By Dustin Fitzharris***When singer-songwriter Billy May takes the stage, he’s a bona fide rock star. The screaming audience can be heard over the electric guitars and pyrotechnics. He seduces them with song, not to mention his toned body in black Spandex pants, a leather jacket, boots and painted face. Although he’s channeling the legendary guitarist and singer Paul Stanley of Kiss in the tribute band 
KissNation, the stage presence and talent is pure Billy May, a man from Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, destined to entertain.
But on Saturday, February 11, May will take a break from his Kiss persona to showcase his original songs, as well as some classics, at the Green Room 42 in New York. The show is appropriately titled Unmasked and Unplugged, and May is ready to strip down.
Getting back to May’s roots, Brooklyn is where I find him on a chilly Sunday morning. He’s sitting on the exact bench facing the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge that John Travolta sat on during a scene in Saturday Night Fever. Like Travolta’s character Tony Manero, May found comfort in the spotlight despite his insecurities and life’s circumstances.
“I’d still be a virgin had I not learned how to play guitar,” May says with authentic charm. “I was shy. I was an ugly kid growing up. I didn’t really fit in. I liked things that maybe weren’t the popular things to like. Once I learned to play guitar, it gave me a way to talk to girls.”
He started playing guitar at 15 years old. Within two years, he was performing gigs in clubs.
“I grew my hair long, I got the leather jacket, I got the guitar and I looked really good
. I got with this band, and I was the worst player,” he confesses.
Then he got an idea. Since the band was playing cover songs he says he just couldn’t master, he said to his bandmates, “If we really want to be rock stars, we got to write our own songs.” When the band asked who was going to write the original tunes, May stepped up to the plate. He may not have been the best guitar player, but his songwriting earned him praise.
Dustin Fitzharris (DF): In your upcoming show, you say that you will be stripping the songs you perform down to their “rawest arrangements.” Does that change a song?
Billy May (BM): I always believed that if a song doesn’t sound good with just an acoustic guitar, it’s probably not that good of a song.
DF: Many people may only know you from performing Kiss songs as Paul Stanley in KissNation for over 15 years. Is it easier or more confronting to be in front of an audience as yourself?
BM: I’m comfortable in both. The reason I’m comfortable as Paul Stanley is because it comes naturally to me. He’s influenced me. When I was just a teenager and first getting up on stage and doing my original stuff, I remember the other guys in the band were nervous, and I never was. I always felt comfortable getting up in front of a crowd. I knew I wasn’t going to please 100 percent of the people 100 percent of the time. But I knew if I pleased myself and believed in what I was doing, people would react.
DF: As a kid did you ever imagine you would be on stage having a career performing as one of your idols?
BM: No, it never occurred to me. I just wanted to do original songs. I wanted to take the inspiration he gave me and do something of my own. I’d be liar if I said I didn’t dress up like him as a kid on Halloween. I never imagined I’d spend this many years in Paul’s costume and makeup.
DF: One of the new songs you’ll be performing is called “The Winter’s Almost Gone.” The lyrics say: “The show starts around 10:00, I couldn’t find someone to go, but I bought two tickets anyway for the second row.” I love that. Tell me about that song.
BM: It’s one of my personal favorites. I wanted to recapture the emotion of the Terry Jacks song “Seasons in the Sun.” I’d hear that song, and it was so catchy, but it just gave me this melancholy feeling. This song is one I dusted off, but I never got to release. It’s a song I never wanted to give up on.
DF: The show will also include some of your favorite songs from The Who, The Rolling Stones, Rod Stewart, and of course Kiss. What was the first concert you went to?
BM: Kiss! I think for my age group Kiss was almost everybody’s first concert. There are very few bands that I didn’t see. The number one band that I wish I saw was Queen with Freddie [Mercury]. I would have loved that.
DF: Are there any new musicians you enjoy?
BM: I always joke that the last rock album I bought was “Appetite for Destruction.” [Guns N’ Roses, 1987]. Then in the ‘90s I liked the Spice Girls, but now I realize that’s 30 years ago. I heard some Harry Styles songs, and I thought, “These songs are great.” So, there is stuff out there, but you have to be aware of it.
DF: Unmasked & Unplugged happens just days before Valentine’s Day. Is the rock star Billy May a romantic?
BM: I think everybody has the capacity to be in both worlds. At the show you will hear a lot of my romantic songs. Then I will get up and sing “Love Gun” at other shows. And if it’s couples [who attend], I want them to go home and have a wonderful Valentine’s Day.
DF: After all you’ve done and accomplished, what are you the most proud of?
BM: It’s not being proud of accomplishments. What makes me proud is when someone comes up to me and says, “This song meant something to me.” Even if I’m playing Paul, if someone comes up to me and says, “You know, I never got to see Kiss, but I got to see you, and you took me away for two hours.” If I can have a positive effect on someone, that’s what makes me proud.
DF: Going back to the song “The Winter’s Almost Gone”—one of the final lyrics is “The chill remains, but the winter’s almost gone.” What are your hopes for the spring and beyond?
BM: Still doing KissNation, which is loads of fun. I want to take these [new] songs out, though. I want this show on February 11 to be the first of many. I’d then like to take these songs to a full band and record them. It’s funny because when I hit 30 I thought, “Gee, I guess that’s it” [for original songs]. Now I feel like there’s an audience. Luckily, I don’t look like I’m 111!
DF: No, you got all that hair!
BF: It’s all real!
DF: I really wanted to ask …
BM: It’s all real. People often ask, and I let them tug and pull on it.
DF: And while that opportunity is not included with admission, there is a Valentine’s Day promotion and live stream option available. Check it out!
Billy May plays the Green Room 42 on Saturday, February 11. For more information and tickets, click here.
