KISS is still in the midst of their “End Of The Road” farewell tour, and recently comedian Dean Delray interviewed band co-founder and bassist Gene Simmons for his “Let There Be Talk” podcast about a wide array of topics including what will actually happen when Simmons, Paul Stanley, Tommy Thayer and Eric Singer retire from live shows for good.
“KISS will continue in ways that even I haven’t thought of,” Gene predicted. “But I can conceive of… You know, the ‘Blue Man Group’ and ‘Phantom Of The Opera’ tours around the world with different personnel. There could and should be a KISS show, kind of live on stage with effects and everything else, but also semiautobiographical thing about four knuckleheads off the streets of New York that ends with the last third as a full-blown celebration, a full-on performance. Not with us. Although not a problem stepping in every once in a while.”
KISS’ other co-founder, guitarist Paul Stanley, was recently a guest of “Howie Mandel Does Stuff.” Stanley was asked if KISS was working on new music. “No,” he replied. “Because at this point, I came to the conclusion that it can never compete with the past. Not because it’s not as good, but it hasn’t the connection to important times in your life. It doesn’t have that patina to it of, ‘Gee, I remember I heard this song when I was 18,’ or, ‘I heard this song when I was on my first date or whatever.’ You can’t compete with that. It’s more than a song; it’s a snapshot of your life at a certain point.”
Stanley praised the group’s previous two full-length efforts, 2009’s “Sonic Boom” and 2012’s “Monster” saying: “We did two albums in the last, I think probably 10 years, and there are songs on those that are every bit as good as anything I’ve ever written, but they’re new. Somebody says, ‘Why don’t you do a new album?’ You do a new album and do a song — we have one song, ‘Modern Day Delilah’, which is as good as ‘Love Gun’ or any of these songs, but it hasn’t aged; it’s not like wine that has a chance to have grown in importance,” Paul explained. “Not just because of what it is, but because what it’s surrounded by.”
Stanley added that the attention to new KISS music wouldn’t be on par with many of the band’s previous efforts, so he’s not interested. “I think it’s setting myself up for disappointment. Not crushing disappointment, but when you put your heart and soul into doing something and it kind of gets a polite nod, there’s other things I’d rather do.”
Stanley told USA Today much of the same in 2021: “For the most part, when classic bands put out new albums, they’re looked at and listened to and thrown away because they don’t have the gravitas, they don’t have the age that comes with something being a time capsule or being attached to a certain period of your life,” he said. “I’m not alone in that. When you see any classic bands on TV or if there’s a concert video, turn off the sound and I’ll tell you every time they’re playing a new song because the audience sits down.”
