KISS is in the midst of the last legs of their “End Of The Road” world tour, and on Wednesday the band played a concert in Manaus, Brazil.
Earlier this year, the band announced their last two shows would take place at on Dec. 1 and 2 at New York’s Madison Square Garden. Singer/guitarist Paul Stanley also re-ignited a feud with original guitarist Ace Frehley when he dissed him along with original drummer Peter Criss on “The Howard Stern Show.”
Frehley made plenty of rock headlines in the past week when he issued an ultimatum demanding an apology, and then a week later detailed an alleged phone call from Stanley.
During Wednesday’s performance in Brazil, bassist Gene Simmons apparently fell ill during the show and had to perform a large portion of the set while sitting down.
Before KISS took a five-minute break so the bassist could compose himself, Stanley said: “We’re gonna have to stop to take care of him, ’cause we love him, right? Let’s give Gene a really loud ‘Gene’.” He then added that he and his bandmates would return to the stage “a little bit later.”
The band and Gene eventually did return with Gene greeting the audience in Portuguese, “Manaus, all right!”, before adding “Thank you.”
Brazilian media outlets have speculated heat exhaustion may be the cause of Gene’s setback. The temperature at the time of the concert was around 80 degrees.
Gene Simmons would later take to Twitter to update fans on his condition, and indeed confirmed that the high temps and dehydration were to blame. “Ok, kids. Not a big deal,” he wrote. “Thanks for your kind wishes. Last night we played Amazon jungle Stadium/Brazil. Humidity and temperature were sky high. I was dehydrated and was forced to sit for a song. We got back on stage in 5 minutes & finished the show.”
Simmons previously talked to Howard Stern about shedding tears at the band’s final gig.
“Oh, I’m sure (I will),” he said. “I kid around a lot about ‘men don’t do that.’ I’m sure I’m gonna cry like a nine-year-old girl whose foot’s being stepped on. KISS was born on 23rd street. It’s only taken us 50 years to go play the final shows 10 blocks away on 33rd street, which is Madison Square Garden.”
