Gene Simmons reveals what KISS have planned for the future

This week, Kiss debuts a brand-new, eagerly anticipated Rock & Brews restaurant in Detroit Rock City. Gene Simmons tells UCR that even though the band will stop touring in 2023, they have a lot more plans for the near future. In the manner that the Kiss Army has grown accustomed to, this encompasses both on screen and on stage.

More is good. It’s like if you go into Tiffany’s and ask the guy at the front door, ‘Do you have any jewelry.’ Of course the answer is yes. And if you say, ‘What have you got?,’ it’s tough so answer because there’s so many things. We’re working really hard, all of us, in making sure that the quality of everything will blow you away because over the years the fans have been expecting not the norm, but the extra norm. In many ways (Kiss) was the caterpillar that went into the cocoon and you think that’s the end, but it’s really the beginning. We are going to go where no band has gone before.

The avatar show that Kiss debuted for the final show of its End of the Road World Tour on December 2, 2023, at Madison Square Garden in New York, is undoubtedly at the top of most fans’ lists. Simmons claims he “can’t get into specifics”—including a predetermined title—but he assures us that it will be disclosed in “under two years” and that the wait will be worthwhile.

We’re gonna blow your socks off in a way multiple times more exciting than the Sphere. People who go to Vegas to see a show in the Sphere are awed by the massive scale of everything. There’s nothing wrong with the Sphere, (but) I’ll go out on a limb and make sure people understand this (the Kiss avatars) is gonna make that seem like popcorn fart. It’ll be mind-blowing. [The show will] attack the senses as well. If you see a dragon coming in to scoop you up and it breathes fire, there will be fire all around you, and you’ll feel the heat. The fire, the brimstone, the coffee, you’ll be able to smell it. We attack the senses instead of Virtual Reality, which only attacks the eyes

Simmons goes on to say that rather than being held in a single place, the avatar show will be performed all around the world. According to Simmons, Kiss is still working on two film projects. The biopic is being directed by McG and co-produced by Mark Canton.

The scripting is being refined, casting is on its way. (McG) is finishing up Baywatch now and the moving on tour our film.

Simmons says a documentary is complete, but no release date has been set. And he continues, “There’s a cartoon show in the works with Warner Brothers.” Deep Water, starring Aaron Eckhart and Ben Kingsley, will be released on May 1 by his Simmons Hamilton film firm with producer Gary Hamilton. Canyon, starring Bella Thorne and Mel Gibson, is now in development.

In November, Sin City will host another Kiss Kruise: Landlocked in Vegas. Simmons, Stanley, Eric Singer, and Tommy Thayer returned to the stage for unmasked and uncostumed performances at the previous year’s event.

That was a lot of fun, because we could just, as they say, let our hair down — not worry about big projection, big private jets and 60 people on the crew, being a traveling city. You just show up and plug in, like going over to your aunt’s house and putting on a concert in the garage. It’s shits and giggles, like I do with my Gene Simmons solo band. This idea of being up on stage is miraculous, it really is. The real thrill is and will always be the relationship we have with the fans. The Kiss Army put us here in the first place. There’s a big debt of gratitude, respect, admiration and love — as you know and as you’ve seen, and there always will be.