Face the Music: A Life Exposed Hardcover – April 8, 2014

Like a lot of kids back in the mid to late 70s, I was a huge KISS fan and they were my very first concert experience in 1977. But, admittedly, I kind of 'grew out' of my KISS phase by high school as I discovered other groups and styles of music, and only listened to them on rare occasions in the ensuing years (although I still followed news reports about them). When they launched the first of their 'farewell tours' in the late 1990s, I caught one of their shows. I finally decided to buy Paul's book for a couple reasons, 1.) I'm on a kick lately reading a lot of band/musician biographies and autobiographies, especially of the music I grew up with, and 2.) I've always been curious to read a first-hand description of the origin of KISS. I went into this with moderate expectations and was pleasantly surprised by the book overall. Paul was honest, candid and thoroughly captivating. I learned a lot about him as a person and what motivated him to get into music, start the band KISS and to continue participating in it for the next four decades. It was kind of hard putting this book down to be perfectly honest. If you're a KISS fan, this is a great book. If you aren't, it's still a great book. I'm now listening to these guys again on Spotify, and am planning to see them on their next "final" tour in March, 2019.

I loved and hated this book. I loved it because I enjoyed the triumphs over his obstacles, and found it inspiring. BUT as a long time fan of KISS I found Paul Stanley a big disappointment as a human being. He basically starts the book by complaining about his parents and blaming them for his short comings, or for not being supportive. When he speaks of the early years of KISS it's clear he has a personal vendetta against drummer Peter Criss for whatever reason, in fact there is not one time he mentions Peter in a positive light. Every single time Peters name comes up it's to trash him. From Peters performance as a drummer, his singing, his lack of song writing skills, to his personal misgivings, to his "complaining" (and it seems Paul also does his fair share of whining here.) No I don't think Peter was the greatest rock and roll drummer there ever was, but lets face it not everyone in the 70s was Keith Moon, Neil Peart and John Bonham, but in his prime Peter held his own. Paul goes as far as to say he couldn't solo and he sounded like "Ricky Ricardo playing the bongos instead of a rock and roll drummer" Which I found amusing but also disheartening, Peters drum solos were probably the most memorable and energetic on any live album period. Yes he fell apart and stop caring in the late 70s but hey, give credit where credit is due. If he was such an awful drummer, person, and singer (yes he even said Peter couldn't sing) then why have him in the band to begin with?, and why wait so long to get rid of him? Later Paul tells a story how his first live in girlfriend was on drugs and he put her out on the street as soon he found out, which he seemed to be bragging about. Nice guy right? In his early days as a cab driver he also brags about stealing money from his job. Later in the book he finds out his father was in a loveless marriage with his mother and had a long term mistress, Paul basically s***s all over his dad for it... after writing through out the whole book about all the women he's slept with. I suppose in Paul's eyes his dad was only permitted one for his whole life. What makes all this so disappointing is that Paul is a grown man, he's not in his 20s where he can bitch and it's cool and rebellious, he's in his 60s, and to use his own words "complaining about winning the lottery and having to pay taxes" Rather than being forgiving and seeing the big picture, which is. "Hey my childhood was rough, but it made me who I am and I wouldn't change that for a thing." " Peter was great and did a lot for the band, including Beth, and some diversity in vocals, and maybe he wasn't the John Bonham I fantasized about playing with but he did some tasty drum lines and memorable solos, if only he weren't such a pain in the ass" ... He is more forgiving toward Ace, and it comes off more honest when he complains about him. He also bitches a lot about Gene trying to take credit for being the genius behind KISS and sets the record straight there. He even bitches about the late Eric Carr, which wasn't his first choice for replacing Peter. Toward the end of the book he comes around and tries to convince everyone what a great guy he is because he found love and has kids. What I did like about the book was he did show us a side to him which we don't often see. His ear deformity, growing up and while with the band, the fact that he had no friends, and that's why he worked so hard ( big surprise there, he still doesn't realize he was a selfish jerk.) So yeah Peter bitches about being ripped off and taken advantage of in his book, and Paul doesn't lead me to believe this wasn't the case. I suppose after reading all there bios (and Lydia's) I can see they all have different view points about how things went down, and why they did the things they did. But Paul and Gene walked away with KISS,A and all the money and glory that comes with it, to continue bitching about 2 guys that helped put, and keep them on the map is beyond me. KISS was on the verge of being a one hit wonder before "Beth" can you give Peter some credit for at the very least being the voice behind the song that saved your ass from obscurity? In the end it was still an interesting read, but also a turn off.

I bought the audible along with the book. I'm a lifelong KISS fan, and I really enjoyed hearing Paul, himself, read his book. It was very well done and he is a fascinating person to have gotten to know this way. I've always favored Paul, but now, I have a lot more to favor about him. Get it with the Audible - there is nothing like hearing a story told by the person who wrote and lived it.

Huge Kiss Fan Here. I ran across an interview paul did for this book on the Today Show. Paul came across the most authentic I have witnessed any member of Kiss so I purchased the book. Paul is a NYC kid like I was. I was pleasantly surprised to read about the many things we had in common. He even lived 3 blocks away from me at one point. Thanks for turning me onto The Move. GREAT BAND !The book tells the Kiss story and the Paul Story. I found it to be very informative and reflective of a life attained through hard work and determination, also of luck.Paul stresses the good and disregards the bad as un necessary. The Starchild has grown up.Thanks for the memories and the reminder to be yourself. Kiss was very instrumental to me in my youth. I will never forget the joy I got listening to them and staring at the album covers. My imaginary friends that inspired me when all felt wrong.Peace

It seems there are three types of Rock Star Biographies: "I survived but it ruined my life", "He died, this is how it ruined his life" and the rarest of all, "I survived and came out reasonably healthy and normal". This is one of the latter.Paul turns out, unsurprisingly, to be the intelligent, sensitive one. Don't expect minutiae about tours, equipment or particular songs and albums. Those stories are told in detail elsewhere. This is the well written and engaging story of Paul's overcoming a physical handicap (deafness and deformity of an ear) to become one of the biggest stars of the '70s. He holds back very few punches in exposing his take on his bandmates. Having read numerous books by and about KISS I believe I'm more inclined to believe Paul than the others.Those who aren't fans might be tempted to give this a miss, but if you have any interest in the story of the self described "Hottest Band In The World" told by one who was there, it's worth a read.

As Paul has always been my favourite member of KISS, I was very much looking forward this – especially about his childhood as Paul has always been very private. Growing up as a KISS fan, I had always thought Paul had low self-esteem and was hyper critical of himself; now we all know why. I’m very pleased he chose to share that with us. The early sections of the book were the most interesting. I have to say as the book went on, I found myself losing interest in the self-help preachy tone of the writing. Why am I not convinced that Paul is as happy and stable as he is trying to present himself? Could be because he spends the whole book telling us again and again how much he hated himself, and then all of a sudden all is rosy in the garden. Is Paul trying to convince us or him, he’s now a together individual who has found complete happiness? Saying that, he’s certainly the most together member of KISS out of the original four, but then again, that wouldn’t be too hard now would it?As a KISS fan of 23 years, it was interesting to read how carefully Paul discussed the death and replacement of Eric Carr with Eric Singer. Paul didn’t seem to quite understand why Eric would hang out with ordinary folk/woman that weren’t Playboy bunnies. This says a lot about Eric and something about Paul. There were always rumours that skulduggery was a foot and reading between the lines, I fear that could be correct. Paul does have regrets over the handling of this. I think Paul was choosing his words – this happens again when discussing the KISS conventions/unplugged/putting the make-up back on. Us long time KISS fans know the real reason for that: Money verses losing ground to Grunge and finding a way to play stadiums again. Plus Paul got taken to the cleaners in his first divorce.Ace and Peter come in for plenty of stick – mostly Peter. If Peter and Ace were that horrendous as musicians and people, why would anyone choose to have them in their band? Money. Despite Peter getting a right kicking again and again, he keeps being asked to play with the band. It comes across as hypocritical of Paul to go out to dinner/coffee with Peter, yet he does nothing but run the guy down.The part which really got my back up was Paul stating that thanks to him, KISS fans will have been exposed to musical theatre and the world art thanks to his paintings and his role as the Phantom of the Opera. Does he really think that KISS fans have just wandered down from the mountains and have no appreciation and knowledge of the arts and culture? Yes, there could be an irony in that.. . KISS aren’t exactly high culture. Paul certainly isn’t all that as a painter, but I’m not sure he knows that.To sum up, Paul is a nice guy albeit probably not in touch with the average person on the street that much. Is he the best guy to lead by example and teach all us lesser mortals how to be great? That’s up to you the reader to decide. I wonder if this book will appeal to American readers more than us Brits. I was a little Paul’d out by the time I finished it.

I read this and went straight back to the beginning and started again. Do I need to say more ! Well yes, I suppose I do. I need to say right now that I am a BIG fan of Paul, so I was prejudiced to begin with. He has always been so articulate that I hope these are really his words; I think they are. It is a very truthful book showing the good and bad times of his life, and because it is from his point of view you have to realise that other people may have different opinions about the situation. There are some random comments in places, but I think he wanted to get them in and there was no obvious place to put them. He's always looked driven and he was. I love him more than ever after reading this. He has an ' aura ' ; Gene agrees !

Firstly, i'd like to state that 3 stars is too harsh. I would choose 3.5 stars, yet that isn't an option when reviewing. 4 stars is a bit too generous, and i'll tell you why: While I was really looking forward to reading the book as Paul is my favourite Kiss member as well as one of my favourite singers/frontmen, I was put off slightly by the length of the book, in that it seemed too short. Given the fact he was over 60 when he wrote the book and Kiss was nearing it's 40th year as recording artists, the book didn't seem long enough to go into depth. The problem with the book lies with the fact it seems to be divided into 4 parts. The first part if Paul prior to 1975 and Alive! That part is great...interesting, witty, enlightening and the stories about him meeting the other members and seeing LA for the first time and enjoying the women were fantastic. Sadly, when you reach Alive and their big success, the 'platinum' years as I call them, from 1976 - 1979, was rather skipped over. He just didn't go into enough details, which is odd given the fact they released a ton of albums, toured like hell and actually made and had money, unlike the tough early years. Then part 3 focuses on the 1980's right up to the reunion in 1996. The details during those years are many, especially the non-makup decade. Sadly, once you hit the reunion tours, he flies through all that and spends talking about post 2000 talking about his personal life. He barely mentions anything musical wise during this period. The family stuff is fine, yet it would have sat nicely alongside his musical life stories as well. Lastly, I will say, while I love Paul, he does seem to mention his microtia a lot. During childhood I can understand, but I do find it just slightly hard to believe he was still self concious by 2000 and still thinking about 'Stanley the one-eared monster'. Also, he definitely seems to have a problem with Peter and Ace. I realise they had, and still have, their differences, yet he's difinitely too harsh. To suggest that Peter and Ace weren't really that good, even during their 70's heyday, is shocking. I think the albums and live performances captured from the era tell a different story. Yes, Ace and Peter could have been better, allowing their lives seemingly to be overtaken by drink and drugs, and yes, Ace might not be the most technical of guitarists, but he's still great at what he does and produced some killer solo's...and as for Peter's drumming, 'Destroyer' settls that argument. I also didn't like the part where he was banging on about Ace and questioning his finances. That was low. If you're a Paul fan, buy it. It's still a good read and there are still some great parts to it. It had the potential to be a solid 4 or 5 star autobiography...it just seemed a little rushed in places.

...What a journey! with the other three books,you deep down knew that Ace & Peter 's would be a dialogue of screw ups and with Gene's any interesting parts would be overtaken by his arrogance but Paul Stanley,well what a surprise his travel from sad,shy child thru stardom whilst still being a tortured soul,is mesmerising.Whilst Ace and Gene had always been the stars as far as i was concerned,i had an admiration for the Paul Stanley i thought i knew,you know the one, supremely confident,articulate,a superstar frontman with one of the biggest bands of all time,who knew the pain he was going thru,he hid it well.Anyone with a child with any 'disability' can relate to his childhood where he didnt get the support he needed,you can feel his sadness seep from the pages of the book.Its plain his childhood left him with issues ,a desire to succeed and an almost pathalogical mistrust of most people,expecting to be let down and retreating further into himself everytime it happened.His band mates take a beating,Ace and Peter,no surprise there,more surprisingly Gene cops a lot of flak and its really depressing his 'relationship' with Eric Carr.Ultimately its an eye opening journey from Mr Stanley,it shed some light(maybe not enough) on the bands 80's and 90's phase when members came and went and the albums seemed disjointed.Thankfully he's in a happy place now,personally and musically,40 years !!! he finally got there.All in all a great read,its his story not the KISS story,and thats as it should be,well worth purchasing.

On to my 3rd bio (after Ace and Gene), and as I suspected, this is the most "horse's mouth" so far. Wonderful to finally get the truth on so many legendary tales, and the inside word on a whole lot more incidents. It makes for a really "satisfying" read, for me at least. Surely there can be no disputing certain facts now, e.g. when Paul, Gene and Bob Ezrin have all - independently - gone into great detail on episodes involving Peter's relative ineptness as a musician, you KNOW it must have been true, however rose-tinted your glasses were. I felt for him, having to listen to Peter's airhead partners claim that Peter was the true talent of Kiss, etc. (It's pointless arguing with such illogical cretins.) However, Paul doesn't escape a total hero in my yes. For starters, the "ear" business. Now I hadn't the slightest inkling of it, as big a fan as I've been for decades, so he did well to keep the matter hidden (and deserves praise for not letting it put him off making music). But even after it's treated, he still goes on and on and on about it. Why? Yes, he was bullied as a child. But by early 20s he was a millionaire with the world at his feet. Any other bullied kid in that position would say "I've won!", and that would be an end to it. Likewise, kids with a physical disability grow up worrying about it affecting their intimate relationships, and wonder if they'll even ever have one. But by early 20s he'd already slept with dozens (hundreds? thousands?) of girls, so again, he was one up on his detractors. Why the continual moaning about needing a psychiatrist? It didn't make sense. Also, he reaches a time when he realises his wealth and material possessions aren't making him happy. He seems to indicate we should respect him for pulling the plug on it, but even though he stops buying himself things, he continues to spend millions on ungrateful, gold-digging partners. It's like he hasn't learned a thing after all. Anyway, he still gets my vote for (at times single-handedly) keeping Kiss alive, and I wish him many healthy years yet.