Gene and Paul On The End Of KISS

Keavin Wiggins | Published January 16, 2023

Tour poster

KISS co-founders Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons recently sat down with American Songwriter to discuss a variety of topics including the band's pending retirement.

They are currently engaged in their multi-year End Of The Road Farewell Tour and Simmons thinks that the time is right to take their final bow. He told American Songwriter, "I still have hair on my head - lots more on my back. They call me Chewbacca.

"KISS will continue. The culture will still continue. We're just getting off the stage while the getting is good, and while we're still convincing doing it. We're the hardest-working band on the stage.

"It would be great if we were U2 or the [Rolling] Stones, two of my favorite bands, because to prepare for a show you put on your favorite sneakers and your T-shirt and you're set. You don't have to break out the platform heels."

Stanley spoke about the difficulties they face with the rigors of the road and their massive stage show, "Being on tour is pretty much three hours of elation, and 21 hours of being away from home, which honestly is not fun.

"There are nights when I'm going to bed and going, 'What the hell am I doing here? Why am I here when I have a family home?' So there certainly is a push and pull, but there's nothing like being on stage, the gratitude that I feel."

Stanley added, "And the workout that I get on stage, I couldn't do that in a gym. If you could pack 10,000 or 100,000 people into a gym to cheer you on, you'd do things that you couldn't do without them there, so flying over an audience on a wire, that's pretty cool. If I try that during the afternoon when nobody is there, I'm terrified. Adrenaline makes you stupid."