970s. The band recorded an album in 1972, but it was never officially released. Wicked Lester fell apart and Stanley and Simmons answered Peter Criss's advertisement in "Rolling Stone . Soon after recruiting Criss, they held auditions for a lead guitarist, with Stanley placing an ad in the Village Voice". Ace Frehley won the group over with his playing, and was nearly a perfect fit to the group's sound. Kiss released their self-titled debut album in February 1974. At this point, Stanley had the idea of changing his name not only for marketing purposes but also the fact he had always hated his birth name. Inspired by Paul McCartney and Paul Rodgers, he legally changed his name to Paul Stanley. Stanley's persona in Kiss is "the Starchild  displaying one star over his right eye. For a brief time, Stanley tried out a new character the Bandit", with a "Lone Ranger" style mask design make-up pattern. This make-up design was used during a few 1973–74 shows and photo-shoots, some of which he was photographed with both designs in the same session. "I even tried painting my face all red," he admitted. "I looked like a longhaired tomato! Before settling on the star, I'd just paint a black ring around my eye… Each of us wears something that reflects who we are. I always loved  stars and always identified with them – so, when it came time to put something on my face, I knew it would be a star." In his book "Sex Money Kiss", Gene Simmons says Stanley was the driving force for KISS during the period in the 1980s when the band performed without makeup. Those years, Stanley noted, "were fine for me. I found them very satisfying because I got a chance to be out there without makeup, which I craved at that point. I think it was easier for me "[than Simmons]" because my persona was one that wasn't really  defined by the makeup… The makeup was just reinforcing what you were seeing and who I was." In 2007, Stanley was hospitalized with tachycardia. In his absence, Kiss performed live as a trio for the first time in decades. The concert was the first Kiss performance Stanley missed. Solo career. Stanley released a solo album "Paul Stanley" as part of the four simultaneously released Kiss solo albums, but he has rarely recorded or performed outside of Kiss. He wrote and recorded material for another album in 1987–88, but it was shelved in favor of the Kiss compilation "Smashes, Thrashes & Hits . While never officially released, songs such as Don't Let Go" and "When Two Hearts Collide" have circulated as bootleg recordings. One song from the project, "Time Traveler", was released as part of Kiss' 2001 box set. In 1989, Stanley embarked on a brief club tour. His touring band included guitarist Bob Kulick and future Kiss drummer Eric Singer. The same year, Stanley sang lead on the title track for the soundtrack of the Wes Craven horror film "Shocker". Twenty-eight years after releasing his first solo album, Stanley released a second album, "Live to Win", on October 24, 2006 . Its title song "Live to Win" appears in the "South Park" episode "Make Love, Not Warcraft". In October and November 2006, Stanley embarked on a theater tour in support of "Live to Win". His touring band was the house band from the CBS TV show "Rock Star", composed of Paul Mirkovich (keyboards), Jim McGorman (guitar), Rafael Moreira (lead guitar), Nate Morton (drums), and Sasha Krivtsov (bass). In April 2007, Stanley extended the tour to include Australia, playing in Coolangatta, Wollongong, Newcastle, Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and Adelaide. Portions of the tour were filmed for a documentary titled "Paul Stanley: Live to  Dream" by the Chicago-based Film Foetus. The band's performance at the House of Blues in Chicago was captured on film and released in 2008 on DVD and digital audio download formats as "One Live Kiss". In 2008, Stanley sang a duet with Sarah Brightman, "I Will Be with You", on her "Symphony" album. In 2016, he guested in Ace Frehley's covers album "Origins, Vol. 1", singing "Fire and Water" by Free. Vocals. Possessing a tenor vocal range, Stanley tends to sing in the high registers and is known for his falsetto. Other projects. In 1999, Stanley starred  in a Toronto production of "The Phantom of the Opera", in which he played the role of the Phantom. He appeared in the musical from May 25 to August 1, and again that year from September 30 to October 31, 1999, closing the show's ten-year run in Toronto. Stanley made his debut as a painter in 2006, exhibiting and selling original works of art. Stanley collaborated with Boston-based power pop group Click Five on their hit single, "Angel To You (Devil To Me)". Stanley produced a debut album for the band New England. Their first single from  that album in 1978 "Don't Ever Wanna Lose Ya" reached the Top 40 in 1979. In 2012, Stanley partnered with Gene Simmons and three other investors to form the restaurant franchise Rock & Brews. On August 15, 2013, Stanley, Gene Simmons and manager Doc McGhee became a part of the ownership group that created the L.A. Kiss Arena Football League team, which plays their home games at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California. The team folded in 2016. In April 2014, Stanley published his memoir, "Face the Music: A Life Exposed" (). In the memoir, Stanley, who is Jewish, accused former  bandmates Ace Frehley and Peter Criss of antisemitism. An unreleased song written by Stanley along with Jean Beauvoir, titled "Like a Bee to the Honey", was recorded and released by the Finnish hard rock band Lordi for their album, "Killection". Personal life. In 2001, Stanley's first wife, actress Pamela Bowen, filed for divorce after nine years of marriage. They have one son, born in June 1994. On November 19, 2005, Stanley married longtime girlfriend Erin Sutton at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Pasadena, California. A son was born in September 2006, and a daughter was born in January 2009 . They had another daughter in August 2011. In 1982, after he turned 30 years old, Stanley had reconstructive surgery for his right ear done by Frederic Rueckert, who had been performing the procedure primarily on children. The new ear was formed from cartilage from one of the singer's ribs, with skin grafts put over it. Stanley said the surgery had given him "a new lease on life" and was so grateful to Rueckert that he gave the doctor a Rolex watch upon his retirement. Because of his birth defect of microtia, Stanley is an ambassador for the charitable organization  AboutFace, an organization that provides support and information to people with facial differences. He has appeared at fundraising events and in videos to raise awareness. Stanley has had two hip-replacement surgeries: one after the "Rock the Nation" tour in October 2004, and a second in December 2004 after complications arose from the first surgery. He had announced in 2005 that he will require a third hip surgery in the future. He regards the degeneration of his left hip as partly the product of thousands of shows performed in platform boots since the early 1970s. In October 2011, Stanley had  surgery on his vocal cords. He said, "I hold myself to a higher standard than others do. With that in mind, I wanted to remedy a few minor issues that come with 40 years of preaching rock 'n' roll."