PAUL STANLEY AT A GLANCE

Born: Bert Stanley Eisen in Manhattan, New York

Age: 68

Early challenge: Stanley was born without most of his external left ear, due to a congenital deformity called Grade 3 Microtia. In 1982, a surgeon constructed a left ear for him using one of Stanley's ribs. He is still deaf on his left side.

First record he bought: The Everly Brothers' "All I Have to Do is Dream."

Academia: Attended New York's High School of Music & Art

Early pivotal concerts: The Yardbirds, Jimi Hendrix, Otis Redding, Led Zeppelin, Humble Pie

Other key influences: Alice Cooper, Slade (the title of Kiss' 1975 album, "Alive!," was inspired by the 1972 Slade live album, "Alive!")

Early day job: New York city taxi driver.

Kiss persona: Starchild.

Did you know? Stanley designed the Kiss logo.

Record sales with Kiss: At least 14 platinum albums (for sales of a million copies each), three of which have gone multiplatinum; 30 gold albums (for sales of 500,000 each).

Famous Kiss fans: Garth Brooks, Toby Keith, Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, Matt Cameron and Mike McCready of Pearl Jam.

Quote of note: "I consider myself an Anglophile and the bands I grew up listening to are 99.9% British. But that music wouldn't exist unless they had listened to (Delta blues pioneer) Robert Johnson and Blind Boy Fuller and Little Richard. What I loved about English music is it took the roots of great American music and put it on steroids and dressed it up, and interpreted it in a way that, to me, was very appealing."