This coming autumn, Kiss singer-guitarist Paul Stanley will trade rock 'n roll for a go at soul music to front cover band Soul Station, which performs a mix of soul classics from the sixties and seventies. Stanley will front the band as a side project for its official debut gig on September 11 at Los Angeles' Roxy Theatre.
"I don't play guitar in the band and we don't do a single Kiss song," Stanley said in a statement. "That's not what this is about." The Kiss singer's nine-person backing band for Soul Station contains musicians who have played with big name celebrities such as Bobby Brown and Christina Aguilera. Kiss drummer Eric Singer will join his band mate in the transition to performing soul. The group will cover hits by the Temptations, Stylistics, Dramatics, Smokey and the Miracles and Blue Magic among other artists. Fans can expect to hear the band perform classic tracks such as the Temptations "Just My Imagination" and the Stylistics "You Are My Everything."
"We're living in a time of being fed canned pre-programmed backing tracks and lip syncing in place of the electricity and passion of real live R&B," Stanley said, Rolling Stone reports. "When I was a boy, before I ever saw the Who or Led Zeppelin, I saw Solomon Burke and Otis Redding. I saw the Temptations and all that music is part of the foundation of the music I've made. Soul Station is my chance to celebrate it for a night that's real, live and faithfully recreates the sound with the respect it deserves.... These songs, arrangements and sound just blow you away."
In the midst of Stanley's side project, Kiss remains on the go, ready to play a string of shows in Australia and New Zealand in October. The iconic group recently teamed up with the creators of Scooby-Doo for a feature-length cartoon. Bassist Gene Simmons has also created a film venture with WWE studios which will craft "elevated horror movies."
