In a brand new interview with Dean Delray's "Let There Be Talk" podcast, KISS frontman Paul Stanley recalled the first time he saw LED ZEPPELIN when he was just 17 years old and living in New York. "I saw ZEPPELIN in, I think it was August of '69 — between the first and second [records]," Stanley said. "And they were actually playing 'What Is And What Should Never Be', a couple of those tracks, and Jimmy [Page] had his bow and they were panning his guitar left and right so he could point it. "I was just absolutely blown away," he continued. "To this day, I've never seen anything that was that perfect. Not just in terms of the synchronicity and the fact that everybody was so much on the same playing field — it was the sexual energy that was coming off the stage, the flamboyance, the cocksure attitude. They backed it up. I think they knew how great they were. And I was just… "First of all, the band was spectacular and played — I won't use any profanity — but they played tighter than a something… So, they were amazing. And Robert Plant was singing like something from another planet. He was sitting notes effortlessly, and there was such bravado in everything they were doing, it just blew me away." Stanley also talked about his friendship with the LED ZEPPELIN guitarist and what it has meant to him to connect with his idol on a personal level. "It's amazing to have been a young kid seeing ZEPPELIN and then play London and have Jimmy watching us… Jimmy saw [KISS], I think it was the tour before last," he said. "And subsequent to that, we've had dinner and gone out for tea and lunch. "There's an old adage that you should be weary of meeting your heroes and the people you look up to, because, quite frankly, a lot of them are assholes," Stanley added. "Jimmy is the complete opposite. He lives and breathes music, and he's a terrific, terrific guy, and I would argue the most important and influential guitar player, not only in terms of playing, but in terms of vision. What he created was symphonic. It's not as simple as a guitar, bass and drums and a singer. What he did on those records was multilayered and a tapeastry of sorts. He's painted with an amazing brush and amazing palette of colors. So he's right up there at the top for me." Nearly a decade ago, Stanley told the Las Vegas Sun that he first met Page back in 1976 while KISS was recording its "Destroyer" album and LED ZEPPELIN was putting together the "The Song Remains The Same" soundtrack, and the two happened to be across each other in the lobby of the recording studio. "We were in the lobby, and Jimmy came up and he knew who I was, and who the band was," Stanley remembered. "It was stunning. Not five years earlier, I was in the audience, watching LED ZEPPELIN with my mouth open, just not believing it." This past January, KISS kicked off its second farewell tour, dubbed "End Of The Road", which is expected to run through the end of 2021.
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