Paul Stanley discussed KISS replacement members Tommy Thayer and Eric Singer in a new Rolling Stone Australia interview, along with Ace Frehley and Peter Criss.
“Tommy is very, very consistent. Tommy always hits the bull’s eye, and there’s never any question about that. And with Ace, I have to say, there was a certain amount of erratic playing. You didn’t really know, night to night, what you were going to get, I have to say. So the band, as it is now, is much, much, much more consistent. We’re always in sync with each other and always on point.”
“I’m the first to say that the band wouldn’t exist today without having had Ace and Peter [Criss, original KISS drummer] in the beginning. And I can also say the band wouldn’t exist today if Ace and Peter were still there. So, things move on, and certainly Ace, his playing is part of the foundation of what we do.”
Stanley also discussed the difficulties of recording ‘Tokyo 2001’ with Criss leaving the band for a period, though he came back for a final 2002 to 2004 stint.
“Well, thankfully, Eric is a phenomenal drummer and had played with the band for decades, I think,” Paul said. “So he was very ready. It wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment happening that brought Eric into the band; we saw that coming. That was very obvious because of some of the tensions or lack of quality in Peter’s playing at some point, frankly.
So Eric was always ready to come in, and Ace loved playing with Eric. So, it was great. It was transitional; it was a time of transition. But we had fun, I have to say. I remember being in Australia, and we were all out to dinner, which was not anything that had happened for years before, and the four of us were out to dinner, and Ace was going, ‘I love playing with Eric.’ So, this board recording is really good — it’s really, really good.”
