Over 40 years, KISS has become bigger than rock and roll.
After spending decades bringing the rock and roll circus across the world, the band had originally planned on hanging everything up in the next few months as part of their farewell tour. According to Paul Stanley, that’s not where the story ends.
When talking about hanging it up, Paul had mentioned being realistic saying,
“If we were wearing sneakers and T-shirts and jeans, we could do this into our 90s. But we’re carrying around 30, 40, 50 pounds of gear on stage, and making it look easy. And at some point, you realize that you can’t do that indefinitely.”
Paul may have led the band since the beginning, but he also thinks that KISS can continue with him or Gene Simmons saying,
“I see KISS continuing — in what form that manifests itself is really something that will develop over time. I don’t know exactly what that means. But quite honestly, we couldn’t kill KISS if we wanted to. It’s a part of Americana. It’s part of world consciousness, and even if we stop, the band continues, in essence. But should it diversify and spread in terms of what KISS is? Sure, the idea, the limitations of other bands, that’s their problem. We’re not those bands.”
This isn’t the first time that KISS has tried to recapture the magic with other people either, with Eric Singer and Tommy Thayer donning the makeup that Ace Frehley and Peter Criss had been wearing for decades before.
If anything, going out like this is almost a power move for KISS. The band has become bigger than any one member, and bringing in new blood can put a new spin on the classic material. There’s a fine line between celebrating the legacy and just becoming a tribute act, and this is dangerously close.
Since this is a band with Gene Simmons in it though, it’s more about business these days than rock and roll.
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