Paul Stanley said he “misspoke” when he called producer Bob Ezrin was a “functioning addict” during the making of KISS’s “Destroyer” record.
Stanley made the remark on A&E’s “Biography: KISStory.” Stanley tweeted, “Words Hurt. In our documentary I spoke of my dear friend Bob Ezrin as a ‘functioning addict’ while we made Destroyer. The impact of that word was lost on me. Although not intended, the hurt & stigma attached is far reaching. That statement was inaccurate, not true and I misspoke.”
Stanley told Rolling Stone in 2016, “It really was a glorious, exciting time, because Bob was the camp counselor, the camp director. He wore a whistle around his neck and called us campers. You have to understand that at this point we saw ourselves very much as ‘rock stars’ and didn’t take crap from anybody. But we buttoned our lips and bit our tongues with Bob. He was the voice of experience, and clearly knew more than we did. So it was boot camp of sorts.”
Paul went on to say that he looked at Ezrin “as a mentor, and he really raised the bar for us in terms of lyrics. Up until then, quite honestly, and putting this as simply as possible, we were writing ‘fuck me, suck me’ songs. Bob wanted none of that. He wanted more of an experience of the psyche, and the mentality of youth and what we were about, as opposed to the physicality of it. He would nix lyrics, and send us back.”
