KISS recently issued a statement to Rolling Stone regarding the death of their guitar tech. In the announcement, they also responded to the accusations claiming they caused his death.
As you may know, both Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons were diagnosed with COVID-19 shortly after restarting their tour. Therefore, KISS needed to postpone the following dates of their farewell tour. The pair recovered from the disease in a short time as they had been vaccinated.
Following that, KISS got back on the road for their End Of The World Tour. However, although Simmons encouraged fans to follow the restrictions and measures against the virus, it turned out that the crowd at their performances wasn’t wearing masks.
This disregard for the regulations then led to another backlash from KISS’ roadies. After the death of the band’s long-time guitar tech Francis Stueber, several crew members told Rolling Stone that this lack of protocols possibly led to Stueber’s tragic passing.
One of KISS’ roadies told Rolling Stone that:
“I couldn’t believe how unsafe it was, and that we were still going. We’d been frustrated for weeks, and by the time Fran died, I just thought, ‘You have to be f’king kidding me.'”
According to the crew members, daily testing was not implemented, and everyone wore masks improperly when backstage. Moreover, they also claimed that some crew members hid that they tested positive for COVID-19 and had fake vaccine cards.
Following these accusations, KISS issued a statement to Rolling Stone, in which they denied them all. In the statement, they also stated that they were heartbroken after the tragic loss of Stueber and encouraged everyone to get vaccinated to protect people around them. As KISS said, they met all the coronavirus safety protocols for their farewell tour, but there is always the element of risk.
KISS’s statement read:
“We are profoundly heartbroken at the loss of Francis. He was a friend and colleague of 20 years, there is no way to replace him. Millions of people have lost someone special to this horrific virus, and we encourage everyone to get vaccinated. Please protect yourself and your loved ones.
Our ‘End of the Road World Tour’ absolutely had COVID safety protocols in place that met but most often exceeded federal, state, and local guidelines. But ultimately, this is still a global pandemic, and there is simply no foolproof way to tour without some element of risk.”
Although the KISS members claim otherwise, it seems the crew members might be right about the lack of protocols. In the light of their concert footage surfaced on the internet, almost no one in the crowd was wearing a mask, and it should be the band’s responsibility to enforce these precautions.
