Paul Stanley and KISS perform at Arena di Verona on July 11, 2022 in Verona, Italy.
Photo: Getty Images, Francesco Prandoni. All rights reserved.
To celebrate AC/DC’s 50th anniversary, Paul Stanley named their 1980 record Back in Black as his favorite album by the iconic hard rock band.
“[…] What they created with Back in Black was monumental,” the Kiss singer told Classic Rock. “How the album opens with ‘Hell’s Bells’ hit me like the first time I heard Black Sabbath. […] With ‘Back in Black’ they polished their sound to a certain extent. They built on what they had done before and continued to make progress. The somberness they had in the early days has been replaced with this driving sonic overload. But it was so brilliant that what was gained was greater than what was lost.” Back in Black is considered a kind of comeback record by the Australians because it was the first work since Bon Scott’s death. Brian Johnson took over the mic and is still the frontman of the band.
A big fan of AC/DC since the early years, Stanley also shared his experience of the band’s first live performance he attended: “AC/DC are the real deal and I knew that from the moment I saw them. It was at Whiskey A Go Go in LA sometime in the mid 70’s. They were so dark and the adrenaline was just crazy. The amount of energy Angus expended on stage was mind boggling.”