Is Paul Stanley joining the march of middle-aged rockers to reality TV? Not exactly. But the longtime singer and guitarist for Kiss has enlisted a group of reality-TV regulars for his latest project. Stanley, 54, is on the road with the house band from the CBS series "Rock Star," which in two seasons has yet to produce any -- but never mind. That's not the fault of the five guys who backed up the show's aspiring singers.

		Paul Stanley Where: Palace Theatre, Greensburg. When: 8 p.m. Wednesday. Tickets: $35 and $40; 724-836-8000.

The point is, Stanley was working on a solo album -- his first since 1978 -- and casting around for the right band to help him play the new songs live. "And when I saw these guys a year or more ago on that 'Rock Star' show, I went -- as does everybody else -- 'This band is a killer,'" said Stanley.

So he hired them for a tour in support of the just-released "Live to Win" (New Door/Universal). In a recent interview, Stanley sounded pleased with the decision. "They're amazing," he said. "We sound like a band that's been together a long time, and that's what I wanted."

"For better or worse I have always seen myself as the caretaker of Kiss," he said. "Everybody loves to run off and do side projects and indulge themselves. But if everybody is doing that in a band, there may be no band to come back to."

Stanley said that over the years Kiss has had "pretty serious problems" -- an understatement, given the band's colorful history of firings, rehirings and fortunes lost and remade. "Someone had to be there to either plot a course or bail water, and I kind of saw that as my responsibility," he said. "I did it because I wanted to. At this point, though, Kiss is something that is very solid and stable in its own insane way, and I thought it was really important for me to indulge, purge -- use whatever word you like.