Gene Simmons “If Mick Jagger stepped into my dragon boots, he couldn’t last a half hour.”
Gene Simmons says that KISS will eventually embark on a farewell tour because he and his bandmates “can’t keep doing this forever.”
Rumors of KISS‘s final run of live shows gained strength a couple of months ago following the news that the band was attempting to trademark the phrase “The End Of The Road.” An application from KISS was filed on February 8 to the United States Patent and Trademark Office, which — should it be accepted — means that the band could use it in connection with “live performances by a musical band.” As it stands now, no official farewell tour has been announced.
As most fans remember, back in 2000 and 2001, KISS already performed a “Farewell Tour”. The trek, which was the last to feature drummer Peter Criss, played 142 shows over five legs, covering North America, Japan, and Australia.
In a brand new interview with the Chicago Sun-Times, Simmons acknowledged that KISS‘s final tour with the current lineup is likely to happen in the not-too-distant future. “There will be one at some point,” he said. “We can’t keep doing this forever. We are the hardest-working band in show business. If [Mick] Jagger stepped into my dragon boots, he couldn’t last a half hour.” More importantly, Simmons says, the band “doesn’t want to stay on stage a day longer than when we feel valid… Remember, we introduced ourselves as, ‘You wanted the best, you got the best, the hottest band in the world.’ Not we ‘used to be’ the best.”
Simmons recenly that he “had nothing to do” with KISS‘s attempt to trademark “The End Of The Road.” “I really don’t know who stuck it on there, and I don’t know if it’s a fan or somebody in the band,” he said. “I would tell you the truth. I literally don’t know anything about it.”
Gene‘s KISS bandmate Paul Stanley confirmed that he was behind “The End Of The Road” trademark application, telling journalist Michael Cavacini: “It’s not the first trademark that’s been filed. I thought it was a terrific name, and I was surprised nobody had used it before. I wanted to make sure that when we used it, and there will be a time that we do, I imagine — I wanted to be sure that we own it and it’s ours. When we wanted to go out and do the ‘Hottest Show On Earth’ tour, Ringling Bros. came to us and said, ‘You can’t do that.’ It set off a light and bell for me. We’ve always had slogans or sayings that are synonymous with us, and this was another. Everything does end, in one form or another. When it’s my time, I want to go out in style, and I want to go out guns blazing. So, when I came up with this idea, I thought let’s make sure we tie this up.”
Stanley previously said that the band’s tumultuous “Farewell Tour” in 2000 was nothing more than an attempt by the group to “put KISS out of its misery” after years of ego clashes and disagreements over songwriting credits between the band’s original members.
Stanley has repeatedly said that the band could one day continue without him and Simmons, explaining in an interview: “Once the original [KISS lineup] was no more, it just became clear to us that, in some ways, we’re much more a sports team. We don’t fall into the limitations of other bands, because we’re not other bands. So, yeah, at some point, I’d love to see somebody in the band in my place, and it’s because I love the band.”
Back in January, Stanley said that he wasn’t sure “about the idea of KISS coming to an end. We’ve built something that’s so iconic, and I think it transcends any of the members so I can certainly see me not being there, seriously.” He also spoke about his reasons for wanting to spend less time on the road. “I don’t want to go leave home,” he said. “I have a family and I have children and, honestly, I think my primary responsibility is to be a dad, and I don’t want to miss out on that. And certainly, as we got older, we know that life is finite and I pick and choose what I want to do at this point.”
