Gene Simmons has vowed “no more make-up” on stage.
The 74-year-old rocker’s group KISS – who played their final show in December, four years after beginning their ‘End of the Road’ tour – always performed with black-and-white paint covering their faces, but the ‘Crazy Crazy Nights’ hitmaker isn’t planning to stick with the look when he takes his “little side band” on the road this summer.
He told ‘Entertainment Tonight’: “We’ve got a little side band called the Gene Simmons Band, and we’ll be headlining festivals across Europe, South America… no more make-up for me.
“But we’re the luckiest people in the world.”
KISS have stepped away from performing following their final show in the Big Apple, but they surprised fans by debuting digital versions of themselves created by the teams behind the lucrative ‘ABBA Voyage’ hologram show.
They declared the avatars signal the start of a “new era” and Gene has claimed millions of dollars are being pumped into the project.
Speaking during a Q+A at the Electric Lady Studios in New York, he told one fan: “There’s so much being planned, even beyond my comprehension. But they’re spending, oh, about 200 million [dollars] to take it to the next level.”
He said of ABBA’s first-of-its-kind show, he added: “You can’t tell if they’re there, right there, like that.”
In a video posted online after their final concert, Gene explained: “We can be forever young and forever iconic by taking us to places we’ve never dreamt of before.
“The technology is going to make [rhythm guitarist and co-lead vocalist] Paul [Stanley] jump higher than he’s ever done before … If you think you are going to get rid of us then that’s not going to happen.”
The band has yet to confirm their exact plans for the avatars, but Paul said it’s a very exciting.
He explained: “I think we’ve transcended over the years being human beings and here we are becoming immortal and it’s very exciting for us … We can’t maintain this [band] indefinitely but you [avatar-makers] can.”