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Farewell to Kings: how Kiss built and sustained The Greatest Show on Earth for 50 years

Kiss are preparing to close the door on their remarkable career. As with all the greats, we will never see their like again...

São Paulo, May 2022

For just a nanosecond, we have stumped Gene Simmons . Which is really difficult to do. For 50 years, Kiss have shared stages around the world as opening act, co-headliners but mainly headliners with seemingly every major band around. When asked if there were any bands that he wishes Kiss could have played with but never got the chance, he says: “ The Beatles . The Beatles in their prime. They bring all their tricks, we bring all our tricks. You’d get a cross-section of fans. And The Beatles would clearly win with music, but we’d kill ’em with the show. We would crush them. I say that lovingly, because that’s my favourite band of all time.”

New York City, 1975

By the spring of 1975, the members of Kiss – vocalist/guitarist Paul Stanley , bassist Gene Simmons, lead guitarist Ace Frehley and drummer Peter Criss – should have been giving serious thought to taking their band in a radical new direction or just shutting it down altogether. Whatever they were doing, it just wasn’t working. 

It wasn’t for a lack of hard work. The New York- based quartet officially formed in January 1973, after Simmons and Stanley ditched their roots- rock five-piece Wicked Lester and joined forces with the hard-charging duo of Criss and Frehley. 

Kiss were gigging in less than a month, and by late summer they had scored a major-label deal with Casablanca Records. In the next two years, Kiss proceeded to release three polished, pop- savvy, rock albums ( Kiss and Hotter Than Hell in ’74, Dressed To Kill in ’75), but the fame that they deeply believed was theirs for the taking continued to elude them. 

They’d had plenty of hits by then – fist- pumping, radio-friendly parking-lot anthems about sex, parties and rock’n’roll, packed with riffs big enough to knock satellites out of orbit. They had the look, too: that bewitching collision of glam, heavy metal, horror and fantasy, playing out as painted faces, dressed in leather and studs, spitting blood, breathing fire and unleashing holy hell on gobsmacked audiences. Commercially, however, there was little correlation between the surging audience numbers at their live shows and the middling sales of the three albums, which in total fell short of 300,000. 

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If they could transmit the electrifying energy of their live show to people who had never even heard of them, much less seen them in concert, then they could conquer the planet. But aside from the challenges of bottling an eye-popping visual spectacle into an audio format, if the three albums weren’t selling, then where was the sense in repackaging those same songs as a live album? 

Propelled by steroidal self-confidence, they recorded five shows in the spring of 1975, and in September released Alive! , a marauding double live album that stormed the US Top 10, rode the charts for 110 weeks and launched Kiss into the stratosphere. Today, Alive! is regarded as one of the greatest live albums of all time and has sold nearly 10 million copies. 

Today the band are hunkered down in their São Paulo hotel on a day off. Kiss – now Paul, Gene, guitarist Tommy Thayer and drummer Eric Singer – have long transcended the music, emerging as a major brand in pop culture; even people who couldn’t care less about music recognise the band’s painted faces and iconic logo. 

Just two nights ago they took the stage at Allianz Parque Stadium in São Paulo, Brazil, before a frenzied, sold-out audience exceeding 60,000. It’s something Gene wants to make sure we know before our interview, so he directs their tour manager to send over a raft of tweets, photos, videos and drone footage from the show. 

Gene is affable, chatty and he listens intently, which isn’t all that common among artists in his league. Interviews are, by definition, one-sided affairs, but occasionally you find the odd artist who prefers to have a conversation. Gene is one such artist. Now a hale 72 years old, he’s not above the odd boomer joke. At one point, towards the end of the interview, he says: “These are semantics. But I’m not anti-semantic. Ha ha.” 

In many ways, South America never left the 1960s in terms of pure rock’n’roll chaos. Few bands engender the manic, street-clogging hysteria that Kiss do, and Gene is here for it. “We’re trapped in the hotel. We literally can’t leave. It’s nuts. And fun. All these South American shows are like that. They’re just over-the-top. We’re going to play Mexico City, and they’re expecting ninety to a hundred thousand. It’s nuts.” 

It’s always nuts when Kiss drop into South America, but this tour is different because its the very last one – it’s The End Of The Road Tour . 

Still in São Paulo, May 2022

Originally announced in 2018, The End Of The Road Tour has been touted as the band’s final campaign – a global victory lap spanning multiple years, countries and continents. It kicked off in January 2019. Then the pandemic slammed the brakes on, resulting in scores of cancellations and postponements. Last August, just as the band were starting back out, Gene tested positive for covid, and Paul caught the virus twice in the final six months of the year. 

While both reported mild symptoms, Paul’s longtime guitar tech, Francis Stueber, died of the virus. Currently, dates are booked through their annual Kiss Kruise, which finishes on November 3, but there are many more dates to be announced, including the location of their final show. 

Paul is as friendly and chilled as you like, and delivers his answers in a slow, thoughtful cadence. Addressing the unlikeliness of a Kiss Kruise being the site for their final show, he throws us a bone: “Although I can’t really put it out there yet, it would be odd to me that we wouldn’t end in New York. So I think it’s safe to say the end will be in New York. We lost two years, but at the same time we are determined to go from here to the end – and not go quietly.” 

One question we’re obliged to ask is just how serious this ‘End Of The Road’ business really is. After all, Kiss announced their first farewell tour in 2000. Ace and Peter had rejoined the band in 1996, following acrimonious departures in the 80s, and the guys swore that that 2000 tour would be their last. Just two years later, the band returned with Tommy and Eric having replaced Ace and Peter respectively, establishing Kiss’s current and final line-up. 

“Circumstances are very different.” Paul says. “When we did that [2000] farewell tour, we in essence drank our own Kool-Aid. The idea that the band couldn’t continue without the four original members was absurd. Frankly, we were miserable as a foursome. It was horrible. It turned into years of drudgery and uncertainty whether everybody was going to make it to the lobby, let alone the stage. And so what we were basically doing was putting down the horse. 

“Gene and I just felt: ‘Okay, we need to stop.’ And then it dawned on me that people didn’t want us gone, and we didn’t actually want to be gone. We didn’t want to say farewell to the band, we wanted to say farewell to two members.” 

Gene offers a more practical reason why this tour is truly the end: “At some point, you’ve got to have some dignity and pride and quit while the gettin’s good. I’m seventy-two and still in great shape, but am I going to be convincing doing this at seventy-five? No. Because I still have to wear these dragon boots proudly. Each of them weigh almost as much as a bowling ball, on their own, plus I wear about forty pounds of armour and studs and guitars that I’m carrying around on eight-inch platform heels. You’ve got to spit fire, fly through the air and all that stuff. And you do it for two hours. I mention the Stones – and we’re all big fans – and Jagger’s in amazing shape, but he wouldn’t last a half hour in my outfit. The physicality of what we do is just crazy.”

London, UK, May 11-12, 1976

Alive! catapulted Kiss on to the European scene. By spring of 1976, they had two albums in the UK chart – Destroyer and Alive! – and their leering painted faces were on the pages of magazines throughout Britain. 

On May 11 they landed in the UK for the very first time, and booked in for two days of rehearsals at Shepperton Studios, just outside London. “We were flush with success from America,” says Gene. “Big time. Word had gotten out, so we were playing three-thousand-seaters in the UK. They all sold out, but we didn’t have any idea. We didn’t do interviews. We were avid readers of Melody Maker and Sounds and New Musical Express. We just read them because they were cool and they talked about all of these bands that never came over to America.” 

The United States is where Kiss were formed, and South America would claim their most fanatical supporters. But since day one the UK has always been the band’s spiritual home. Looking back on that first pilgrimage, Gene recalls: “When we landed in London, for us it was holy ground. It was the home of The Beatles. I wasn’t interested in going to Buckingham Palace, all I wanted to do was go to Liverpool.” 

Paul adds: “Look, whether other bands may like it or not, we’re more the bastard children of The Who , the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin and on, than Jefferson Airplane and Grateful Dead. We are Anglophiles, and that’s the music that has always meant the most to us, and we wanted to be embraced.” 

So with the singular goal of melting every single face of their first British audience, they headed up to Manchester.

Manchester Free Trade Hall, UK, May 13, 1976

A ticket to the very first Kiss show in the UK would have set you back about £1 to £2.50. It was a bargain, because that night Kiss unleashed an absolute torrent of highly energised, arena-sized anthems, bolstered by all of the fire and pyro that the Free Trade Hall could withstand. 

“We were extremely pumped,” Gene recalls. “You had that sense of danger because you were in a different country and you don’t know how they’re going to react. But they got it right away. By that time, they knew the songs and they sang along at some points. It was great. And if you read the reviews, there was a ‘there’s a new kid in town’ kind of thing.” 

The first four UK gigs were all sell-outs, but that first in Manchester was an unambiguous show of force. It was featured on Tony Wilson’s television programme So It Goes , where he interviewed the band and acknowledged the surreal hype surrounding them. “On reflection,” Wilson says, “the media blitz and the spectacle came a bad second to the power of their music. If you let it – many didn’t – you could get yourself blown away by those banks of Marshall speakers.” 

The connection they formed with those first UK audiences was immediate. “We were a working man’s band,” says Gene. “We were never Roxy Music . We never appealed to people of high fashion and champagne and stuff like that. It was people who had to get up and go to work and who liked, as the British say, ‘meat and two veg’. And it bears knowing that the girls were flocking. They’d all wait backstage. A lot of fun.” 

São Paulo, May 2, 2022

To say that Kiss fans are different is an understatement. Most legendary bands claim rabid fan bases, but Kiss have a literal army. The Kiss Army, to be precise. Being in the Kiss Army involves more than just going to shows with faces painted like the band; it’s attending Kiss conventions, sailing away on Kiss Kruises (the Kiss Navy), and throwing mountains of hard cash at the endless commercial offerings bearing the Kiss brand – everything from comics to covid masks to condoms and even coffins (the Kiss Kasket). 

Then there’s the seemingly endless parade of ‘greatest hits’ compilations, live albums and collectibles that the band regularly offer. Some people accuse Kiss of crass commercialism, placing their bottom line above the quality of their music output and treating their loyal fans like fleshy ATMs. Kiss do little to downplay the financial angle, and Gene has estimated the value of the Kiss brand somewhere between $1 billion and $5 billion. 

Such criticisms ignore the wholly reciprocal nature of capitalism. Nobody forces Kiss fans to buy Kiss-branded Hello Kitty dolls, or to scoop up every super-duper deluxe box set that the band release. For the loyal denizens of the Kiss Army, every dollar spent is a proud declaration of their allegiance – a statement of who they are and the band they represent. 

Although they could not have foreseen it back in 1973, their painted faces have imbued Kiss with immortality, at least in the commercial sense. While you’re not likely to find Roger Waters action figures in your local record shop, or T-shirts emblazoned with the weathered visage of 77-year- old Rod Stewart, the faces of Kiss haven’t changed in half a century thanks to the make-up (save for their Unmasked period between 1983-1996). People age, but logos are timeless. 

Still, there’s a very honest emotional bond between Kiss and their fans – Paul often uses the word ‘reciprocity’ – and as this final campaign inexorably approaches its terminus, he’ll miss the interactions. “When someone says that our music got them through chemotherapy and their battle with cancer, well that’s mind-boggling,” he says. “But that we could have that kind of effect on somebody means I have a lot to live up to and it means that I have a lot to deliver with a sense of obligation to that person. Mind you, this may all sound corny, but I don’t give a shit. This is reality and it got us where we are, so anybody who dismisses it, I’d rather look at where they are.” 

Occasionally the fan interactions take on more colourful shades. “A number of times there have been attractive women who have said: ‘Can I please have your sperm?’” Gene says. “I don’t mean: ‘Let’s have sex’ – that’s happened enough times – but they wanted to be able to have a child.” 

Well? 

“Thanks, but no thanks. Ha ha. As far as I know there are no little Genes running around.” 

Monsters of Rock Tour, Donington Park, UK, August 20, 1988

No band trafficking in heavy music can lay claim to Britain without first treading the boards at Donington. Discussing their first appearance there, at the 1988 Monsters Of Rock, Paul says: “Donington is so revered and has such a history to it, that to participate in it, on the shores that we felt were very much responsible for our being, we had to make sure that we rose to the occasion.” 

Twelve years after their first UK appearance, Kiss had long transcended 3,000-seat halls and £2 tickets. This was Monsters Of Rock , and the crowd topped 100,000. Their Donington debut occurred during the unmasked period, when they had ditched their make-up and armour, and the line- up included Bruce Kulick on guitar and Eric Carr on drums. Summer rains had reduced the grounds to a deep, shoe-swallowing sludge in which an entire city of fans drank, danced and flopped in the mud. 

The day took a grisly turn, however, when two fans were trampled to death and a number of others injured as the crowd surged forward when Guns N’ Roses took the stage earlier in the day. The fatalities weren’t revealed until the next day. 

Although both video and audio from that day reveal a tight, energised Kiss set, in previous interviews Paul has said the appearance was not Kiss at their best. Addressing that comment today, he explains: “I would say that what Donington and Download has seen of us since we put back on the war paint and uniforms is much more focused in terms of who we were and who we are. I don’t think the band has ever been as good as it is now; it’s never been as much fun as it is now.” 

Ace and Peter are not as delicate a topic as one might think. Which is helpful, considering that it plays such a massive role in The End Of The Road Tour , with people wondering how, if at all, the band’s most famous alumni might be included in the festivities. 

We need not dance around it – it’s something that Paul and Gene raise repeatedly throughout our interviews, often as an unexpected tangent. When asked how he thinks he might feel when Kiss finish playing the final song at their final show, Gene says: “I was hoping that Ace and Peter, at least for that, would be with us. It would be the saddest thing of all if they chose not to be there. But such is life. 

“I hope and wish they’ll get over the victim, ‘look what happened to me’. No, nothing happened to you. These were all decisions you made. They were in and out of the band three different times. Can you believe that? How many chances in life do you want? That’s the saddest thing.” 

And the fans? 

“There are fans that are still angry with us about Ace and Peter. They just don’t understand.” 

For Gene’s part, he’s trying. In April he tweeted: ‘Happy Birthday Ace. And many more... The invitations still stand. Jump up on stage with us for encores. The fans would love it.’ To date, Ace has not responded, although to be fair, he’s an infrequent tweeter at best. Addressing this tweet, Gene states: “I personally have asked Ace and Peter a number of times: ‘Hey, this is the last time around. We’ve still got another hundred cities or so to go. Why don’t you jump on stage with us?’ And they said no.” 

“They said no?”

“Yeah. More than once.”

Regarding what role Ace and Peter might play in the remainder of the final tour, Paul says: “It would be great to have Ace and/or Peter participate at some point if they were interested, and if their requests or demands were realistic and not disruptive to the overall spirit of this tour.” 

Tommy Thayer is the most laid-back of them all, quick to chuckle, with an easy, West-Coast chill. Although he’s been the lead guitarist in Kiss longer than anyone else, it was a position he had to earn in more ways than one. 

“It wasn’t easy at first, coming in and filling Ace’s shoes,” he says. “They’re big shoes to fill, obviously, so there were a lot of eyes on me and a lot of pressure and it took time to get comfortable. To be the lead guitarist in Kiss, that’s pretty much what every kid dreams about.” 

At various points, all four guys will use the family/divorce analogy when discussing past members, but both Paul and Gene go out of their way to hail the current line-up as their favourite. “When you look at a family from the outside,” says Gene, “when you find out that they split up, it comes as a shock. But the people that live with it day-to-day certainly understand. So that’s why I can’t praise Eric and Tommy enough for giving new blood and new life. Through their eyes, they’re the most grateful team guys ever.” 

Friendly, somewhat serious and still retaining his thick Long Island accent, Eric takes a balanced view of his role and the context in which he earned it. “I know there are certain fans that feel a certain way about certain eras of the band, and I totally get it! I respect it. People forget that I was a huge Kiss fan from the very, very beginning. I was one of the first Kiss fans that I ever knew. And hey, if it wasn’t for the original Kiss – if it wasn’t for Peter Criss, Gene, Paul and Ace – I wouldn’t be here talking to you.” 

The Popcorn Club, Queens, New York, January 30, 1973

It was a bone-chilling Tuesday night in Queens when the band rolled up to the Popcorn Club for their load-in. Although some reports say that by January 30 the band had formally changed their name from Wicked Lester to Kiss, Gene is clear that the name change came at some point between the booking of the show and when the performance took place. 

“We didn’t have a manager,” he says. “So I called the guy. ‘You won’t believe this band, Wicked Lester. They do original material and, if you want, we’ll stick in a Wilson Pickett song or an Otis Redding song.’ Over the phone I sold the band to him for thirty-five dollars. Never mind that getting the truck to move our equipment and all that was going to cost more, we just wanted to flex our muscles.” 

Kiss had already amassed a clutch of original material, including the songs Deuce , Firehouse and Black Diamond , and they had also committed to the idea of giving audiences something visually stunning to accompany the music. 

“We didn’t sound like what we looked like,” Gene admits. “One day we went down to Woolworth, which was a chain of department stores, and bought long mirrors – fifteen bucks or something like that – and bought clown make-up, God knows why, and started putting make-up on our faces; there were no make-up artists or anything. And designs on the whiteface. Nobody could point to a reason why or what the spark was that started the fire. I don’t know. There are things in science called ‘singularities’ – they just happen.” 

And so, before a small but supportive audience of less than 10 – and even then mainly girlfriends and friends – four local dudes wearing face paint ripped into Deuce . And music would never be the same again. 

Kiss have released 20 studio albums, four simultaneously released solo albums, 12 live albums (including Live In Donington , out now), 14 compilation albums, nine box sets, 60 singles, 15 video albums and three movies. Combined album sales now exceed 100 million worldwide. Kiss have earned hundreds of millions of dollars through their records, live shows, merchandise and licensing deals. They reportedly earned more than $500 million just in the 15 years after their first farewell tour. It’s a level of success well beyond what many could imagine. 

How the band members measure Kiss’s success varies, however. 

“It’s important to state that we are the luckiest sons of bitches who have ever walked upright,” says Gene. “I’ll say that. I know I’m the luckiest son of a bitch who ever lived, from my point of view. I came to America as a legal immigrant and never could imagine scaling the heights, much less being able to hang around for decades.” 

“I have to tell you,” says Eric, “the last few shows we’ve played, when we take the stage, sometimes I say to myself: ‘Eric, you’ve just got to absorb and enjoy this because you’re not going to be able to do this forever, and one day it’s not going to be like this.’ Playing in front of a giant crowd like we did the other night is a very special feeling, and most people will never ever know what that’s like. It’s better than any drug that you can ever imagine.” 

For his part, Paul sees endurance as their true measure of success. “Success is not that difficult,” he offers. “Sustaining success is what’s difficult. To first be written off as some sort of joke and forty- eight years later to be playing in front of 65,000 people says it all. Time tells everything – who’s right and wrong. So I’d say that endurance. The obstacles didn’t stop, nor did our determination to knock them out of the way.” 

Donington Park, June 2022

As of the writing of this feature, the 2022 Download festival looms just over a month away. Kiss are headlining on the Friday, and it will be their final live show in the UK. They were initially slated to headline Download in 2020, then 2021, but both years the festivals were cancelled due to covid. It’s all looking good for 2022 however, and the band are champing at the bit for one final run at Donington. 

“We’re excited!” Tommy enthuses. “To play there and headline their biggest hard rock festival is always an honour, and this year it’s something that we’re really geared up for. It’s too bad that it’s been rescheduled for two years in a row, but it’s finally happening now. We’re really excited and we look forward to playing the UK. We’re all Anglophiles and we love the bands that have come from England, almost better than anywhere else. It holds a special place in our hearts.” 

“I never liked ‘Download’,” says Gene, “that word. I think it’s cold and stupid. I don’t want to go down, I want to go up. I know it’s a tech term, but tech terms often sound heartless and cold and stupid. ‘I’m going to go on the web...’ Well fuck, I hope a spider doesn’t eat you up! That word’s taken, don’t use that. ‘I’m gonna use my mouse...’ You’re gonna use a mouse? That word’s taken, come up with your own. So I hated ‘Download’, although the experience was great! I liked Monsters Of Rock. In fact I own ‘Titans Of Rock’. 

“So Donington, yes, of course it means something. There’s a ‘take no prisoners’ attitude when you step in the ring. There are a lot of bands who are opening before you – you’ve got to earn that spot. You can’t just say: ‘I was great once.’ No, no. You’ve got to bring everything and hit ’em over the head with all of it, including the kitchen sink. And that’s what we do. And that’s another reason why you want to get off the stage before it gets too late. I have to say, so far, so good. We sound great. You can go on Google and Schmoogle and all kinds of other things that you can press with your fingers and see and hear us live. It’s damn good.” 

“The UK has always baffled me,” says Paul. “When I was growing up I was completely baffled by the idea that this small area could turn out an abundance of spectacular bands. And not one style – you could have everything from The Who to the Moody Blues, to Van Morrison, to Traffic, to Led Zeppelin. The list was strange in complexity and diversity. So for us to play the UK has always been with a sense of going to the Holy Land. It really is where everything that we believed in and everything we have built upon came from.” 

For years, talk has persisted that Kiss could one day continue as an active band without any of its original members. It’s an idea floated around by the band themselves, made possible by the luxury of interchanging musicians among four made-up characters. “The Kiss brand and the Kiss entity, from a business perspective, is a huge, valuable commodity, and that’s not going to just stop,” says Tommy. 

Tommy, as somebody who started out as a massive Kiss fan, who has worked for the band behind the scenes and played in the band for two decades, is pretty much the ideal guy to carry the flag forward. “I’m probably one person who it would make sense to be involved as time continues, because I can bring a lot to it. What that means, I don’t know, but I have a feeling that I’ll always be involved in the Kiss business somehow.” 

Whether or not something like that one day happens, Gene and Paul – the heart and soul of Kiss – are now approaching the finish line as active members of the band they co-founded 50 years ago. Of their legacy, Gene says: “I’m clear about this: the best part of being in Kiss – and maybe our contribution – is that we raised the bar in terms of what people can expect in a live performance. 

“We wanted to put the band together that we wanted to see on stage. One that had no rules, and a visual element like no one else, and where you could combine Fourth Of July or Guy Fawkes Day fireworks into the show. Why? Because this thing called rock has no rules. So when you go to a wrestling match and you see fireworks shows, or you see Sir Paul McCartney – and I adore the ground he walks on, remember – and you see fireworks and pyro, where do you think he got that from, The Carpenters?” 

“To know what we’ve all been through in the last couple of years,” says Paul, “and are still emerging from – and to see how hungry and in need of this people have been – is something I can’t take lightly. That kind of adoration and appreciation isn’t doled out to every band and every performer. I’m humbled by it, particularly at this point, really knowing that the end is in sight. 

“And this reciprocity with the fans, it’s incredible. It certainly makes me think. I find myself going: ‘Who’s going to be iconic? Who’s going to transcend generations and decades? Who’s going to carry the flag?’ Apart from who will be able to overpower those shows with personality and a point of view. That’s what makes the difference. All the shows out there now couldn’t exist without Kiss DNA.” 

By turns boastful, funny, self-deprecating and passionate, the two men who started it all can’t fend off their emotions when addressing the actual end – that moment in the final Kiss concert, somewhere in New York City, when the band have played the final note of their final song (and it will almost certainly be Rock And Roll All Nite ). They will take their encores – likely several very loud and emotional ones – and eventually retreat from the stage, never to return. 

Gene considers this and says: “One of the reasons I’m the luckiest guy on the planet is that I met Paul Stanley. In our case, one plus one equals three. He’s sort of like the brother I never had. We disagree on all kinds of things but nothing matters. We’re not Jagger/Richards and we’re not Lennon/ McCartney. Not in our wildest dreams. But even those guys turned on each other. That’s never happened here. And never will.” 

Paul draws a deep breath, puts himself in that position for a moment and then says: “What won’t I feel? It’s monumental. It’s overwhelming. It will be incredibly emotional, trying to absorb the enormity of what we’ve done, and I’m quite certain, besides the laughter, there’s going to be enough tears to go around.” 

That morning after the night before, the world as we know it will be a little quieter and a whole lot less exciting. 

Hailing from San Diego, California, Joe Daly is an award-winning music journalist with over thirty years experience. Since 2010, Joe has been a regular contributor for Metal Hammer , penning cover features, news stories, album reviews and other content. Joe also writes for Classic Rock, Bass Player, Men’s Health and Outburn magazines. He has served as Music Editor for several online outlets and he has been a contributor for SPIN, the BBC and a frequent guest on several podcasts. When he’s not serenading his neighbours with black metal, Joe enjoys playing hockey, beating on his bass and fawning over his dogs.

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Watch CBS News

KISS announces final tour ever

By Andrea Park

September 20, 2018 / 3:15 PM EDT / CBS News

Fans can give Paul Stanley, Tommy Thayer, Eric Singer and Gene Simmons a kiss goodbye. KISS announced their final world tour, appropriately titled "End of the Road." The band performed "Detroit Rock City" on "America's Got Talent" before the big reveal on Tuesday. 

The band has been active for 45 years. In a statement, they said, "All that we have built and all that we have conquered over the past four decades could never have happened without the millions of people worldwide who've filled clubs, arenas and stadiums over those years. This will be the ultimate celebration for those who've seen us and a last chance for those who haven't. KISS Army, we're saying goodbye on our final tour with our biggest show yet and we'll go out the same way we came in ... Unapologetic and Unstoppable." 

• Gene Simmons announces $2,000 box set, "The Vault"

In total, KISS has a discography of 20 studio albums, 8 live albums and 13 compilation albums. The band was founded in 1973. 

ANNOUNCING! #KISS ' #EndOfTheRoad World Tour. Sign up for updates & presale info: https://t.co/Khudwx7cud pic.twitter.com/GuLaU5LMcN — KISS (@KISSOnline) September 20, 2018

The band has not announced yet when the tour will kick off, but KISS fan club members will be the first to know. 

"End of the Road" is not KISS's first farewell tour. The band held "The Farewell Tour" from 2000 to 2002 with original members Ace Frehley and Peter Criss. 

Earlier this year, Stanley hinted at retirement during an interview with Billboard . He said, "I don't want to go leave home. 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." 

• Gene Simmons

Andrea is an entertainment producer at CBSNews.com

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Kiss Announce ‘Absolute Final Shows’ of Their Farewell Tour

By Daniel Kreps

Daniel Kreps

If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Rolling Stone may receive an affiliate commission.

Nearly three years after Kiss announced the final leg of what was supposed to be their final trek, the band has plotted the final final string of dates on their End of the Road Tour .

Trumpeted as “the absolute final shows of their final tour,” the farewell leg kicks off Oct. 29 in Austin, Texas and hits arenas across the U.S. and Canada before the makeup comes off — for good? — with a two-night stand at Kiss’ hometown Madison Square Garden in New York.

“Kiss was born in New York City. On 23rd Street. Half a century ago. It will be a privilege and honor to finish touring at Madison Square Garden, 10 blocks and 50 years from where we first started,” the band said of the final two gigs, Dec. 1 and 2, at the World’s Most Famous Arena.

Announcing – The Final 50 Shows. The End is HERE! Join the #KISSARMY for access to the final #EndOfTheRoadTour Presale tickets. Presale begins March 6th at 10am local time.  General Onsale begins March 10th at 10am local time. Visit www.KISSOnline for all dates & details now. pic.twitter.com/ZhGkgK4diz — KISS (@kiss) March 1, 2023

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Kiss Tour Dates

October 29 – Austin, TX @ Moody Center November 1 – Palm Springs, CA @ Acrisure Arena November 3 – Los Angeles, CA @ Hollywood Bowl November 6 – Seattle, WA @ Climate Pledge Arena November 8 – Vancouver, BC @ Rogers Arena November 10 – Edmonton, AB @ Rogers Place November 12 – Calgary, AB @ Scotiabank Saddledome November 13 – Saskatoon, SK @ SaskTel Centre November 15 – Winnipeg, MB @ Canada Life Centre November 18 – Montreal, QC @ Centre Bell November 19 – Quebec, QC @ Videotron Centre November 21 – Ottawa, ON @ Canadian Tire Centre November 22 – Toronto, ON @ Scotiabank Arena November 24 – Knoxville, TN @ Thompson-Boling Arena November 25 – Indianapolis. IN @ Gainbridge Fieldhouse November 27 – Rosemont, IL @ Allstate Arena November 29 – Baltimore, MD @ CFG Bank Arena December 1 – New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden December 2 – New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden

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Behind the scenes of the KISS farewell tour

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Somewhere in the skies above San Diego, the God of Thunder is eating a sugar cookie. Gene Simmons of KISS is snacking, out of costume, and looking relaxed in the front rows of his band’s private jet, but he’s begun to notice the hills coming awfully close outside his window.

Less than an hour ago, this Gulfstream jet took off like a rocket from Van Nuys Airport, with a former F-14 fighter pilot in the cockpit and a flight attendant named Kate in a black KISS uniform. Their destination is now just minutes away, and the entire band is onboard, ready for the night’s two hours of vintage rock hits and fireballs shaped like mushroom clouds.

It will be the fifth stop on the KISS End of the Road tour , near the very beginning of a two-year victory lap for the flamboyant hard rock quartet, which emerged 47 years ago as pop culture champions in platform boots and kabuki makeup. But right now, this plane is stuck circling San Diego, as flight controllers keep the air clear for a military jet pilot who lost his canopy.

“Wow. He’s OK, right?” asks Simmons, dressed entirely in black, wearing a cap with his personal moneybags logo. He’s the singer-bassist-co-founder of KISS , known to fans as the Demon, the God of Thunder and Dr. Love, notorious for decades of spitting (fake) blood and (real) fire at concerts.

A capacity crowd of 10,489 awaits them at Viejas Arena, and most of the shows are expected to be sell-outs. (The tour lands Saturday at the Forum.)

“What is that thing that connects to the fans and the band? It’s not just songs,” says Simmons, who turns 70 this summer. “It’s sort of a gathering of the tribes, because it is culture. There’s no reason to put KISS tattoos on your body and to name your children after our songs. There’s this other much bigger idea that hovers above the band and the fans. There’s some connection to your life.”

In back of the jet is singer-guitarist Paul Stanley, his partner in the music and business of KISS, chatting with actor-comic George Lopez, close friend and leading contender for the title of Super-fan No. 1. Stanley wears a stylish flat-brim cowboy hat given to him by Lopez, who will be on the jet for many dates before this tour is done.

“About 25 years ago when we first were approached with the idea of having a plane, we were totally against it because we thought that it was excessive and symptomatic of everything we didn’t want to do or be,” says Stanley, 67, a surprising statement, perhaps, from someone who will soon be flying above an arena crowd on a zip-line. “But it allows you to do more shows; you actually work harder, but the grind is easier.”

The tour is booked through the year across the U.S., Europe and Australia, with more dates to be added, including the first-ever KISS concert in Israel, where Simmons was born.

Drummer Eric Singer, 60, on the plane with an octopus medallion over his chest, says: “I want to enjoy every show, every gig, every day that we do. I want to enjoy all of these moments as they happen. Because when it’s over, it’s over.”

Simmons holds up his cell phone to show a full screen of outgoing messages about the show’s effects, sound, timing. A few days ago, lead guitarist Tommy Thayer suggested they switch out the shock bombs for fiery mushroom-shaped plumages during the opening moments of “Deuce.”

“At the first show we had some problems onstage,” Simmons says. “The fans didn’t know anything. They just went, ‘Wow!’ ”

Production manager for the tour is Robert Long, who began as Stanley’s guitar roadie in the mid-’90s. Now 47, he’s been with KISS since, one of only two crew members who have been with the band a quarter century. His company also designed the stage production, shaping the lighting and effects for each tune: creating “a Fourth of July party” of flash for “Rock and Roll All Nite,” an explosion of flames for the darker “War Machine.”

While the band travels by jet, the End of the Road tour rolls on 17 trucks, about 40 percent larger than past arena tours. It also dwarfs anything built during the legendary KISS extravaganzas of the 1970s, as Long discovered in 1999 when resurrecting the old stage and special effects for the period film “Detroit Rock City.”

“We recreated a ’77 stage from scratch at the same measurements and put it in an arena, and it was the smallest thing,” recalls Long, who has also worked with Mötley Crüe. “It was comical by comparison. Everything was smaller back then. Everybody was discovering what you could do in this business.”

During the show, Long will be on the headset helping to call cues for lighting, pyro and hydraulics, along with the stage manager. Other crew members have been with KISS for 10 years or more, but none are peers from the band’s fabulous first decade.

“Let’s be frank about it: The idea of being a 70-year-old member of a road crew for most people is not what they would aspire to,” says Stanley. “I’m still in touch with people who have moved on to different times in their life. That’s a choice you make and a smart one. I can’t imagine somebody 40 years later still wanting to be tuning my guitars or climbing that scaffolding.”

To be Superman with a guitar doesn’t suck.

— KISS guitarist Paul Stanley

The singer has weathered his own physical abuse through years of touring and multiple surgical repairs to his rotator cuffs and both knees as well as a hip replacement. At the concert tonight, Stanley will fly along a zip-line above the crowd during “Love Gun,” shouting “I’m comin’ to see ya!” In concert, he says, the stunt is easy. Rehearsal is different.

“I’m not really fond of it,” he says of being airborne in an empty arena. “With an audience it has an air of invincibility, and that’s exhilarating. To be Superman with a guitar doesn’t suck.”

In the background, as always for the last 17 years, is a nostalgic contingent of fans, bloggers and radio hosts who call for a reunion of the original quartet that conquered the ’70s, including guitarist Ace Frehley and drummer Peter Criss. In recent years, Frehley, who quit in 2002, had seemingly reconciled with Simmons and Stanley, who guested on some of his recent solo albums.

In 2000, KISS embarked on a farewell tour, four years after the original quartet reunited and returned to wearing their iconic makeup to renewed success. That long goodbye kept getting extended, and by 2003, both Criss and Frehley were gone. KISS chose to continue with new members wearing the face paint. “We thought we couldn’t exist without Ace and Peter,” says Simmons, “and were wrong .”

After the latest farewell tour was announced, Frehley very publicly lobbied to return as a full member. Stanley now says that door was never open. When Simmons remarked that Frehley’s past problems with drugs and alcohol remained an issue, the guitarist fired back that questioning his 12 years of sobriety was personally damaging. “The gloves are off!” he wrote online, charging Simmons with groping his wife at an event at Capitol Records.

“I’m not gonna say anything in print other than I love Ace and Peter and I thank them forever — they’re every bit as important as Paul and myself for launching the band,” Simmons says. “I’m not going to make any guesses of why the emotions are so volatile, but it’s happened before.”

At 57, Thayer is the youngest member of KISS. As a kid growing up in Portland, Ore., Thayer first saw KISS in 1975 at the Paramount Theatre. His lasting memories from the show are of flames surrounding the band.

“KISS back then was considered to be a little more dangerous. It was a band that parents didn’t like,” Thayer remembers with a grin. “They felt that it might be a little satanic and were out there in leather and spitting up blood. As a 14-year-old kid, it was like, this is ... cool!”

On this final world tour, Thayer says, “There’s kind of an emotion to it. Even though we say every time this is the biggest and baddest tour, the preparation and the rehearsing is beyond anything I’ve done since I’ve been in KISS. It’s a cut above.”

Backstage at Viejas Arena, Lopez is in the hospitality room, waiting for his four rock star friends to complete the two-hour ritual of putting on makeup and costumes. His relationship with KISS goes back to his childhood in San Fernando, where he battled regularly with his grandfather over the KISS posters on his bedroom walls.

“At some point the saddest day is when you got to take them down,” Lopez recalls. “You realize you’re trying to bring a woman home, and you’re like 21 or 22, and you got KISS posters in your room? ‘Yeah, this is my little brother’s room.’ ”

By the ’90s, Lopez was a hardcore fan again, and eventually became close to the band, as he is to Eddie Van Halen and Carlos Santana. “I’m a frustrated guitar player,” admits Lopez, 57. “I don’t have the patience to learn a song all the way through, but I can play the beginnings of four good songs and make you think I can really play.”

When Simmons, Stanley, Singer and Thayer reemerge, they’re transformed into imposing alien beasts of black, white and silver and stand several inches taller than before. Their first stop is an intimate gathering of a half-dozen fans, each of whom paid $7,000 for the “Ultimate VIP Experience.”

Among the handful gathered are three adult brothers in matching black T-shirts displaying the 1982 album “Creatures of the Night.” Simmons hooks an arm around the neck of one, and Stanley begins polishing the shaved head of Lawrence Ray, 35, of Fort Worth, Texas, saying: “I see, I see — hair follicles!”

Singer taps out a beat against the back of Russell Ray, 36, of Washington, D.C. Eldest brother Jay Johnson, 46, invited the others to the San Diego concert, and his wife gifted them with the pricey VIP passes, including a private tour of the stage before the show. “Being with my brothers is worth it,” says Johnson, who’ll be watching the show from the pit with them. “We don’t get together that often, so this is awesome for that.”

The band steps into the next room and a less expensive meet-and-greet with a larger crowd of fans in line to take photos. A young man in Demon makeup rolls up in a wheelchair, poses with horns held high beside the band and gets a round of applause.

A woman in blue, Tracy Cullen, 55, a legal secretary from San Diego, throws her arms around Stanley and doesn’t let go. She’s carried around the room with Stanley’s every step. “That’s my mom,” says her son, Michael Cullen, 26, who notes later that she’s done this before.

The two-hour performance in San Diego is unrelenting sound and fury — 20 hits and fan-favorites, beginning with “Detroit Rock City,” with Simmons, Stanley and Thayer descending from the ceiling, charging through its ancient, exhilarating riff. They rock out and blow fire and interact with the crowd: “Let me hear ya!”

As fans exit, Long walks the stage to survey the damage: splashes of stage blood, guitar picks, drool. He notes a light fixture was singed by a fireball. The crew hurries to pack up for the next tour date, less than 24 hours away.

For the most intense fans, it’s an emotional time. After San Diego, Lopez sees them again in Anaheim and at the tiny Whisky on the Sunset Strip. Lopez hasn’t worn KISS makeup since he was a teenager on Halloween 1976 but knows he’ll have to put it on at least one more time before the tour is over.

“I’m going to do it and take a picture,” says Lopez, who hasn’t decided which character he’ll go out as. “Maybe I’ll go half-half. Just putting that on, I’ll be 14 years old again.”

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

When : 7:30 p.m. Saturday

Where: The Forum, 3900 W. Manchester Blvd., Inglewood

Tickets: $104.50-$470

Info: msg.com/the-forum

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Kiss’ 50 Most Important Concerts

Kiss performed their first show for a crowd of less than 10 people on Jan. 30, 1973, at a small club in New York City. In the five decades that have since passed, they've built one of the wildest concert highlight reels in rock history. On multiple tours across the world, they've encountered countless highs and lows, lineup changes, near-death incidents, comedic mishaps, fashion faux pas and gone through an unknown quantity of greasepaint. Here's a chronological guide to 50 of the most important shows in Kiss' history.

Jan. 30, 1973: Kiss Plays Their First Concert

A few weeks after finalizing the lineup with the addition of lead guitarist Ace Frehley , Kiss made their concert debut at the Popcorn Club in Queens, N.Y., earning $50 by playing two sets. Their facepaint and costume designs were in an embryonic state, but the set list included future classics such as "Deuce" and "Black Diamond." The earliest known footage of the band performing, seen below, comes from a show that took place nearly 11 months later.

Dec. 31, 1973: Gene Simmons Sets His Hair on Fire for the First Time

Gene Simmons ' first attempt at his now-famous fireball-spewing trick didn't go so well. In fact, his hair caught on fire while performing the stunt during the band's Jan. 31, 1973 show at the Academy of Music in New York City. Luckily an alert roadie doused the flames quickly. It wouldn't be the last time this dangerous stunt robbed Simmons of some hair, but it also helped set Kiss apart from their peers. "It was like, pardon the expression, 'Oh, fuck,'" recalled Teenage Lust founder Harold C. Black, whose band was also on the bill that night. "Not exactly what you wanted to go on after."

Jan 26, 1974: Paul Stanley's Brief 'Bandit' Experiment Ends

After his original Starchild makeup design was declared "kind of swishy ... kind of feminine" by new label boss Neil Bogart, Paul Stanley reluctantly agreed to try a new Bandit design at the band's Jan. 31, 1973 concert – the same night when Gene Simmons first set his hair on fire.  Stanley abandoned the idea less than a month later. "I just went, 'You know what? My gig, my face, my makeup,'" he told Yahoo. "I just went back to [the Starchild]. ... A lot of people believe that [the Bandit] came first, but it actually didn't."

May 25, 1974: A Scathing Review Spawns a 26-Year Grudge

It's safe to say Seattle Daily Times writer Patrick MacDonald didn't have a great time at this concert. "The band's music is strictly on the moron level," he wrote two days later . "I hope the four guys who make up the group, whose names don't matter, are putting money away for the future – the near future," he concluded. "Because Kiss won't be around long." The negative review, one of many Kiss received in the early years, only strengthened their resolve to succeed. Some 26 years later, they got their revenge by putting MacDonald's quote on T-shirts printed up for their 2000 tour. "The people that count are the ones who pay hard-earned money for tickets," Paul Stanley told the Cleveland Scene in 2014 when asked about critics. "Why would I chase the approval of people who haven't really taken the test?"

May 16, 1975: Kiss Begins Recording the Career-Saving 'Alive!'

After nearly two years of non-stop touring, Kiss had earned a reputation as a must-see live act. But the band's first three studio albums had sold poorly, and their record label was nearly bankrupt. Alive! proved to be exactly the lucky break Kiss needed. Recorded at four concerts beginning in May 16 at Cobo Arena in Detroit, this studio-enhanced double-live album catapulted Kiss to stardom and eventually inspired generations of rock stars. " Alive! was the first album I ever bought," Kim Thayil of Soundgarden told Guitar World in 1992. "And I wasn't alone: you can hear their influence all over metal and punk."

Aug. 23, 1975: Kiss Makes Tony Kornheiser Quit His Job

Future Pardon the Interruption host Tony Kornheiser said that attending a 1975 Kiss concert made him quit his job as Newsday 's rock critic. "I looked at this and I said, 'Whoa, this is something I have never seen before. This is going to be the biggest thing in music quickly, and I'm getting out of the rock-critic business,'" he said during a 2021 episode of The Tony Kornheiser Show , "and I stopped within a month. And it wasn't that I didn't think they were good, it was that it was just beyond me . Where it was going, the theatricality of it and all of that, was beyond me. And there would be no way to fairly evaluate the music, because it came in that package. You had to deal with that whole package."

Sept. 10, 1975: Kiss Becomes Rich and Famous on the Alive! Tour

More and more bands refused to let Kiss upstage them from the opening act spot. So the group launched their own headlining tour in Chattanooga, Tenn. on the same day Alive! was released. "[The fans] devoured Alive! in numbers we couldn't have imagined," Ace Frehley said in 2011's No Regrets . "It went gold, then it went platinum, [then] double platinum. The album hit the Billboard charts quickly and stayed there for two years. Two fucking years!" Three months later Kiss was presented with their first gold albums. "[That] fulfilled a childhood dream," Stanley said in his 2014 book Face the Music . " Elvis had gold albums. The Beatles had gold albums. Now I had a gold album."

Dec. 12, 1976: Ace Frehley Nearly Gets Electrocuted Onstage

Frehley was lucky to escape with his life when he was inadvertently shocked during a Dec. 12, 1976 concert in Lakeland, Fla. He grabbed a railing while descending an onstage ramp, completing an electric circuit with his guitar. "If I hadn't been able to let go, I would have died," Frehley later told the Lakeland Ledger . "My life passed in front of my eyes." After a 10-minute break, he was able to return to complete the show. The incident inspired the title – if not the lyrical content – of the first Kiss song ever to feature Frehley on lead vocals, 1977's "Shock Me."

Aug. 26-28, 1977: 'Alive II' is Recorded

The multi-platinum success of 1975's Alive! didn't slow down Kiss' breakneck album release or touring schedules. Clearly wanting to strike while the iron was hot, they released three more studio albums in the next two years, then recorded a multi-night stand at the Forum in Los Angeles for their second live album . Since they didn't want to use any of the songs featured on their first live album again, five new studio songs were recorded to fill the double-disc Alive II 's fourth side.

May 19, 1978: Evil Robot Kiss Clones 'Rip and Destroy' at Magic Mountain

The climactic scene of the ill-fated 1978 TV movie Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park finds the group battling their evil clones onstage. The robots had re-written the lyrics to their song "Hotter Than Hell," and were trying to encourage fans to riot with the resulting "Rip and Destroy." Thousands were invited to a special free concert at Magic Mountain amusement park in Valencia, Calif., for the shooting of the live footage, and then treated to a 19-song Kiss concert. "We were sold the idea of the film in a sentence that was virtually ‘ A Hard Day’s Night meets  Star Wars .’ Well, it was far from either," Stanley said of the movie in 2021. "I embrace it like an ugly child."

June 15, 1979: 'The Return of Kiss' Fizzles

At the height of their fame in early 1978, Kiss took more than a year off from touring in order to allow everyone to recover from the grueling schedule of the previous five years – and also so they could hopefully stop hating each other. When they returned to the road with a revamped stage show and extremely frilly new costumes in June 1979, they found a much less rabid audience waiting for them. General overexposure and the move toward pop and disco featured on 1979's Dynasty turned off many of their longtime fans, leaving Kiss unexpectedly struggling to fill one night at venues where they had sold out multiple shows less than two years before. "It wasn't a good omen when our first show was canceled," Stanley noted in 2014's Face the Music . "The bottom got pulled right out from under us."

Dec. 8, 1979: Onstage Sabotage Leads to Peter Criss' Departure

Frustrated by his role and grappling with addiction issues, Peter Criss had long been contemplating an exit from Kiss. His onstage actions on Dec. 8, 1979 in Shreveport, La., sealed the deal. After Stanley motioned for the admittedly coked-up drummer to play a bit slower, Criss intentionally sabotaged the show by slowing down to a crawl. "That crossed a line," Stanley said in Face the Music , and Criss was almost kicked out of the band instantly. Despite more onstage and backstage altercations, Kiss managed to finish out the tour's final week, but Criss was gone after the Dec. 16 finale in Toledo, Ohio.

July 25, 1980: Eric Carr's First Show

Kiss recorded the highly underrated power-pop gem Unmasked with Anton Fig secretly sitting in for Criss, then held auditions for a new full-time drummer. They chose little-known Paul Caravello, but quickly thought better of his original stage name (Rusty Blades) and makeup and costume design (a hawk that more closely resembled an oversized orange chicken ). Instead, he was introduced as Eric "the Fox" Carr at a special one-off show in their hometown of New York City. Carr's powerful drumming style helped Kiss mount an impressive comeback in the early '80s, and he remained in the band until his untimely death in 1991.

Nov. 8, 1980: Kiss Discovers an Oasis of Superstardom in Australia

By 1980, Kiss' record and ticket sales had dropped off so badly that American promoters were unwilling to risk booking a tour in support of Unmasked . But the album's lead single "Shandi" became a Top 5 hit in Australia, and their tour of the country was greeted with a level of enthusiasm just shy of Beatlemania. "It reached the point where I was asking that we not have any more parties," Stanley said in Kiss: Behind the Mask , "because literally every night the promoter threw a party for us."

Dec. 3, 1980: Ace Frehley's First Farewell Kiss Show

Ace Frehley's already tenuous relationship with Simmons and Stanley took a serious hit when his longtime ally Peter Criss left the band. "We often played two on two – me and Peter against Paul and Gene – but when tempers flared, I usually tried to be the peacemaker," Frehley wrote in 2012's No Regrets . "With the loss of Peter, I soon realized things would never be the same." After trying in vain to stop the ill-fated 1981 concept album Music from 'The Elder ,' Frehley quietly departed in early 1982. The final show on Kiss' highly successful 1980 tour of Australia and New Zealand was his last until their 1996 reunion.

Dec. 29, 1982: Vinnie Vincent Plays His First Kiss Show

Fearful of the repercussions from both fans and their record label if a second original member abandoned the group so quickly, Kiss hid Frehley's departure for as long as possible. The Spaceman actually appeared on the cover of 1982's Creatures of the Night , despite not performing on the album. When it came time to hit the road, Vinnie Vincent was revealed as the sixth and final Kiss character , the "Ankh Warrior." Vincent's undeniable talent helped the group pull out of a creative and commercial tailspin, but personality conflicts would ensure that his tenure was very short.

June 18, 1983: Kiss Performs for 180,000 Fans in Brazil

Three years after their 1980 Australian tour proved to be an unexpected high spot for Kiss, a visit to Brazil resulted in another career benchmark as they performed in front of a personal best of 180,000 fans at Maracana stadium in Rio De Janeiro. "There's no way to describe the amount of energy that a crowd that big puts out," Stanley said in Face the Music . "It can almost take you off your feet."

June 25, 1983: Kiss Says Goodbye to Their Makeup

Just one week after their record-setting show in Rio, Kiss performed what would turn out to be their last show in makeup until 1996's original-lineup reunion. Three months later, while promoting their Lick it Up album on MTV, band members revealed their real faces in public for the first time. Simmons revealed in his book Kiss and Make-Up that Stanley was the one who pushed for the change : "'Let's prove something to the fans,' Paul said, 'Let's go and be a real band without makeup.' I reluctantly agreed. I didn't know if it was going to work, but I heard what Paul was saying. There was nowhere else for us to go."

Oct. 11, 1983: Kiss' First Show Without Makeup

The decision to perform without facepaint would prove to be an important initial step in Kiss' remarkable early '80s commercial comeback, but it also sent founding member and former focal point Gene Simmons into somewhat of a tailspin. "For those couple of years it became his [Stanley's] band," Simmon's confessed in his book Kiss and Make-Up . "Paul was always the guy who spoke in the interviews. When you saw photos of Kiss, they tended more and more to be photos of Paul." The costumes would get worse in later years, as Simmons himself jokingly acknowledges: "My reaction was to try to muscle my way back into the spotlight by buying some truly outlandish androgynous clothing. ... It just made me look like a football player in a tutu."

March 17, 1984: Vinnie Vincent's Last Kiss Show

Vinnie Vincent departed in March 1984 at the conclusion of the Lick It Up Tour, less than a year and a half after his first appearance with Kiss. His undeniable songwriting and guitar playing talent wasn't enough to make up for the interpersonal conflicts between himself, Stanley and Simmons. Seven years later, he returned to help the band co-write three songs for 1992's Revenge . But the relationship again quickly soured, Simmons said, when Vincent tried to renegotiate the deal : "There are people who simply cannot handle when things are starting to go their way — success — so they torpedo it by making stupid decisions to make sure they don't succeed, so they can deal with that."

Sept 30, 1984: Bruce Kulick's First Kiss Show

Two months after Vincent's last appearance, Kiss returned to the studio to record what would become their big comeback album, Animalize . It soon became clear that their first choice for the newly vacant lead guitar spot, Mark St. John , wasn't a perfect match creatively. "The guy could never play the same thing twice, because he was just puking notes," Stanley later explained . "There was no structure to any of it." The problem was magnified when St. John came down with an arthritic condition that kept him from performing live. Kiss quickly recruited former Meat Loaf guitarist Bruce Kulick to join them for the opening of their next tour, as they awaited St. John's recovery.

Nov. 27 and 29, 1984: Mark St. John's First and Last Kiss Shows

Two months into the Animalize Tour, St. John was finally ready to join his new bandmates on stage. But his taste and style still didn't line up with Simmons and Stanley, who had grown quite pleased with Kulick's work and professionalism. St. John was out of a job after reportedly performing just two and a half shows as Kiss' third lead guitarist.

Dec. 8, 1984: Bruce Kulick Closes Kiss' Lead Guitarist Revolving Door

Kulick formally joined on Dec. 7, 1984, bringing much-needed stability over the next decade while performing on five albums. His first night as a full-timer proved to be challenging, as the show at Detroit's Cobo Arena was broadcast live on local radio, taped for an MTV special and later released as their first-ever home video concert. "I was nervous, but it was a thrilling time for me to be the new guitarist of Kiss," Kulick later told UCR . "I was very excited for the world to finally see me with the band. It was a very strange period for them, going from Ace to Vinnie to Mark St. John to me in such short order."

Nov. 13, 1987: Kiss Hits a Dead End on the Crazy Nights Tour

After regaining their commercial footing with the hit '80s albums Lick It Up , Animalize and Asylum , Kiss decided to aim for Bon Jovi -level sales by adding keyboards to their sound on 1987's Crazy Nights . The move backfired, alienating some existing fans while failing to win many new ones. "We played everything a million miles an hour," Stanley confessed in Face the Music . "Gene equated that with excitement, but it caused a loss of groove. ... We'd even had people on the side of the stage playing keyboard sound pads – to enhance the rhythm guitar so I could slack off and jump around more, and to fortify the background vocals for the big '80s 'gang' vocal sound. Looking back, I can see there was no mystery why the audience dwindled."

Aug. 12, 1988: Kiss Revisits Their Club Days

Four months after closing out their headlining Crazy Nights Tour, Kiss decided to warm up for a series of European festival dates with a pair of shows at the Ritz in New York City. The small venue's air conditioning had broken down in the middle of a heat wave, making the already-cramped stage even more of an issue . But these shows also found the band returning to their '70s era for the first time in years, dusting off classics such as "Calling Dr. Love," "Shout It Out Loud" and "Firehouse."

Feb. 15, 1989: Paul Stanley's Solo Tour Serves as a Wake-Up Call

Stanley was the main architect of their '80s comeback, but as the decade drew to a close he'd grown tired of Simmons' film career drawing his focus away from Kiss. Stanley assembled a solo band that included Bruce's brother Bob on lead guitar and Eric Singer on drums. He dug even deeper into the band's '70s catalog than Kiss had recently, and managed to re-gain his partner's full attention. "At the end of [his] tour," Simmons recalled in Kiss and Make-Up , "the two of us turned our attention back to Kiss."

May 4, 1990: Kiss Reclaims Their Legacy on the Hot in the Shade Tour

As impressive as their comeback was, Kiss' '80s success also pulled them further away from their original legacy. During the Crazy Nights Tour, less than one-third of the set was drawn from their '70s albums. Kiss kept off the makeup, but they finally reconnected with the golden era on the following tour. They didn't just add more old songs but also assembled the most impressive stage show in more than a decade. Most importantly, Kiss got their swagger back. “When we went on tour, we rallied,” Stanley later told Louder . “We began to embrace our history. We would literally hit every period of the band, and we did it proudly.”

Nov. 9, 1990: Eric Carr's Last Kiss Show

The conclusion of Kiss' triumphant Hot in the Shade Tour would also prove to be their final concert with Eric Carr. He was later diagnosed with a rare form of heart cancer, and died on Nov. 24, 1991. Carr was unable to contribute to the recording sessions that produced 1992's Revenge , but he rallied enough to appear in the video for the single "God Gave Rock 'n' Roll to You II." Rolling Stone failed to cover Carr's death, leading to a scathing letter in which Simmons praised his late bandmate as "someone who still lived and believed in the spirit of rock 'n' roll. ... We loved him, the fans loved him and he will never be forgotten."

April 23, 1992: Eric Singer's First Kiss Show

Singer was the logical choice to become their next drummer after performing on Stanley's 1989 solo tour and then helping Kiss record Revenge during Carr's health battle. "I had very mixed emotions," he later told UCR . "I thought, ‘Here’s a good opportunity for me, but under the worst conditions.'" After he accepted, Kiss booked a series of club dates to get in sync before starting the Revenge Tour. “I remember Gene, Paul and Bruce backstage, being very nervous about me as the new member. I was calm and regular as can be – ‘Why are you guys so nervous?’ I found it almost ironic. And everything went off pretty well without a hitch. We went out like stormtroopers and I was excited to be in the band. It was good!”

Nov. 27-29, 1992: Kiss Finally Records 'Alive III'

Kiss released their first pair of live albums within two years of each other, then waited a decade and a half to produce their third. It would have been nice to have Eric Carr's decade-plus run with the group represented, but Alive III at least offered fans a chance to hear how Simmons, Stanley, Kulick and Singer tackled songs from various eras over Kiss' two-decade career. Unfortunately, neither Alive III , the critically acclaimed Revenge nor its supporting tour had much commercial success. Kiss would soon begin contemplating a major change.

Aug. 9, 1995: Ace Frehley and Peter Criss Return for 'Unplugged'

Kiss mended fences with Criss and invited him onstage to sing two songs at the first stop on their fan convention tour in June 1995, then made an even bigger splash by asking Criss and Frehley to join them for four songs during their MTV Unplugged taping . The first onstage performance by the original lineup in nearly 16 years set off a storm of reunion speculation, even as Stanley, Simmons, Kulick and Singer entered the studio to record the follow-up to Revenge .

Dec. 15, 1995: Kiss Bids Farewell to Their Non-Makeup Lineup

Stanley and Simmons were taking a few phone calls in between recording sessions for what would become the non-makeup lineup's final album, Carnival of Souls . A three-song acoustic set at KLOS' annual Christmas show turned out to be Bruce Kulick's last appearance with the band. (Eric Singer returned as Criss' replacement in 2001.) "I did not know about the reunion until January," Kulick later told UCR . "So I went through the holiday season [thinking], 'We're working on a new studio album.' But then a week or two into January is when Gene invited Eric and I up so we could have that discussion with Paul and the band."

June 28, 1996: Kiss' Original Lineup Returns in Full Makeup

Kiss' original lineup marched onto the stage in full makeup and costumes on Feb. 28, 1996, at the Grammy Awards, kicking off what would become a highly lucrative reunion tour. They did a brief warm-up set on June 15 at the KLOS Weenie Roast, then launched the Alive/Worldwide Tour on June 28 at a sold-out Tiger Stadium in Detroit. "The curtain dropped, and the force of the crowd reaction nearly lifted me off my feet," Stanley remembered in Face the Music . "I had to fight to be in control of the situation, of myself, of my persona, of the band. ... The joy for me was being able to revisit something I'd experienced as a much younger person in a different frame of mind."

April 5, 1997: Peter Criss Replaced by a Drum Tech

Ten months into the reunion tour, Criss declared that his arms were hurting too much for the show to go on just before an April 5, 1997, date in Columbus. Manager Doc McGhee quickly recruited a drum tech for the job, ordering Ed Kanon to shave his beard and report backstage to get his makeup done. "Without really thinking about it, I said ‘Okay, I’ll do it,'" Kanon later recalled. Stanley's memory of the story makes it clear that he was still on high alert for any trouble from Criss. "Either nobody cared or nobody had time to care" about the lineup change, Stanley wrote in Face the Music . "We weren't going to put on a show because Peter's hands hurt? I don't think so, pal."

March 12, 1999: Kiss Is Told Not to Blow Up the Stage

Kiss was ordered by the fire marshal not to use any of their customary pyrotechnics before the Bremen, Germany stop of the Psycho Circus Tour. Stanley brought out a translator to explain the ban to the audience, drawing the expected chorus of boos. He rallied the crowd by shifting into showman mode: "I want you to know something. They can stop the bombs; they can stop the fire – but they cannot stop Kiss!" Turns out they couldn't stop the bombs or fire, either. At the end of the last song, all of the bombs and fireworks scheduled for use during the show were set off in a dazzling 30-second act of defiance .

Aug. 23, 1999: Kiss Debuts Their Very Own Professional Wrestler

Always on the lookout for new marketing opportunities, Kiss became the first rock band with their own official professional wrestler when the Demon (at first played by Brian Adams, quickly replaced by Dale Torborg) made his debut on WCW Nitro . The group appeared on live TV performing "God of Thunder" for the big unveiling, and plans were for each of the four members to eventually get their own grappling avatar. WCW was in financial trouble, however, and was soon to be bought out by longtime rival WWE. The Demon never got a proper shot at success.

Dec. 31, 1999: The Original Lineup Records Their Fourth Live Album

More than two decades after Alive II , the original lineup of Kiss recorded a turn-of-the-millennium concert in Vancouver, with plans to release it as Alive IV the following year. In addition to the expected '70s classics, the setlist found Frehley and Criss performing songs Kiss released after their departure such as "Lick it Up" and "Heaven's on Fire." Then Kiss' record label was bought out by another, and the album disappeared from the release schedule. It wasn't issued until 2006, and by then the LP had a new title. Alive! The Millennium Concert was originally available only as part of box set that also featured Kiss' first three live sets.

March 11, 2000: Kiss Embarks on Their First Farewell Tour

Four years after they got back together, relations among the original members of Kiss had once again sunk to untenable levels. Criss and Frehley were angry about several issues, including not being invited to perform on the majority of 1998's so-called reunion album, Psycho Circus . Stanley, meanwhile, claimed that he and Simmons were struggling to get Criss and Frehley onstage on time. The decision was made to announce a farewell tour , though Simmons and Stanley obviously reversed that decision a few years later. "It just became ugly and no fun. The farewell tour was us wanting to put Kiss out of its misery," Stanley said, "and for a while, honestly, we lost sight that we didn't have to stop. We had to get rid of them.”

Oct. 7, 2000: Peter Criss Destroys Drums at Last Original Lineup Show

Onstage sabotage ended Criss' first run with Kiss in 1979, and he marked the conclusion of his second stint in a similarly destructive fashion 21 years later. He'd learned that he was getting paid less than Frehley for his work on this tour a week or so earlier, and Criss demanded a raise. He also began adding a teardrop to his makeup design in protest, while openly counting down to the end of the tour. When the last song of the final show was wrapping up, Criss got busy breaking stuff. "I got up, and while the riser was still high up in the air, I started kicking my drums off it," he recalled in Makeup to Breakup . "Everyone stood up and cheered, and Paul thought the cheers were for him until he turned around and saw a huge floor tom-tom coming down at him. So he took his guitar, threw it down on the stage and walked off. He must have kept walking, because I didn't see him or Ace or Gene when I went in to take my makeup off."

March 9, 2001: Eric Singer Replaces Peter Criss

The North American leg of Kiss' farewell tour was over, but they still had dates in Japan and Australia lined up for early 2001. They returned Singer to the fold, then made the controversial decision to have him perform in Criss' Catman makeup rather than assigning him a new character. "There's a whole generation of kids that are clueless as to what Kiss is about," Criss lamented to Eddie Trunk in 2013. "They go to see them now, and they think, 'That's Kiss.'" Simmons defended the decision in a 2016 Rolling Stone interview, after late-era guitarist Tommy Thayer also began performing in Frehley's Spaceman facepaint. "Why wouldn't we use the classic makeup? We own it. ... The fans are thrilled and nobody ever holds up a sign [saying], 'Where's Ace and Peter?'"

April 13, 2001: Ace Frehley Plays His Final Kiss Show

Frehley had seen enough as Kiss' farewell tour drew to a close with an April 13, 2001 show in Gold Coast, Australia. "One of the things that made me crazy was being at the mercy of Paul and Gene," he explained in 2012 . "They wanted to tour constantly and record constantly, over-merchandise the brand, and that made me crazy. I’m not a kid anymore. I don’t want to put myself in that position, so I’m happier with what I’m doing now." Stanley probably would have been willing to help pack the guitarist's bags. He later accused the Frehley and Criss of "being disrespectful toward everything we had accomplished and everything the fans were giving us."

March 6, 2002: Tommy Thayer Plays His First Kiss Show

Kiss had the logical replacement for Ace Frehley waiting in the wings ever since the original Spaceman returned in 1996. Former Black 'n Blue guitarist Tommy Thayer had been working behind the scenes with Kiss since 1989, helping Frehley re-learn his original guitar parts for the reunion tour. As the tour continued, Simmons and Stanley grew wary of Frehley's backstage behavior and had a backup Spaceman costume made for Thayer. He almost got a chance to use it in August 2000 when Frehley didn't turn up until 20 minutes before they were due to go onstage. Thayer took over for good two years later at a private show in Jamaica.

Feb. 28, 2003: Peter Criss Returns as Kiss Visits the Symphony

Kiss made a very splashy return to the stage in early 2003 after a few public appearances in 2002, including a performance at the Winter Olympics. They joined forces with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra for a special concert that was released as their fourth live album later in the year. Criss ended up returned for both this show and the band's 2003 co-headlining tour with Aerosmith – and singer pointed out the hypocrisy of Criss' return in a 2014 interview : "You got Tommy Thayer playing guitar wearing the Ace makeup, and all of a sudden. ... Peter had no problem, did he?"

Dec. 14, 2003: Joe Perry Joins Kiss Onstage

Kiss put the final nail in their retirement's coffin in August 2003 by launching a massive co-headlining tour with Aerosmith. They reportedly insisted on Kiss having three original members in the lineup, so Criss was reluctantly brought along. Steven Tyler was apparently very unhappy with the pairing, refusing to do any press or promotion for the tour. The same couldn't be said for Joe Perry , who'd previously played on Gene Simmons' 1978 solo album. He joined Kiss on two occasions to play "Strutter" while wearing a pair of Stanley's boots. A decade later, Def Leppard 's Phil Collen did Perry one better by wearing a complete Starchild outfit onstage with Kiss.

Dec. 20, 2003: Peter Criss Plays His Third and Final Farewell Kiss Show

The end of the Aerosmith tour also meant the end of Criss' third and final stint, as Kiss opted not to renew his contract. His last show took place on his 58th birthday , and it was at least outwardly a much friendly affair than Criss' two previous farewells: Onstage cake and candles took the place of falling bass drums.

May 8, 2004: Kiss' Longest-Running Lineup Is Unveiled

Kiss played their first public show with what would become their longest-running lineup on opening night of the Rock the Nation Tour. "We're always in sync with each other and always on point," Paul Stanley told Rolling Stone Germany in 2021. "Tommy always hits the bull's eye, and there's never any question about that. And with Ace, I have to say, there was a certain amount of erratic playing." The addition of of Thayer and Singer also helped convince Stanley and Simmons to end Kiss' decade-long absence from the recording studio with two more studio albums, 2009's Sonic Boom and 2012's Monster .

July 27, 2007: Paul Stanley Misses His First Kiss Concert

A brief medical scare forced Kiss to take the stage without Stanley for the first time ever. "Paul’s heart was going at 200 beats a minute," Simmons told the crowd. "We were thinking of canceling the show because there was no way for Paul to do the show. He said, ‘Don’t let the fans down.’ Would you like to go home, or do you want us to try to play for you?” Naturally, the crowd voted for the latter and Simmons, Thayer and Singer delivered an energetic 14-song set. Stanley revealed that he'd suffered a “rapid heartbeat condition” for most of his life, but that it wasn't life threatening. Nine years later, a torn bicep forced Stanley to miss a charity show , and he was also absent in 2019 when Kiss played for sharks aboard a boat – don't ask – after suffering flu complications.

Oct. 13, 2011: Kiss Launch the First Kiss Kruise

Kiss began a new tradition in 2011 with the first-ever Kiss Kruise, commandeering an ocean liner and inviting fans along for a multi-day trip filled with performances of acoustic and rare material. The itinerary expanded over the years to include Q&A sessions, game shows, painting demonstrations and much more.

Jan. 31, 2019: Opening Night of the End of the Road Farewell Tour

Kiss launched their second farewell tour nearly 18 years after ending their first with an impressive new stage show . “It’s important to note that this is the end of touring. The band isn’t necessarily disappearing into thin air,” Stanley later explained . “[Kiss] just reached a time where touring, and doing 100 shows in seven months, which is what we’ve done so far, is ... just too demanding and time-consuming, when there’s other things to do in life.”

Dec. 31, 2020: Kiss Plays a Pay-Per-View Show With No Audience

COVID-19 threw a big monkey wrench into Kiss' farewell plans. The tour was originally slated to conclude on July 17, 2021, in New York City, but multiple pandemic-related postponements and continued demand has so far caused the tour to stretch into its fifth year. The band offered locked-down fans around the world a welcome diversion on Dec. 31, 2020 with the Kiss 2020 Goodbye pay-per-view concert from Dubai. The only fans allowed to attend in person watched from distant hotel balconies, as Kiss set multiple world records by blowing up $1 million worth of fireworks at the event.

Top 10 Reunion Tours

Ranking Every Kiss Album

More From Ultimate Classic Rock

Club Tour   1973

Kiss Tour 1974

Hotter Than Hell Tour 1974-1975

Dressed to Kill Tour 1975

Alive! Tour   1975-1976

Destroyer Tour   1976

Rock & Roll Over Tour   1976-1977

Love Gun Tour   1977

Alive II Tour   1977-1978

Dynasty Tour 1979

" Unmasked Tour " 1980

Creatures of the Night Tour   1982-1983

Lick It Up Tour   1983-1984

Animalize Tour   1984-1985

Asylum Tour   1985-1986

Crazy Nights Tour   1987-1988

Hot in the Shade Tour   1990

Revenge Tour   1992

Kiss My Ass Tour   1994-1995

Alive/Worldwide Tour   1996-1997

Psycho Circus Tour   1998-2000

Kiss Farewell Tour   2000-2001

World Domination 2003

Rock the Nation Tour 2004

Rising Sun Tour 2006

Hit 'n Run Tou 2007

Kiss Alive/35 World Tour 2008-2009

Sonic Boom Over Europe Tour 2010

The Hottest Show on Earth Tour 2010-2011

The Tour 2012

Monster Tour 2012-2013

40th Annyversary Tour 2014-2015

Freedom to Rock Tour 2016

KISS World Tour 2017-2018

End Of The Road World Tour 2019-2023

!! WANTED !! Ca$h paid for unreleased master audio (live/demo), 8mm & VHS video, reels... If you recorded a KISS show and want to monetize, click HERE to contact confidentially.

Corrections, clarifications, and more importantly YOUR CONTRIBUTIONS (newspaper review/tour ads in particular) are most welcomed for inclusion on this site! Please email HERE !

KISS: A Definitive Timeline of the Rock Band

KISS has left an indelible mark on popular music through its unique presentation of four distinct characters in makeup – Starchild, Demon, Spaceman and Catman – reeling off irresistibly catchy hit songs amid fire-and-explosion-filled stage shows.

Beyond the bells and whistles, the band has also distinguished itself through its remarkable longevity in an industry filled with burned-out talents and one-hit wonders. Here's a look at the key moments in the band's history through a half-century of rockin' and rollin' all night and partying every day:

1970: Paul Stanley meets Gene Simmons

January 30, 1973: KISS plays their first show

The original KISS lineup of Stanley, Simmons, drummer Peter Criss and guitarist Ace Frehley performs its first show before a sparse audience at the Popcorn Club/Coventry in Sunnyside, Queens.

August 10, 1973 : The band scores their first record deal

After a show at Manhattan's Hotel Diplomat, KISS meets TV producer and neophyte manager Bill Aucoin, who promises to land the band a record contract in two weeks. The following month KISS is announced as the first act signed Neil Bogart's Casablanca Records.

February 18, 1974: Their debut album, 'KISS,' is released

KISS releases its self-titled debut album, which features signature tracks like "Strutter" and "Deuce." Three days later the band enjoys its inaugural television appearance on the Dick Clark-hosted ABC in Concert .

May 16, 1975 : 'KISS Alive!' is released

Following the modest sales of its first three studio albums, KISS records a live performance at Detroit's Cobo Arena. KISS Alive! gives the band a much-needed commercial boost with its release four months later.

March 15, 1976: 'Destroyer' is released

The band reaches new creative heights with the arrival of the Bob Ezrin-produced Destroyer . The platinum-selling studio effort features classic rockers like "Shout it Out Loud" and "Detroit Rock City," though it is the Criss-composed ballad "Beth" that becomes the album's biggest hit.

May 26, 1977 : Their marvel comic book is released

The musicians commemorate the launch of a KISS Marvel comic book by adding their blood to the ink at the Marvel printing plant in Buffalo, New York.

September 18, 1978: The members release solo albums

All four members of KISS simultaneously release their self-titled solo albums. Frehley's album, fueled by the Top 20 hit "New York Groove," enjoys the greatest commercial success of the quartet.

October 28, 1978 : 'KISS Meets Phantom of the Parks' airs

The sci-fi TV movie KISS Meets the Phantom of the Park premieres on NBC, an experience later recalled by Stanley as "humiliating."

June 16, 1980 : Criss leaves the band

Criss, who was absent from the recent studio release Unmasked , departs the band. He is soon replaced by Eric Carr, who debuts in late July under the guise of the Fox.

November 10, 1981 : 'Music From The Elder' is released

Aiming for an ambitious concept album à la The Who's Tommy , KISS instead misfires with Music From "The Elder," which tops out at No. 75 on the Billboard 200.

December 29, 1982 : Ankh Warrior makes his debut

Having contributed several tracks to the album Creatures of the Night , new lead guitarist Vinnie Vincent debuts as the Ankh Warrior for the start of the KISS 10th Anniversary Tour.

June 18, 1983 : KISS plays for an audience of 137,000 in Brazil

Although American audiences have cooled to the act, KISS shows it still packs global clout by performing before a reported 137,000 fans at Maracanã Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

September 18, 1983: KISS appears on MTV without the makeup

In a watershed moment for KISS, the band appears on MTV without makeup for the first time and introduces the video to a new single, "Lick it Up."

December 8, 1984 : Bruce Kulick joins the band

Following the brief tenure of Mark St. John, Bruce Kulick becomes the band's third lead guitarist in as many years, his first live performance with KISS recorded for the home video Animalize Live Uncensored .

October 17, 1989 : KISS scores another Top 10 hit with "Forever"

KISS releases Hot in the Shade . Its second single, "Forever," co-written by Stanley and Michael Bolton becomes the band's first Top 10 hit since "Beth."

November 24, 1991: Carr passes away

The drummer was 41 when he lost his life to heart cancer.

May 19, 1992 : 'Revenge' is released

KISS unveils Revenge with Eric Singer on drums. Produced by Ezrin, the album also features a mini-reunion with erstwhile lead guitarist Vincent, who claims songwriting credits for three tracks.

August 9, 1995 : Criss and Frehley reunite with the band for 'MTV Unplugged'

Again on the upswing following the 1994 release of the tribute album KISS My Ass , the band brings Criss and Frehley on stage to perform with Singer and Kulick on MTV Unplugged .

June 14, 1996: The four original member go on tour together

KISS announces the upcoming Alive/Worldwide Reunion tour, to feature the four founding members in their familiar makeup, from the USS Intrepid aircraft carrier in New York City. The tour becomes the top-grossing concert act of the year.

September 22, 1998 : 'Pyscho Circus' is released featuring the original members

KISS releases Psycho Circus , the first studio album to include the original members since 1979's Dynasty , though behind-the-scenes bickering limits the contributions of Criss and Frehley.

August 11, 1999: KISS gets a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame

The band celebrates a well-deserved place among entertainment royalty with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame .

October 7, 2000 : Criss is replaced by Singer on tour

Criss trashes his drum set at the end of the American leg of the Farewell Tour. He is replaced by Singer, who controversially dons the Catman makeup when the tour resumes in Japan the following March.

February 24, 2002 : KISS performs at the Olympics closing ceremony

KISS helps close the Salt Lake City Winter Olympic Games with a rendition of "Rock and Roll All Nite" before a TV audience of three billion viewers.

February 28, 2003 : Tommy Thayer makes his KISS debut

In Thayer's first official show as lead guitarist, the band plays with the 70-piece Melbourne Symphony Orchestra at Australia's Telstra Dome, a performance filmed and recorded for KISS Symphony Alive IV .

October 6, 2009 : 'Sonic Boom' is released

KISS releases Sonic Boom , its first studio album in 11 years as well as the first with Thayer and Singer. With "Modern Day Delilah" emerging as a single to match the hits of the band's glory days, Sonic Boom reaches No. 2 on the Billboard 200 to become KISS' highest-charting album.

April 10, 2014: KISS is inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

The reunited quartet of Simmons, Stanley, Frehley and Criss show little sign of any lingering tension, though Stanley takes a shot at the band's longtime critics with his speech.

January 31, 2019: The band embarks on their farewell tour

Forty-six years after the first KISS show, the band kicks off its End of the Road World Tour at Rogers Arena in Vancouver, Canada.

"Biography: KISStory" chronicled the band’s five decades in the business as founders Stanley and Simmons reflect on their historic career.

After 50 years of rocking and rolling all night and partying every day, the #1 Gold Record selling band of all time, KISS, shared their story of success before finally smashing their last guitar and extinguishing the fire-breathing demon. Stanley and Simmons, along with current members Thayer and Singer, as well as guests Dave Grohl (Nirvana, Foo Fighters), Tom Morello (Rage Against the Machine), manager Doc McGhee (Motley Crue, Bon Jovi), music producer Bob Ezrin (Alice Cooper, Pink Floyd) and more, told the wild story of the most successful and influential band in the world. Watch a preview:

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