Gene Simmons Frehley and Criss are welcome to join KISS on stage during the current tour, they are simply not reliable enough to be permanent fixtures on the trek
Gene Simmons says that Peter Criss and Ace Frehley have both been invited to appear on KISS‘s “End of the Road” tour.
The trek, which kicked off in January, features the band’s current lineup, consisting of Simmons, guitarist/vocalist Paul Stanley, drummer Eric Singer and guitarist Tommy Thayer.
As recently as this week, Ace said that he was open to playing with KISS again despite his social media outburst earlier this year in which the ex-KISS guitarist called Gene an “asshole and a sex addict.”
But Simmons told The Evening Standard that while Frehley and Criss are welcome to join KISS on stage during the current tour, they are simply not reliable enough to be permanent fixtures on the trek.
“They were as important as any one of us in the early days of the band and they’ve both been invited to come on stage at some point in the tour,” Gene said. “But we couldn’t do the whole thing with them. They’re completely undependable.”
Simmons went on to praise Singer and Thayer, saying: “Eric‘s played with everybody: Brian May, BLACK SABBATH, Alice Cooper, you name it. He and Tommy have a love of labor. They show up on time, do the work and are thrilled to meet the fans. Other members, without naming names, have been miserable.”
Last month, Stanley said that it was still possible that Frehley and Criss would make guest appearances during “End Of The Road”.
“Who knows?” he said during an interview with the “Torg And Eliott” morning show on 96.3 WLVQ in Columbus, Ohio. “I have to say that door is open, but it’s nothing that I contemplate daily. We’re 45 shows into a sold-out tour, and it’s going to continue. And it’s a celebration, not of any lineup of the band — it’s a celebration of everything we’ve accomplished with our fans. And that’s not limited to any particular people. So whatever happens, happens. But this lineup in particular — Eric‘s been playing drums for over 25 years, I think, and Tommy‘s been in the band for 18 years, so we have a pretty good stability and tenure of this lineup.”
Frehley recently said that while he has still not been approached to be a part of “End Of The Road”, he is not ruling out being involved in some capacity. “I’ve offered my services, and they just haven’t made the decision to bring me back,” he told Oklahoma’s KATT Rock 100.5 radio station. “And that’s okay, because I’m having a lot of fun as a solo artist. But I also am concerned about the fans as well. I wanna give the fans the biggest bang for their buck, and they’re not getting it at this juncture.
“They’ve had this lineup with Tommy and Eric for 15 years, and they announced they were doing the ‘End Of The Road’ tour, and that it was gonna be bigger and better than anything they’ve ever done in the past, and they gave the impression that maybe me and Peter might be involved, and this and that,” he continued. “Then they just come out and pretty much do the same set they’ve been doing for years. So I don’t know. It is what it is. I do my thing, and Pauland Gene are doing theirs.”
The “End Of The Road” tour — the initial European leg of which began in Leipzig, Germany on May 27 — is expected to continue throughout 2020.
