Kiss's Paul Stanley has long counted Led Zeppelin as a major influence on his desire to become a musician.
Stanley was 17 when he first saw Led Zeppelin in 1969 in New York. He believes the show came sometime before the release of Led Zeppelin II.
The Kiss frontman recalled being enrapt as he watched the band perform "What Is And What Should Never Be," complete with Jimmy Page playing his guitar with a violin bow. He told Dean Delray's Let There Be Talk podcast that the concert was a seismic event in his life.
"I was just absolutely blown away," Stanley said. "To this day, I've never seen anything the was that perfect. Now just in terms of 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. ...
He continued: "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 hitting notes effortlessly, and there was such bravado in everything they were doing. It just blew me away."
With Led Zeppelin's bravado in mind, Stanley went on to form his own iconic band a few years later.
He says the whole thing came full circle years later when he befriended Page. The Led Zeppelin guitarist even came to see Kiss in London a few years back.
"It amazing to have been a young kid seeing Zeppelin and then play London and have Jimmy watching us... Jimmy saw us, I think it was the tour before last," he added. "And subsequent to that, we've had dinner and gone out for tea and lunch."
Stanley indicated that he was wary of meeting Page for fear the two might not get along, but he says in addition to Page being one of the "most important" guitarists of all-time, he's also "a terrific, terrific guy."
Check out the full interview in the player above or here on iHeartRadio.
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