PAUL STANLEY On Illegal Music Downloading: 'You Can't Share What You Don't Own'

Legendary rockers KISS will release their 20th studio album, "Monster", on October 16 through Universal Music Enterprises. Described in a press release as a "12-track, straight-ahead rock 'n' roll album," the CD features collaborations among all four members — including co-founders Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons and longtime members guitarist Tommy Thayer and drummer Eric Singer — in an album that shows the band at the top of its game.

When asked by Reuters what fans can expect from "Monster", Stanley said, "Its heart is beating, and it's chained down until we release it in October. I was asked if it's a great KISS album and I said, forget about KISS — I truly believe it's far beyond being a KISS album. It's a great album of its genre with all the elements of all the classic bands that I listened to — all the music that inspired me — THE WHO, THE [ROLLING] STONES, HUMBLE PIE, [Eric] Clapton, [Jimi] Hendrix, LED ZEPPELIN. That's what I grew up with, and it inspired me to create passion, chaos, something sexually aggressive that'd celebrate life. That's a description of rock ‘n' roll."

KISS and MÖTLEY CRÜE will joined forces for a co-headlining tour — dubbed simply "The Tour" — which will kick off on July 20 in Bristow, Virginia. Stanley told Reuters about the trek, "It's a lot more than people usually get in one night. It's being bombarded with rock 'n' roll. MÖTLEY's co-headlining, and one thing we didn't want to do was the kind of sabotage between bands that happens. We always figured, let a band go out and do the greatest show they can, and that'll only amp us up to do what we do that much better. There's no ego clashes, and this is another way to give fans more than just a concert — it's an event."

When asked for his view of the music business today, Stanley told Reuters, "It's in shambles. I don't even know if it's a business now. It lost its footing when the Internet arrived and ways to clamp down on piracy weren't put into effect. Suddenly you had people file sharing, which is a nice way of saying stealing. You can't share what you don't own."