Kiss have been on their farewell tour for years now, but that doesn’t mean the band will go away for good. In a new interview with Ultimate Classic Rock, Paul Stanley says the band will be present in some form even after they wrap up their End of the Road farewell tour.
“Kiss is like an army or a sports team,” Stanley said. “When the MVP is no longer playing or retired, the team doesn’t call it quits. On a battlefield, an army, when they lose soldiers, doesn’t wave the white flag. Somebody else picks up the weapon and runs forward. So in one form or another, I believe there will always be a Kiss.”
He added, “I didn’t invent the wheel. I may have polished it a bit, but what am I, except a combination of all of the people who inspired me? When I added my individuality to it, it became essentially what people know as Paul Stanley. But to believe that I’m the only person who can do that is a bit self-centered and egocentric. Is there somebody else out there who could pick up and wave the flag? Absolutely. I’m not saying there should be a copy of me. I’m not a copy of anybody else. But I’m certainly a combination of many people that inspired me.”
Stanley also discussed how acts retiring from the road are continuing to connect with fans. Earlier this year, ABBA debuted their Voyage virtual concert residency at London’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. Stanley thinks it was a great concept and execution.
“I think it’s terrific,” he said. “I’ve only seen excerpts of it. When we’re back in Europe, I’ll of course go see it. I think that when it’s done properly, installed into a theater — as opposed to setting up a screen tonight in Pittsburgh and tomorrow night in Boston — it has to be done with a lot of care and a lot of knowledge of technology to pull it off in a way that allows you to transcend and escape reality. The ones that have been out there other than the ABBA one are cheesy. They point more to what’s lacking than what should be there.”
Stanley also emphasized that Kiss is not over.
“We’re far from done,” he said. “I’d like to say that this is the end of the road, but they keep paving more road. The only people that seems to bother are the people who hate us. Quite honestly, they’ve never mattered and they still don’t. The people who want to see us are thrilled. The people who wish we’d go away are going to have to wait. And in one form or another, we’re never gonna go.”
