KISS’s Gene Simmons explains why band retired from touring

KISS co-founder Gene Simmons says the band decided to stop touring to preserve its reputation for spectacular live performances and out of respect for its fans.

KISS co-founder Gene Simmons says the band decided to stop touring to preserve its reputation for spectacular live performances and out of respect for its fans.

“You’ve got to know when to gracefully and proudly step off that stage,” Simmons, 77, told NewsNation’s The Hill in an interview published on Wednesday.

Simmons described the physical demands of the band’s performances, which involved fire-breathing, flying stunts and elaborate costumes. He said he wore armour, studs and other stage gear weighing between 50 and 70 pounds (23 to 32 kilograms), along with platform boots, during shows that lasted about two hours.

“I’m 77 now, and boy, do I look good,” Simmons said. “But you’ve got to know — you’ve got to respect the fans enough to know when to get off that stage.”

He said KISS had sought to give audiences value for money by delivering the “bombast” and “spectacle” that the band believed were missing from many live performances.

“We had a very strange idea. Let’s put together the band we never saw on stage,” he said.

KISS concluded its End of the Road farewell tour with a concert at New York’s Madison Square Garden on December 2, 2023. The tour began in 2019 and was billed as the group’s final series of live performances.

However, the band is planning a new phase built around digital avatars. Simmons has previously said about $200 million was being invested in taking the project to the next level, although further details of the planned production have not been fully disclosed.

In a separate part of the interview, Simmons urged musicians to adapt to artificial intelligence (AI), saying the technology was already shaping the future.

“It doesn’t matter. The future is here. You’ve got to learn how to use it, otherwise it will use you,” he said.

The planned avatar show follows the success of ABBA’s digital concert production in London, which uses virtual versions of the Swedish pop group’s members. KISS has presented its own avatars as a way to extend the band’s stage presence beyond conventional live performances.