KISS is in the middle of a massive Farewell Tour. In a recent interview, Paul Stanley said they have no plans of getting the band’s original lineup back together.
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KISS has been rocking since the early seventies. Over the last five decades, they’ve changed lineups several times. Stanley and Gene Simmons are the only original members still with the four-piece. Currently, Tommy Thayer and Eric Singer take up the other two slots in the band. They’ve held strong with this roster since 2004. With their latest Farewell Tour underway, this might be the band’s final lineup.
However, countless fans would love to see Simmons and Stanley join forces with Peter Criss and Ace Frehley once more. Those fans shouldn’t hold their collective breath.
In a recent interview with Ultimate Classic Rock, Stanley said it’s not going to happen. “This tour is a celebration of the band and the life of the band over the past 50 years,” he said. “It’s not a celebration of the original lineup.”
However, Stanley won’t discount the importance of Criss and Frehley’s contributions to the legacy of KISS. “I can say we wouldn’t be here today if not for them,” he explained. Then, he added, “We wouldn’t be here today with them.”
Stanley also explained why the original KISS lineup won’t take the stage together. “It doesn’t make sense to allow anybody to come in and call shots. We are in great shape. The band is fantastic. I don’t want to mar the celebration. I don’t want to mar the situation. It’s been too good.”
The band will play their final shows on December 1 and 2 at New York’s Madison Square Garden. Stanley discussed his feelings on the end of an era.
“Playing the Garden will be exhilarating and full circle, and yet it’s also the end of the band as it exists,” he explained. Then, he discussed why this is the band’s final farewell. Stanley is aware that skeptics will look back to the 2000-2001 Farewell Tour and doubt that KISS is ready to take off the makeup forever. Those skeptics would be wrong, Stanley asserted. He said they plotted the last tour under “very different circumstances.”
“This is based on reality and limitation of doing something indefinitely,” Stanley explained. Everyone in the band is getting older and they’re ready to retire before they’re too old to put on shows that are worthy of their hard-rocking legacy.
Photo by Daniel Pockett/AFL Photos/via Getty Images
