KISS' Paul Stanley Gets Soulful With New Project

When not conquering the rock and business worlds with the juggernaut that is Kiss, frontman Paul Stanley is a multi-faceted artist, both as a painter and now as the leader of Soul Station, a 13-piece revue that pays homage to the great soul songs of the past according to Stanley.

The group will play Los Angeles’ Sayers Club tonight (March 11) and, from there, Stanley has ambitious plans for Soul Station, including more dates, a TV special and possibly original material. I spoke with Stanley about the joy that he gets from Soul Station, where his love for the music originated and which soul legend he’d like to jam with the combo.

Steve Baltin: What made this the right time to bring the Soul Station back?

Paul Stanley: I’ve been busy doing Kiss. I’m fortunate enough to be in this Soul Station, where everybody really wants to prioritize and would rather do this than anything else. It’s just a matter of my schedule. We just cancelled four shows last month because I had a concussion. I got knocked out skiing, so with that said I couldn’t bear the thought of not doing a show in light of those cancellations. So I was at Sayers and I just said, “This is the perfect place.” So we’re doing this and we booked the Cayman Islands and flew down there and did a show.

Baltin: What are the plans for Soul Station?

Stanley: The idea really is at this point to either do a DVD/album or do a live special. So it’s really something that has to be seen to digest and understand because, quite honestly, some people’s first reaction when they hear I am doing Motown or Philly soul is incredulous. Before I ever heard Led Zeppelin or the Who I was lucky enough to go see Otis Redding, I saw John Lee Hooker. So that’s as much where I come from as anything. It’s kind of faulty reasoning to think that the music you play is a reflection of what you listen to and the fact is music is always more vibrant when the influences are more diverse.

Baltin: How does it feel to be able to go back and forth between the massive Kiss shows and the more intimate Soul Station gigs?

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