Key Takeaways

• Kiss restaurant: A new Rock & Brews restaurant opens in Detroit this week.
• Avatar show: The band plans to unveil an exciting avatar show within two years.
• Film projects: Kiss has multiple film projects, including a biopic and a cartoon series.
• Kiss Kruise: Another Kiss Kruise event is scheduled for November in Las Vegas.

Kiss opens a new and long-awaited Rock & Brews restaurant this week in Detroit Rock City, and Gene Simmons tells UCR that the group — despite its retirement from touring in 2023 — has plenty more on its docket in the not-too-distant future.

That includes on screen, on stage and, in the fashion the Kiss Army has become accustomed to, beyond.

“More is good,” the bass-playing Demon says of what’s coming. “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.

“Oh, wait, I should write that down…”

Certainly on the top of most Kiss fans’ list is the avatar show that the band introduced during the closing concert of its End of the Road World Tour on Dec. 2, 2023 at New York`s Madison Square Garden. Simmons says he “can’t get into specifics” — including a title that’s been determined — but says that it will be revealed in “under two years” and promises it will be worth the wait.

“We’re gonna blow your socks off in a way multiple times more exciting than the Sphere,” Simmons promises. “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.”

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Simmons adds that in addition to the visuals, the avatar 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 adds that the avatar show will be staged “all around the world,” too, rather than just one location.

Movies And Cartoons Are Coming Up

Kiss still has two film projects in the works. For the biopic directed by McG and co-produced by Mark Canton, Simmons says “the scripting is being refined, casting is on its way. (McG) is finishing up Baywatch now and then moving on to our film.” A documentary is finished, Simmons says, though a release date has not been determined. And, he adds, “There’s a cartoon show in the works with Warner Brothers.”

Meanwhile, his Simmons Hamilton film company with producer Gary Hamilton will release a feature, Deep Water — starring Aaron Eckhart and Ben Kingsley — on May 1, with Canyon, starring Bella Thorne and Mel Gibson, in development.

Watch a Scene From 2015’s ‘Scooby Doo! and Kiss: Rock and Roll Mystery’

Another Kiss Kruise Will Dock In Vegas This Fall

Another Kiss Kruise: Landlocked in Vegas is planned for November in Sin City. Last year’s edition saw Simmons, Stanley, Eric Singer and Tommy Thayer return to the stage for unmasked and uncostumed appearances.

“That was a lot of fun,” Simmons recalls, “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.”

Simmons adds that the Kruise will build on last year’s fan-centric features as well. “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; there always will be.”

Songwriters Hall Of Fame Awaits

Before the Kruise, Simmons and Stanley will be feted with an induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame on June 11 in New York City, where Kiss formed in 1972. After receiving a Kennedy Center honor in December, they’ll join a class that includes Kenny Loggins, Alanis Morissette, Taylor Swift, Walter Afanasieff, Terry Britten, Graham Lyle and Christopher “Tricky” Stewart; John Fogerty will receive this year’s Johnny Mercer Award.

“It’s special,” Simmons acknowledges. “When I first came to America at the age of eight and a half, the first music I heard was Chuck Berry…Even though I couldn’t speak English or understand the words, the feeling, sound and beat affected me.” Yet Simmons says that “we were too busy having a great time” with Kiss to think about their work in terms of songwriting until curating Kiss My Ass, a tribute album released in 1994.

“And the reaction we got; Paul and I especially were just shocked,” Simmons recalls. “Garth Brooks immediately said, ‘Oh yeah, I want to be on that record because when I was a kid my first band was Kiss,’ and we’re doing ‘Really?!’ He did ‘Hard Luck Woman,’ and we had Lenny Kravitz; all kinds of people. All of a sudden you get this sense it’s really about tunes because when you do a Kiss cover you don’t wear makeup; there’s no bombs; it’s just about tunes. All of a sudden we started thinking ‘Oh! We’re songwriters!’ Up until then it occurred to us because we were so busy with everything else.”

The Songwriters Hall honor appropriately comes alongside the 30th anniversary of Kiss Unplugged from MTV’s Unplugged special of that name. “When we were first offered Unplugged by MTV there was some reluctance,” Simmons says.

“‘I wonder if these songs will sound OK without bombast? When you strip away everything; is it just fluff?’ And we were pleasantly surprised; ‘Oh wow! That sounds pretty good,’ even those big amped-up sounding songs; they sounded great too. And that was about songs as well.”

Detroit Rock City Gets Its Rock & Brews

Kiss’ latest Rock & Brew location — their 19th since 2010 — opens March 16 in Royal Oak suburb of Detroit; it’s a 12,000-square-foot three-story facility that pays homage to both Kiss as well as Detroit’s close association with them celebrated in their 1976 anthem “Detroit Rock City.”

“Payback is a good thing,” says Simmons who will visit himself on April 9 and play a concert there with his solo band on Sept. 7. “Before New York or Los Angeles; Detroit and this entire area took Kiss to its bosom. Detroit’s always been wonderful for us; I’m a big fan. Some of my finest friends have been from Detroit so it’s pride for everyone on our Rock & Brews team to open up here in Royal Oak; it’s gonna really be something special.”

Simmons says he along with Stanley and Rock & Brews’ El Segundo California-based team have been involved “from soup to nuts” with this Royal Oak location including design as well as training kitchen staff bar staff waitstaff.