KISS's former members approached for final gig

Over the weekend at the KISS Kruise, Paul Stanley told fans on stage that KISS’s last ever gig will take place on 17th July 2021 at an as-yet-unspecified venue in their native New York City.

During a question-and-answer session with fans at the KISS Kruise, the band’s manager of 24 years was asked whether KISS were open to reuniting with former members at the swansong show.

"We want to include everybody that played with KISS to celebrate the 45 years of KISS," McGhee replied.

"And everybody - Vinnie Vincent and everybody else - that has played with KISS is part of this whole celebration of 45 years. So, we're still looking at what we're gonna do on the final show of KISS."

McGhee explained that original members Ace Frehley and Peter Criss have both been “talked to” about appearing but he conceded it’s going to be hard to make it work.

"It's pretty difficult,” McGhee said. “When people say, 'Oh, you should bring Ace and Peter up.' How do you do that when you have two Catmen and two Spacemen? So you say, 'Okay. You don't wear makeup and you wear makeup.' And then they Ace and Peter go, 'Well, that was my makeup.' I don't know.

“So, it's real hard to do, but we'll figure it out because they're very much a part of the heritage of KISS. And they're acknowledged by Gene and Paul and everybody in this room as the founding members… So it's important to you guys and it's important for us.

It's just a matter of the balance and we can bring it where it works for everybody and everybody is having a great time."

Alongside Frehley, Vincent and Criss, the only other surviving member of KISS is guitarist Bruce Kulick, who was a member from 1984 to 1996.

Drummer Eric Carr died from heart cancer in November 1991 aged just 41, while guitarist Mark St. John, who had a brief seven-month tenure in 1984, died in 2007.

Gene Simmons told The Evening Standard in July that Frehley and Criss had both been approached to guest appear on the End of the Road Tour, however he reiterated his stance that neither of them are reliable enough to be a permanent fixture on the tour.

“They were as important as any one of us in the early days of the band and they’ve both been invited to come on stage at some point in the tour,” Simmons said. “But we couldn’t do the whole thing with them. They’re completely undependable.”

KISS played UK arena shows in Birmingham, London, Manchester, Newcastle and Glasgow in July as part of the End of the Road World Tour.

They will play their last UK show ever on the hallowed turf of Donington Park when they headline Download Festival on Friday 12th June 2020.

Also headlined by Iron Maiden and System of a Down, tickets to Download Festival are on sale from Planet Rock Tickets now.

The Download Festival 2020 line-up so far is as follows:

KISS (Friday headliner)
Iron Maiden (Saturday headliner)
System of a Down (Sunday headliner)
Deftones
Korn
Disturbed
The Offspring
Of Mice and Men
Alestorm
Gojira
Black Veil Brides
Daughtry