Why Paul Stanley Thinks This Kiss Album Cover ‘Sucks’

Paul Stanley has never been shy about sharing his distaste for Kiss’ 1980 album Unmasked, the second and final record of the band’s heavily criticized pop-disco era.

Now it turns out he hates the album’s cover art as well.

In a video promoting Kiss’ newly updated website – which allows fans to earn exclusive patches by completing various online challenges – Stanley and his longtime bandmate Gene Simmons discussed the Unmasked cover art.

Designed by artist Victor Stabin, the comic book-styled cover tells the story of a nosy reporter trying to get photos of Kiss without their famous onstage makeup, something the band actually took great pains to avoid during the ’70s.

Read More: How the Wheels Came off the Kiss Empire

“When I saw the cover I said, ‘Hey I have to go on record and say this cover sucks,'” Stanley – who was apparently outvoted – explained in the new video. Simmons, a noted comic book enthusiast, responds by expressing regret and taking at least part of the blame: “Yeah, unfortunately, I thought, ‘ahh, that’s so cool.'”

With the benefit of 46 years of hindsight, Simmons suggests an easy improvement. “One of the panels in it [bottom center} had our faces in makeup, and we’re sort of pretending to take our faces off… but under [those} faces were the [the same] makeup faces. That became its own kind of iconic thing, I still like that one, maybe that could have been the cover.”

Why Paul Stanley Doesn’t Like Kiss’ ‘Unmasked’

In the band’s 2005 book Kiss: Behind the Mask, Stanley made his feelings on the band’s eighth studio album quite clear: “I think Unmasked is a pretty crappy album. It’s wimpy.”

Although the album barely cracked the Top 50 in the United States, its lead single “Shandi” was a big hit in other parts of the world.

The sunny ballad even reached the Top 5 in Australia – setting off a sudden wave of Kissmania, with the band being followed by screaming mobs of fans as they sold out shows all over the country.

“It reached the point where I was asking that we not have any more parties,” Stanley explained in the photo book for Kiss’ 2019-2023 farewell End of the Road tour, “because literally every night the promoter threw a party for us.”