His roots were in bluegrass. In the 1970s, his high school rock band was called Your Mother. He also played in several jazz cover bands. In 1978 he was a percussion major at San Jose State University.

He moved to Los Angeles in May 1980 still using his given name Paul Martin Marmorstein. His first L.A. band was Mad Captions who played CBGB in New York and The Hot Club in Philadelphia with The Dead Boys. In 1981 Paul joined The Mau-Mau's, a Los Angeles-based punk band which was fronted by Rick Wilder of The Berlin Brats. During Paul's time with The Mau-Mau's he shortened his name to Paul Mars. Paul played drums for a Mau-Mau's record produced by Robbie Krieger of The Doors which was never released. In 1984 Paul Mars Joined the Joneses and recorded the drums for Keeping Up With The Joneses. Paul also began putting together a side project for his songs to be called Faster Pussycat with Guitarist Mick Cripps. Paul switched to lead vocals, Mick switched to bass, and the two joined Guitarist Tracii Guns and Drummer Nickey "Beat" Alexander and later on Guitarist Robert Stoddard to complete this line up.

Paul Black released CDs of L.A. Guns with himself on lead vocals called Black City Breakdown (1985-1986) and Black List and a CD of Sonic Boom Sun Down And Yellow Moon on his own label "Black City Records".

After leaving L.A. Guns, Paul Black formed Black Cherry, which quickly became one of the most popular and sought after bands in L.A. But, a lawsuit filed by Black against his former band L.A. Guns and Polygram Records kept Black Cherry from signing a deal. One of the original members of Black Cherry was the Artist now known as Ukulele Bartt, who at the time was a Guitarist and singer. Paul Black retired in 1993 and seldom played shows. In 2000 Paul Black wrote and recorded an album with Jo Almeida of Dogs D'Amour called Jo & Paul's Sonic Boom, Sun Down And Yellow Moon. The band itself did about 8 shows with different rhythm sections. The record received great reviews but only a few were made. Paul is working on a solo record and at the end of 2005 plans were made to reform Paul Black's L.A. Guns line up for a tour in 2006.