In a new interview with AXS TV program, KISS frontman Paul Stanley talks about his road to fame and it shaped his life.
He said:
“I pursued fame as a way to compensate for a lot of insecurities. I was born deaf on my right side, and I had a birth defect. I had what’s called a microtia, which is basically not having an ear, having a crumpled mass of cartilage. And I wasn’t very socially adept. And when you have something physical that sets you apart from people, it makes you really the target of unrelenting scrutiny and sometimes ridicule. And, quite honestly, for me, the idea of becoming famous as a way to push it in people’s faces and go, ‘You see? You should have been nicer to me.’
“I was fortunate enough to have success come to me and realized that it didn’t change anything. So I was really blessed, because, at that point in your life, when you become famous, it’s either a disappointment because it’s not a remedy, and you either put a needle in your arm, a gun in your mouth, or you live life as a victim. And I’m not cut out for that. So I decided that I would spend my life or my time on self-exploration and trying to make myself a better person and see where that is going to take me. I was blessed to be a part of an idea to become the band we never saw, and that led me on a course that I’m still on today. Where it’s taking me, God only knows.”