You may have seen Paul Stanley’s iconic cracked mirror guitar during KISS shows, leading the audience to close their eyes when the light beams hit them. It turns out that the guitarist was inspired by another band while creating this design. Speaking to Florida’s 98.7 The Gator, Stanley told the story behind his guitar design and revealed his inspiration source.
“Yeah, and the cracked mirror came about in the 70s,” the KISS frontman said, confirming that the cracked mirror guitar is his design. “The first one was, I think, in 1977. I was a big fan of Slade; they did ‘Mama Weer All Crazee Now’ and ‘Cum On Feel the Noize.’ They were terrific. They actually did some shows with us in the early days, and they were massive in England. One of the things I was taken with was the lead singer, who was also the rhythm guitar player. So, there was an affinity for that connection.”
Recalling how Noddy Holder inspired him, Stanley continued, “He wore a top hat with round mirrors all around it, and when the spotlights hit it, it just sent these beams out. I went, ‘It’s so simple and so brilliant,’ and ‘What if we put cracked mirrors onto a guitar and angled them in different angles?’ I can light people in the back of an arena or a stadium, so it’s very cool. The original ones were glass mirrors, and they had a little bit of blood underneath because the edges weren’t always perfect. Now we use Plexiglas with the same look but much lighter.”
The singer was then asked when he had the guitar first. “I believe I first met with the people from Ibanez in 1976 in Tokyo,” Stanley responded. When the host told him he thought this guitar wasn’t actually a new one, Stanley revealed how old his design was. “This guitar, like many other things, starts off as something new,” he said, and added, “And if it stands the test of time, it becomes a classic. So, at this point, that guitar is almost 50 years old.”
So, Paul Stanley used cracked mirrors to design his own guitar and create the effect Noddy Holder did with his hat. Now, when he shreds riffs with his cracked mirror guitar, he can easily send light beams to the crowd in the back. Apparently, Stanley was a big fan of Slade, and he got the idea from Holder’s clever design.
