KISS frontman Paul Stanley and bassist Gene Simmons have been in the news plenty recently as they do interviews to plug their final shows across the globe on the band’s “End Of The Road” world tour. Inevitably, they’re asked about the possibility of original guitarist Ace Frehley and original drummer Peter Criss re-joining them at some point.
Many fans are pointing to the band’s final two shows at Madison Square Garden in December as the likeliest place they might see the band’s original lineup back together in some fashion, but Simmons has refuted this saying although the door is open for the pair to guest with the band’s current lineup, they both allegedly declined.
“Well, I asked both Ace and Peter a few times: ‘Do you wanna come out for the encores? Do you wanna do some shows?’ And they both said ‘no,’” Simmons told Linea Rock.
“So, I don’t know what to say about that… But it’s always welcome. But there are many other big stars, superstars, who wanna jump up onstage and play a song. But we’re not sure about that. Maybe the best thing to do is to end the way we started: four guys with guitars. No keyboards, no synthesizers — nothing. Just playing.”
Stanley was also recently asked by Ultimate Classic Rock if Frehley and Criss might make an appearance, but nothing has changed.
“This tour is a celebration of the band and the life of the band over the past 50 years,” Stanley said. “It’s not a celebration of the original lineup. As important as the original lineup was, I can say that we wouldn’t be here today if not for them, and we wouldn’t be here today with them.”
“It doesn’t make sense to allow anybody to come in and call shots,” Stanley continued. “We are in great shape. The band is fantastic. I don’t want to mar the celebration. I don’t want to mar the situation. It’s been too good.”
“Playing the Garden will be exhilarating and full circle, and yet it’s also the end of the band as it exists, and that’s something in so many ways that’s different,” Stanley said.
“Certainly, the skeptic might draw comparisons to the Farewell Tour we did [in 2000-01], which was done under very different circumstances. This is based on reality and limitation of doing something indefinitely. There’s a reason that there are no 70-plus-year-old basketball players or football players or players in any sport. That we’ve made it this far is extraordinary. We’re the exception to the rule as far as being a rock band.”
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