The band Paul Stanley called “the essence of rock and roll”
If there’s one thing that Kiss frontman Paul Stanley knows, it is rock music. A lifelong lover of the genre, Stanley has discussed his love of a host of prominent acts over the years and has a particularly extensive knowledge of the classic rock period in which he and his band rose to fame.
One group that Stanley has said he is a big fan of is British rockers Led Zeppelin. The band that pushed rock into a heavier and more expansive setting, without them, the modern version of the form and the ensuing heavy metal genre might look a lot different. Comprised of frontman Robert Plant, guitarist Jimmy Page, bassist John Paul Jones and drummer John Bonham, each member brought something vital to the fold, and by the end of the 1960s, they had resoundingly trumped The Beatles as the most exciting band of the planet.
This was something Paul Stanley was aware of, and he was lucky enough to catch Led Zeppelin in their early days playing a show in his hometown of New York City. This was before Kiss had formed, and it proved to be a pivotal moment for the future rock legend.
Stanley caught Led Zeppelin while promoting their eponymous debut album in 1968. Playing to 2,000 people that evening, Robert Plant and the group performed at the historic New York State Pavilion as part of the World’s Fair. When speaking to 89.3 KPCC not long after Zeppelin’s reunion for the Ahmet Ertegun Tribute Concert in 2007, Stanley recalled watching the British band back in those heady days.
He said: “I saw them play for under 2000 people. Probably in 1968 or so at the New York State Pavilion, which was at the World’s Fair in New York. It is as close to a religious experience. I would count in one hand, you know. This amazing spiritual marriage of sexuality and music.”
The Kiss man continued: “They were the embodiment at their height of everything. That’s the essence of rock and roll. You can call it heavy metal or anything you wanna call it. But the basis of it was Robert Johnson, through Elvis played through a bid Marshall amplifier. It was pretty incredible”.
“There was a few moments that I remember as turning points, defining moments. Watching The Beatles on Ed Sullivan was one of them, seeing Led Zeppelin at that show was clarifying for me. It was ‘I will never be that good, but that’s what I want to strive for,'” Stanley concluded.
This was not the last time that Paul Stanley would discuss the impact of Led Zeppelin on him. When speaking to Artisan News in 2012 on the red carpet for the movie of Led Zeppelin’s 2007 reunion, Celebration Day, he said that the quartet “wrote the book” for rock music.
Stanley expressed: “They wrote the book, you know. They are the reason most bands are here today. Their DNA is in everything that everybody does. They were so innovative and such visionaries.”
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