In addition to playing with KISS, they are both members of the 13-person strong soul collective Soul Station. Now, 29 years after they started playing together, Stanley and Singer are still at it. “What year did you meet him?” asks Singer to Stanley who replies: “Well, I was 17.” “On that fateful day,” comments Singer before Stanley adds, tongue-in-cheek, “That day that will live in infamy.” Eric Singer in Tokyo in January 2018.
“With Gene it is about 49 years,” says Stanley. “Other than Gene and Paul, my time in KISS has been the longest of anybody.” But Stanley’s working relationship with KISS co-founder Gene Simmons beats the relationship with Singer by about two decades. This was early, like January of ’89 when that happened.” Eric Singer is now well established in KISS where he replaced Eric Carr who died of cancer. “Amazing!” says Paul Stanley before Singer continues: “I remember it like it was yesterday. He told me you’re playing drums in his solo band.’ That’s how I found out.” ‘I just saw Paul Stanley at the China Club.
He goes: ‘I heard you’re playing in Paul Stanley’s solo band.’ I go: ‘What!?’ Nobody had told me anything. They were doing overdubs and Jason Flom, the A&R guy who had signed us, shows up in the studio very late at night, about midnight. That night I was going to the Record Plant. I remember I brought him a couple of Black Sabbath albums and some stuff I had played on. I walked around the corner and went to meet Paul in his office. Literally my hotel was one block around the corner from the KISS office. He called and said: ‘Can you come over and meet Paul?’ It goes to show you how fate works. I got a call from Paul’s office, from Derek Simon. He’s done for like a few months’ So, I think he recommended me as well as some other people. He went to the office one day and he said: ‘Hey, what’s Eric doing? Paul Stanley needs a drummer.’ ‘He just finished his tracks. And the bass player Dennis St James, who was playing bass with Paul, he was managed by the same management people. Roppongi Rocks Stefan Nilsson centre) with Eric Singer and Paul Stanley of KISS in Tokyo in January 2018. The now nearly three-decade long partnership started when the former Black Sabbath and Lita Ford drummer Singer was in the band Badlands in the late 80s (which also featured Ozzy Osbourne guitarist Jake E Lee and Singer’s former Black Sabbath colleague Ray Gillen). Prior to Eric Singer joining Paul Stanley in KISS in 1991 he played in Stanley’s solo band in 1989 and now they are also playing together in Soul Station. It almost looks like Basquiat,” says Paul Stanley, who is also a painter, of my original hand-painted art t-shirt by Aussie artist James “The Walking Creative” Smith), but we soon focus the conversation on music. We kick off our meeting in Tokyo the evening before they start a 12-gig residency at Billboard Live in Tokyo and Osaka with their Soul Station band by chitchatting about timepieces (”I like your watch,” says Eric Singer who in 2015 was elected to the jury of watchmaking’s highest awards, the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève) and modern art (“Kind of Basquiatish. Thus, here we have a combination of the music of my youth and the music of their youth. The reason for our conversation this evening in Tokyo is that Paul Stanley and his KISS colleague and former Black Sabbath drummer Eric Singer, with their current side project Soul Station, are revisiting the soul music of their youth. Sitting down to talk with people who essentially wrote and performed the soundtrack to one’s youth is both exciting and scary at the same time. KISS legends Paul Stanley and Eric Singer recently sat down with Roppongi Rocks’ Stefan Nilsson in Tokyo to talk about their nearly three decades of playing together, their love for Motown and Philly soul and much more. © 2019 Minnesota Vikings Football, LLC, All Rights Reserved.Eric Singer and Paul Stanley in Tokyo in January 2018.
0 kommentar(er)
