Kiss frontman Paul Stanley reflected that he was fortunate that fame hadn’t changed him, because it doesn’t always change people for the better.

He admitted that he’d pursued stardom as a means of compensating for his childhood problems, which included being born with an unformed ear and being partially deaf.

“I wasn't very socially adept,” Stanley told journalist Dan Rather in a preview clip of The Big Interview. “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 was a way to push it in people's faces and go, 'You see? You should have been nicer to me.’”

You can watch the clip below:

He continued: “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.”

Stanley’s episode of The Big Interview will air on AXS TV on April 23.

 

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