They drove him wild but they couldn’t drive him crazy.
KISS rocker Paul Stanley may have been bullied for a birth defect in his ear but used it as inspiration to achieve global fame.
“When you have something physical that sets you apart from people it makes you really the target of unrelenting scrutiny and sometimes ridicule,” Stanley, 67, told Dan Rather on “The Big Interview.”
“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,’ ” the singer continued.
Stanley explained that he’s deaf on his right side after being born with microtia, which he described as “basically not having an ear. Having a crumpled mass of cartilage.”
Microtia is a congenital deformity where the external ear is underdeveloped.
The rocker ? who is a founding member of KISS ? says he saw stardom as an opportunity to “compensate for a lot of insecurities.”
His band, which formed in New York City in 1973, achieved international fame later in the decade and is responsible for timeless hits such as “Rock and Roll All Nite,” “Detroit Rock City” and “I Was Made for Lovin’ You.”
The group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2014.
But Stanley says he made a significant realization after making it to the top.
“I was fortunate enough to have success come to me and realize that didn’t change anything,” he told Rather. “So I was really blessed because, at that point in your life, 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 your life as a victim, and I’m not cut out for that.”
