Night Ranger guitarist Brad Gillis opened up about his evolving relationship with KISS, revealing that Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley’s warmth on tour changed his perspective on the band.
Gillis explained that he wasn’t originally drawn to KISS’s music. Touring alongside Simmons and Stanley shifted his opinion despite the pair’s reputation.
“To be honest, I wasn’t a big KISS fan growing up, so that wasn’t on the forefront of my radar of music,” Gillis said.
“But I became a KISS fan when we toured with them, and all of a sudden go, ‘Oh yeah, this is cool, this is cool.’ And of course, Gene [Simmons] and Paul [Stanley], man, they took us under their wing for this tour, and they were so great to us. Just this young band and we’d just came out with ‘Don’t Tell Me You Love Me.'”
Gillis’s comments highlight the impact the tour had on Night Ranger during their early years. The band credits KISS’s support for helping shape their experience in the industry.
The tour Gillis referenced was KISS’s Creatures of the Night run in 1982 and 1983. It marked one of the earliest and most formative chapters of Night Ranger’s touring career.
Night Ranger joined the bill shortly after releasing their debut album, Dawn Patrol, stepping onto arena stages alongside a band that already had a massive following. Gillis had just wrapped seven months on the road with Ozzy Osbourne when the KISS dates came together. He later called the transition a smooth one, describing the whole run as a great experience for the young band.
Night Ranger drummer Kelly Keagy echoed that sentiment, pointing to the tour as a turning point for the group. “We were exposed with those two bands early on. As soon as Dawn Patrol was released we joined the 10th anniversary Kiss tour,” Keagy said. “It was a huge thing for us to see how Kiss worked, and their camaraderie on and off stage.”
The bond forged on that tour never really faded. Over the following decades, Night Ranger and KISS crossed paths repeatedly, including multiple appearances together on the KISS Kruise.
That connection remains active more than four decades after the original tour. Night Ranger is set to perform at the KISS-themed Landlocked in Vegas event in November 2026, underscoring how lasting that early support turned out to be.
