During a conversation with Guitar World, KISS bassist Gene Simmons talked about the band’s farewell tour, addressing those who are skeptical about the trek actually being their last one.
A lot of bands embark on farewell tours, only to come back out a few years later and pick up right where they left off. How do we know this is really it for Kiss?
“I understand, I understand. People might not believe it. But let’s just call it for what it is – it’s the final tour. Because you want to go out on top. I’m 69. Still strong; still look good; still have hair on my head… although I have a lot more on my back now.
“But by the time this tour finishes, I’ll be 72. So if I was in the Stones or U2, I could run around onstage in sneakers and a t-shirt and never break a sweat. And both those bands are great.
“But KISS is a different animal – we’re like heavy artillery. We’re armored. I wear eight-inch platform heels and it takes hours to put on the makeup and the studs and all the stuff, and then I fly through the air with no net, shoot fire out of my a*s, Paul flies off at the stage wearing 40 pounds of armor…
“We all love Jagger and Bono, but if they put in the amount of work we put in, they’d drop dead in a half hour.
Lazy guys.
“I love them to death and respect those guys. But all they have to do is sing.”