Stanley: Phantom was so much like my real life

Paul Stanley has compared his life to that of the character he played in The Phantom Of The Opera.

The Kiss star recalls being offered the role in 1998 and eventually realising how closely the story resembled that of his own personal life.

Stanley tells The Queen Latifah Show: “When I saw Phantom in London in 1988 I watched it and I said, ‘I can do that.’ I had no background in it. Ten years later I got a call from my talent agent and they says, ‘How do you feel about trying to do a musical?’”

Stanley had to go through an audition process like any other actor and landed the job – which he says changed his life.

He adds: “I went to New York, got the role and they flew me up to Toronto where the show had run for 10 years. I took over doing eight shows a week there.

“I started to realise that in many ways the phantom was me. It was a story of a scarred, deformed musician who hid behind a mask. Wow, I didn’t even see that. He was looking for love and couldn’t give it back even though he wanted it.

“It was a turning point for me. It also coincided with a change in my life, ending a marriage that perhaps was never meant to be.”

Stanley was promoting his book Face The Music: A Life Exposed.

Stef wrote close to 5,000 stories during his time as assistant online news editor and later as online news editor between 2014-2016. An accomplished reporter and journalist, Stef has written extensively for a number of UK newspapers and also played bass with UK rock favourites Logan. His favourite bands are Pixies and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Stef left the world of rock'n'roll news behind when he moved to his beloved Canada in 2016, but he started on his next 5000 stories in 2022.