In an interview with Rolling Stone, former KISS guitarist Bruce Kulick talked about KISS’ farewell tour and shared his opinions on the possible effects of Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley‘s health status on the future of the band.
As you may remember, KISS had announced their so-called farewell tour in 2000. They completed the tour in 2001 as their last tour but later on, they publicly said that they gave up retiring. In 2018, KISS announced that they would do a second farewell tour named ‘End of the Road World Tour.’
Their final tour started in 2019 and it has been still going on. The tour would originally end in New York in the summer of 2021 but they had to delay it due to the pandemic. KISS is planning to be on the roads again in 2022 and the tour is planned to end in early 2023 if everything goes right. As a former KISS member, Bruce Kulick was asked about their final tour during the conversation.
Kulick believes that KISS will stop touring but they will probably continue doing KISS shows periodically. He doesn’t think that KISS will totally break up. Kulick stated that doing a big tour becomes quite difficult as he gets older and he thinks that it is also the same situation with Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley. Kulick also reminded Stanley’s hip surgery and said that it is really hard for him to give his full performance during the shows.
During the conversation, Bruce Kulick said:
“I do think they will stop touring in a traditional sense. Would they manage and present other KISS-related things? You know, they have this idea that KISS will never die. They could have a KISS-themed show they aren’t in… Could they pull that off successfully? Absolutely. KISS is a brand like Coca-Cola.
I do think Gene and Paul will retire from touring. I know Gene well enough. They won’t carry on with what you know as a big touring KISS show forever. They just can’t. They don’t want to do it. To be honest, me playing that big festival in Minnesota, I’m running around like it’s 20 or 30 years ago, I’m like, ‘I don’t want to do this forever. I don’t have that energy to do it forever.’
I want to do it as long as I can, but how about Gene in a 40-pound outfit performing a two-hour show? No way. Paul’s had hip surgeries. You can’t sustain that. It’s harder and harder the older you get. They’re going to do some great business and some great shows. But they’re going to wrap it up in a year or so. I think they will.”
Apparently, Bruce Kulick thinks that KISS will stop touring in a traditional way because the members get older and they have some health problems to deal with. It seems like KISS intends to finish touring but they will certainly come together and perform from time to time.
