'The ultimate KISS show' - Paul Stanley finds joy in 'End of the Road' tour
By Alan Sculley / Telegram.com
As KISS delves further into a farewell tour that was interrupted by the pandemic, lead singer and guitarist Paul Stanley knows what he’ll miss most about the band he co-founded with bassist/singer Gene Simmons in 1973 in New York City.
“There’s nothing really that can compete or come close to the combustive emotional nature of what we do on stage and the connection to the fans,” he said in a phone interview. “That’s something that’s irreplaceable. That’s something that there’s nothing to compare it to.”
But fans won’t have to worry that they’ll see a mopey or overly sentimental Stanley on stage as he grapples with the reality that this is the final Kiss tour.
“I’m not one for missing things. I will have all of those memories. I’m not one who pines for the past or mourns the past. Better to appreciate it and know how damn lucky I’ve been,” he said. “That being said, the thing that can’t be replaced or replicated is that sacred time on stage. But I’ve lived it.”
In fact, Stanley, in typical fashion for a band that has never been short on bravado, said this last outing, billed as the End of the Road tour, is actually a festive occasion.
“This is really a time of joy, and for us to be up there and celebrate what we’ve done together,” Stanley said, including fans as the key part of the experience. “It’s much better than finishing a tour, let’s say, and then a year later deciding you don’t want to go out and two years later you decide you don’t want to go out. In that sense, you’ve called it quits, but this is so much better for us and better for the fans to go out there with the highest of spirits and the greatest of shows.”
The show, indeed, is bigger and bolder than any Kiss has taken on the road, Stanley said. That’s no small endeavor for a group that helped revolutionize the rock concert in the ‘70s by not only donning their famous makeup – Stanley as the starchild, Simmons as the demon, original guitarist Ace Frehley as the space ace and original drummer Peter Criss as the catman – but with state-of-the-art lights, enough pyrotechnics to light up a 4th of July and even a few flashy stunts, such as Simmons breathing fire, all while decked out in elaborate costumes and high-heeled platform boots.
“The show this time really is the ultimate Kiss show. It’s the victory lap,” Stanley said of the farewell tour stage production. “With that in mind, we wanted to put together something that really raised the bar, not just for us, but as happened over the years, raises the bar for every act out there. That’s a good thing because the fans win because of it. This show is more bombastic. There’s more pyro. The lights are stunning. The automation involved, the computer synchronization is unlike anything we’ve ever done, and yet it doesn’t lose, we don’t wind up with something that’s technical and sterile over something that’s passionate and gritty. So it’s a marvel, I’ve got to tell you. It left us speechless when we first saw the finished stage. And for us to be silent is a miracle in itself.”
