Did you know that success can sometimes lead to complacency? Well, that’s precisely what happened to KISS, according to the band’s co-founder and frontman, Paul Stanley. In a recent interview with Radioacktiva, Stanley admitted that the band’s success in the ’80s made them a bit lazy.
KISS produced a slew of albums in the 1980s, including ‘Creatures of the Night,’ ‘Lick It Up,’ ‘Animalize,’ ‘Asylum,’ ‘Crazy Nights,’ and ‘Hot in the Shade.’ The decade marked a shift in the band’s music style, as they experimented with different sounds and tried to adapt to the changing music landscape. The glam metal and hard rock of the ’70s had given way to more polished and radio-friendly tunes, and KISS was no exception.
Stanley revealed in the interview that among these albums, he considered ‘Creatures of the Night‘ to be his favorite. He went on to explain that the album was a turning point for the band, as it forced them to reassess their direction and get back to their roots. At the time, the band had become too comfortable in their success, and it was this realization that prompted a wake-up call.
This wake-up call came in the form of ‘Creatures of the Night,’ an album that allowed KISS to reconnect with the music they truly loved. Stanley believes that this album signaled the beginning of a new era for the band. He also acknowledged that while some fans might not have been as thrilled about KISS’s ’80s output, the decade was still an essential period of growth and change. Stanley praised the other albums from the era, ‘Animalize,’ ‘Lick It Up,’ and ‘Crazy Nights,’ noting that each had its standout moments.
When asked about his favorite KISS album from the ’80s, Stanley replied:
“From the ’80s… Well, I would say ‘Creatures’ because ‘Creatures’ was really an important album for us to try to get back to where we belong because I think we were wandering and I think that success had made us lazy. ‘Creatures’ was a wake-up for us to make an album that was purely what we love, and that was the start of a new era for us.
There were great moments on many of the albums; ‘Animalize,’ ‘Lick It Up,’ and ‘Crazy Nights.’ There are good things about each one of them. So the ’80s, although for some people it wasn’t as exciting as us in our full gear, full makeup, it was a time of trying to survive doing something very different than we had.”
So, there you have it – even legendary rockers like KISS aren’t immune to the pitfalls of success. The ’80s may not have been their most iconic period, but it was a time of self-discovery and reinvention. The band’s willingness to recognize their complacency and fight to get back on track is just one more reason KISS remains a force to be reckoned with in the world of rock ‘n’ roll.
