During a new appearance on Tom Morello’s Maximum Firepower, KISS’ Paul Stanley revealed that he experienced an epiphany when he heard Ace Frehley playing for the KISS audition.
The original KISS lineup, including Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons, Ace Frehley, and Peter Criss, came together in 1973 and began to build the road to success. In the beginning, there were only Simmons and Stanley. They were searching for a new musical direction. Thus, they left their then-band, Wicked Lester, and decided to form a brand new group.
Later on, the two invited Peter Criss for an audition after being impressed by his playing in a nightclub. Criss became the third member to join KISS. Following Criss, Ace Frehley saw an advertisement for a lead guitarist and went to audition for the band. The KISS members liked what they heard from his playing, so the classic lineup was now together.
Tom Morello asked Paul Stanley about one of his top five moments in KISS during a recent conversation. The rocker stated that there were so many memorable moments, yet the first one that came to his mind was Ace Frehley’s first audition for the band. Stanley recalled when Frehley started playing, and he had an epiphany.
The musician was impressed a lot by his way of playing and immediately wanted him to be a part of the band. The singer liked the sound they all created at that moment and thought it was the perfect chemistry they were looking for from the start.
When asked about one of his top moments in KISS, Paul Stanley replied:
“There wouldn’t be a KISS had I not met Gene. So If we want to start there, we can; or we can start with the actual band. I remember, for example, Ace walking in for rehearsal for an audition. When he plugged in, there was suddenly this epiphany. I just went, ‘That’s it.’
There was a sound that may not have been the sound of a bunch of virtuosos. We were ‘virtunosos’ actually, but the sound we created, four of us together, was world-class and whatever way you would interpret that. It just sounded like ‘Okay, we’ve got it.'”
You can listen to the entire conversation below.
