Kiss’ Manager Defends Paul Stanley: ‘He’s Not Lip-Synching’
Longtime Kiss manager Doc McGhee has come to the defense of frontman Paul Stanley, insisting that the singer is not lip-synching during the band’s concerts.
"He sings every track. So he sings to it. So he's not lip-synching,” McGhee declared in a brief interview with the Syncin’ Stanley YouTube channel. “He fully sings. It's enhanced. It's just part of the process to make sure that everybody hears the songs the way they should be sang to begin with. Nobody wants to hear people do stuff that's not real, that's not what they came to hear.”
McGhee further clarified that Kiss’ use of backing tracks was simply to augment the band’s concerts, noting that the group, and specifically Stanley, always perform live over the pre-recorded audio. "He'll sing to tracks. It's all part of a process,” the manager explained. “Because everybody wants to hear everybody sing. But he fully sings to every song."
In recent months, videos posted to YouTube have alleged that Stanley was faking vocals during performances on Kiss’ End of the Road tour. One instance in particular, which took place during a June concert in Antwerp, Belgium, seemed to reveal a backing track in use, as vocals could be heard despite Stanley not being in front of a microphone.
The use of concert audio enhancements has become a hot topic among rock purists. Many have decried the use of backing tracks and teleprompters, even as such technological assistants have become the norm at most concerts.
Kiss' End of the Road tour is set to resume in April in South America. From there, the rock legends will spend most of the summer performing throughout Europe.