Is Gene Simmons’ hair real? Watch the KISS icon’s answer.
KISS co-founder Gene Simmons chats with USA TODAY’s Melissa Ruggieri about his decades of touring, the stunts he performed on stage and more.
Seconds after KISS took its final bow at Madison Square Garden in December 2023, the band teased a new chapter.
“A new KISS era starts now” beamed onto the video screens as digital avatars of Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons, Tommy Thayer and Eric Singer appeared, playing the anthem “God Gave Rock ‘N’ Roll to You II.”
KISS offered fans an update on that new era about a year ago with a video posted to their YouTube channel showing the band wearing motion capture suits and headgear with cameras attached.
Simmons tells USA TODAY that KISS made a pilgrimage to George Lucas’ Industrial Light & Magic complex in Northern California to film the band as they “dressed up like X-Men” with “cameras all over us.”
KISS is working with Pophouse Entertainment, the same company that acquired the band’s music catalog, brand name and likeness last year for more than $300 million, according to Bloomberg, and helped develop ABBA’s virtual Voyage concert in London.
Simmons likened the future of KISS to a caterpillar going into its cocoon and emerging a butterfly.
“That’s what’s about to happen with KISS,” he said. “The avatars are just a placeholder. … This is unlike anything the fans or I could have imagined.”
Simmons gave a two-year timeline for the project but wouldn’t elaborate on whether it was two years since unveiling the band’s digital counterparts at the end of 2023 or two years from now.
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