KISS Leader Singer Was Born With One Ear

Paul Stanley, has a memoir out called ‘Face the Music: A Life Exposed,’ and in it the flamboyant leader singer of KISS discusses a surprising disability.

He was born with a condition called microtia which prevents the ear from forming properly. Stanley was born with a stump and deaf on his right side. (He later had surgery to fashion an ear). This disability led to a childhood marked by severe bullying resulting in a general mistrust of people.

The 62-year-old rocker told Rob Shuter of VH-1’s “The Gossip Table” that his parents made matters worse by practiced a form of tough love on him. They refused to acknowledge his disability, going so far as not to tell their son he was half-deaf.

“Perhaps it was not that unusual for that generation but you make someone stronger by giving them more love,” he explained to the site. “You make them stronger by being a channel for them to talk and to validate their feelings.”

The celestial daubed guitarist quickly realized that fame didn’t soothe his inner demons.

“What I found over the years was that what you deny and cover up doesn’t cease to exist and even if you can hide something from the public, you can’t hide it from yourself. Whether it’s pain or a sense of inferiority, that will remain and that doesn’t change until you come to grips with it, you get to the bottom of it and you resolve it.”

He’s hoping that his story of pain and ultimately finding serenity and happiness with his second wife will inspire readers and fans.

“Perhaps that was one of the paramount reasons for me to finally write the book,” he muses. “The idea that I can perhaps make someone else’s life a little easier or put a little bit more light on things by telling people my journey. It’s not a KISS book, it’s a book about a person coming of age and coming to grips with their own inadequacies.”