BLABBERMOUTH.NET
Doc McGhee, who has managed
KISS since 1995, spoke to
Pollstar about the band's upcoming final concert, which is scheduled to take place in New York City on July 17, 2021. Asked how the show will end and if there is any truth to the rumors that
KISS may bring on all the original members,
Doc said: "It's going to be great. It's going to be worthy of the end of the road. It will be worthy to the 45 years of
KISS, the last month for sure. We want to celebrate everybody and we might bring out all the former members. We'd like to. Nobody says we hate this guy; we hate that guy; we want everybody who wants to come out."
Last November,
McGhee said that all living former members of
KISS have been approached about taking part in the iconic group's last-ever gig. It will be the finale of the two-and-a-half-year
"End Of The Road" world tour, which, by the time it is finished, will have taken in more than 165 dates across several continents.
In the months after
KISS announced
"End Of The Road", fans wondered openly if original members
Ace Frehley (guitar) and
Peter Criss (drums) would be involved in the tour, especially considering the apparent recent goodwill between
Paul Stanley and
Gene Simmons and
Ace.
Frehley's latest album
"Spaceman" — a title suggested by
Simmons himself — features two songs the pair wrote together, and the duo completed a joint summer 2018 tour of Australia, after which
Frehley fired his solo backing band and hired
Simmons's.
McGhee said during a question-and-answer session on the ninth annual
"Kiss Kruise" that
KISS is open to reuniting with all former members at the final gig.
"We want to include everybody that played with
KISS to celebrate the 45 years of
KISS," he said. "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."
According to
McGhee,
Frehley and
Criss have both "been talked to" about participating in some form. But, he acknowledged, "It's pretty difficult. 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 to 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."
Back in 2018,
Frehley told
VintageRock.com that "the only way" he would "seriously consider" taking part in
"End Of The Road" is "if I took back my make-up and costume and my character — which I designed." He added that current
KISS guitarist
Tommy Thayer "is not a bad guitar player, but he basically just mimics everything I wrote, and tries to imitate my persona. He's been doing it for 15 years," he said. "But the reality is I'm the original guy. And nobody can really copy the way I play guitar."
Asked if he would still consider participating in the tour if
Criss was not involved,
Ace said: "I think it would be great if
Peter was involved. Obviously, at this point in his life, he wouldn't be able to do a two-hour show. But I can see if we worked out a situation where
Peter came out at the end and did three or four songs — sang
'Beth', did
'Black Diamond' and a couple of others, I think that would be fun."
KISS's current lineup consists of original members
Simmons and
Stanley, alongside later band additions,
Thayer (since 2002) and drummer
Eric Singer (on and off since 1991).
Formed in 1973 by
Stanley,
Simmons,
Criss and
Frehley,
KISS staged its first "farewell" tour in 2000, the last to feature the group's original lineup.