KISSOnline.com has posted part III of frontman PAUL STANLEY's interview with writer/photographer John Harrell for Burrn! Magazine. An excerpt follows:

Harrell: In talking about songwriting you have written some killer songs. I remember something that Eddie Van Halen told me once that the hardest thing to do was to write a hit song but you have written tons of hit songs.

Stanley: "I have certainly written tons of popular songs. Whether or not they were hits in the classic sense of being a Top Ten on the radio, I’ve always tried to write songs that were accessible, that were memorable and familiar enough that by the second verse you could virtually sing along. I’ve always tried to write songs on an acoustic guitar because to me if it doesn’t sound great on one guitar it’s just not a great song. A great song is not about the arrangement, a great song is a great song. There is a lot of PINK FLOYD that is incredibly well-produced and very atmospheric and sonically brilliant but every one of those songs is a gem. To put it bluntly you can’t polish a turd (laughs). For me when I’m writing it’s got to sound great on one guitar, it’s got to sound great sitting in my house or wherever I’m writing or it’s not good. It can’t be written with the flaws in it with the plan that the flaws will be covered by gloss or production."

Harrell: John Kalodner sort of said the same thing once when he listens to songs as an A & R man; he listens to them in his car. He says if it doesn’t sound good in your car it’s not going to sound good anywhere else.

Stanley: "Well I write my songs; you know people ask me if I have a studio in my house or anything like that and as long as I can remember I’ve written my songs on a $39.00 handheld cassette tape recorder with one little speaker that you can buy in any drug store."

Harrell: Really? Why is that?

Stanley: "Because a great song doesn’t need anything more than to be recorded in its most basic form. When DESMOND (CHILD) comes over it’s the same thing; a great song doesn’t need a studio. When you do a demo that’s another story but writing a song you need the simplest of tools."

Harrell: Do you follow a particular formula when you write?

Stanley: "If there’s a good idea then only to try to keep it interesting from beginning to end and to cut away anything extraneous, cut away the fat. If it’s not needed then cut it out. I think somebody once asked Michelangelo how he took a block of stone and sculpted a horse? And he said that he just cut away all the pieces that don’t look like a horse (laughs)."

To read the entire interview head to this location.