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A judge has ruled that a former hairstylist for the rock band KISS can move forward with his wrongful termination lawsuit against Gene Simmons and other individuals associated with the group.

In his Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit, David Mathews alleges he was wrongfully fired from his job as a hairstylist in 2022 after he was incorrectly accused of being the source of a magazine article talking about lax coronavirus protocol within the band.

Mathews maintains he urged the defendants to “force” Fran Stueber, a guitar technician for co-lead vocalist Paul Stanley, to get medical attention and that he told Stueber in front of some of the defendants that he needed to go to the hospital.

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During an appearance on a recent episode of Billboard‘s “Behind The Setlist” podcast, KISS bassist/vocalist Gene Simmons spoke about how he now tours and performs with his solo band. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “I thought I could stay away from the stage [after the completion of KISS‘s ‘End Of The Road’ farewell tour]. It bears noting that there’s a magic that happens up there that words don’t really sort of describe. It’s a feeling, and it’s tough to talk about feelings. It’s probably closer to… There used to be a guy named Dr. [Arthur] Janov and he had a kind of a strange hippie point of view about people having their stuff pent up. So you put people in a padded room. And it was called scream therapy. You go in there and you just let loose and reportedly — I was never part of that, but reportedly — people would come out drenched in sweat and relieved and tired and you expel all this stuff. And going through life, there are rules. You can’t compliment women too much. There’s no more hugging. There’s all these rules. You can’t do trans jokes, gay jokes, Jew jokes, black — you can’t do any of that stuff because we’re very sort of… There are subtle rules that we all have to be aware of. Not on stage. You are free. You just expel all this energy, and it’s this celebration of life with the fans and you, and you get to this kind of joyous place. So the GENE SIMMONS BAND is a chance for me, with some friends who are monsters on their instruments, to go out there and just have a great time. It bears noting we don’t have managers, road crew, nothing. No trucks, nothing. The local promoters provide the backline, and we just get up there and play. And there are no set-in-stone setlists. Fans can yell, ‘Hey, why don’t you do ‘Almost Human’ from 1804?’ You betcha. And you break into it. Or, ‘Do you guys know ‘Whole Lotta Love’?’ ‘Yeah, I think so.’ And you break into it. Or you jam. And at every show we bring fans up on stage. ‘Can you sing?’ ‘Can you play? Let’s have a party.'”

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2025 tour dates:

April
5 – The Event at Graton Resort & Casino – Rohnert Park, CA
25 – Ruth Eckerd Hall – Clearwater, FL
26 – Miami Beach, FL – Fillmore
28 – The Moon – Tallahassee, FL
29 – Florida Theater – Jacksonville, FL
30 – Hard Rock Live – Orlando, FL

May
3 – Beaver Dam Amphitheater – Beaver Dam, KY
5 – Basie – Red Bank, NJ
6 – Wellmont – Montclair, NJ
8 – Wind Creek Casino – Bethlehem, PA
9 – The Paramount – Huntington, NY
15 – Fallsview Casino – Niagara Falls, ON
20 – Brown County Music Center – Nashville, IN
22 – House Of Blues – Dallas, TX
23 – Tobin Center – San Antonio, TX
24 – House Of Blues – Houston, TX

SAN ANTONIO – Get your face paint and platform boots ready!

Rock legend and co-founder of KISS Gene Simmons announced Monday the Gene Simmons Band will be performing on May 23, 2025 at the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts.

Tickets for the event are available to Tobin Members now and will go on sale on Friday to the general public from the Tobin Center Website or the Tobin Center Box Office.

Inspired at an early age by The Beatles, Simmons. along with his partner Paul Stanley, cofounded the legendary rock group KISS in 1972, becoming America’s No. 1 gold-record award-winning group of all time.

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In the clip below from Gibson TV’s The Collection, Paul Stanley talks to Mark Agnesi about life after KISS and how stepping away from the stage has been tough, but a chance to reboot. The iconic frontman and co-songwriter of KISS, Paul shares his thoughts on the final tour, playing with KISS for the last time, the emotional weight of closing out that chapter of his life and the deep appreciation he has of the band and its fans.

Watch as he talks about his lifelong love of the guitar, why he needed to stop playing for a time after the KISS farewell tour and the joy he still gets from holding one. Paul talks about the idea behind his Soul Station project, a tribute to the Motown and Philly soul music he grew up with and teases new music as a solo artist.

Simmons’ son Nick posted a video of him and Evan Stanley performing the song and wrote in the caption, “He garfunkeled my simon till my hall got oates.”

Gene also shared their video on X, saying in the caption, “Nick Simmons and Evan Stanley. Check this out. Amazing.”

In the comment section, fans seemed to enjoy Nick and Evan’s cover of the track. A person wrote, “The next lineup of Kiss?” Another one added, “The next generation of Kiss.” One other fan noted, “Killer stuff!! New band a coming!”

Stanley leads Amber Wild, which opened for KISS on some of their final shows. Nick Simmons has sung with Bruce Kulick in the studio, performed with Wolfmother, and is part of the electronic duo Sym Fera.

It isn’t known whether they have plans to revive KISS. In a chat with Jeff Gaudiosi of MisplacedStraws.com earlier this year, Evan discussed rumors about him possibly taking over KISS. He explained, “No, it’s the funniest thing. People keep asking that constantly.”

He added, “It’s like, dude, you can look at like a thousand interviews where my dad says it, Gene [Simmons] says it, I say it, Nick [Simmons] says it. It’s like, no. That’s my dad’s thing. I’m busy with my thing. I appreciate it. I’m grateful for it. I love it. I’m a fan of the music. I’m a fan of the show. I’ve gotten to have a really unique and very wonderful life as a direct result of it.”

“Do I want to put the makeup on and be baby Paul? F*ck no, I got my own thing going. That’s not a knock. I think there’s someone out there who probably would want to do that, and they’ll probably do an amazing job. I’ve not spent my life trying to be that so, no, I got too much other stuff going on,” Evans then shared.

At the end of KISS’s final show at Madison Square Garden on December 2, 2023, the band announced they would continue as digital avatars. The technology, first used for ABBA’s ‘Voyage’ show in London, will let KISS stay on the road after retiring.

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In a recent interview with Meltdown, former KISS rocker Ace Frehley confirmed that he has begun working on ‘Origins Vol. 3,’ the follow-up to his 2016 and 2020 cover song collections.

“I’m working on ‘Origins Vol. 3′, ’cause that’s the next record I’m putting out next year in 2025,” he explained during the interview. “So, we’re starting to gear up for that and figuring out which songs [to include on the LP]. I have a long extensive list and we’re slowly whittling it down to which ones we’re gonna track.”

“‘Origins Vol. 3’ will probably be out before the end of 2025. I usually put out a record every year, year and a half, two years now. I have two more albums on my record deal with MNRK Music. And everything’s great,” the guitarist added.

In the second of the first two versions of the albums, the rocker featured cover versions of classic rock tracks. However, making a covers album wasn’t his idea. “To be honest with you, initially, I wasn’t that excited about the project, because I had just come off the high of the success of ‘Space Invader’, which is all originals except for a cover of ‘The Joker,’” he explained. “It was almost, like, ‘Okay, I’m going to go through the motions and get this out of the way and then jump into the studio for my next real studio album.’ But I’ve gotta tell ya, man, once I started the process and started remembering the groups that influenced me, narrowing down which songs I thought were going to be best for the record, and then started the recording process; I really started getting more excited about it.”

‘Origins Vol. 2′ was released in 2020. It features the covers of The Beatles’ ‘I’m Down,’ Deep Purple’s ‘Space Truckin’,’ Led Zeppelin’s ‘Good Times Bad Times,’ The Rolling Stones’ ‘Jumpin’ Jack Flash,’ The Kinks’ ‘Lola,’ and The Jimi Hendrix Experience’s ‘Manic Depression,’ among others. A cover of KISS’s 1975 song ‘She’ was also included as a bonus track. Guests on the album included Cheap Trick’s Robin Zander, Lita Ford, and former KISS guitarist Bruce Kulick.

‘Origins Vol. 1,’ released in April 2016, debuted at No. 23 on The Billboard 200, with 16,000 equivalent album units sold in its first week. The album featured collaborations with KISS frontman Paul Stanley on Free’s ‘Fire And Water,’ Slash on Thin Lizzy’s ‘Emerald,’ Lita Ford on The Troggs’ ‘Wild Thing,’ former Rob Zombie guitarist John 5 on KISS’s ‘Parasite,’ and Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready on KISS’s ‘Cold Gin.

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Nick Simmons and Evan Stanley. Check this out. Amazing. pic.twitter.com/EtjcBahLWM

— Gene Simmons (@genesimmons) December 15, 2024

In which Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley’s sons conjure up their inner Simon & Garfunkel

To absolutely no one’s surprise, Kiss have managed to keep themselves in the news since playing their final show little more than a year ago, whether it’s Paul Stanley defending the group’s “wholesome” history with female fans, or Gene Simmons continuing to bang on about how he thinks rock is dead.

Of course, the so-called avatar show is in the works, so all the attention is welcome. Only last week Simmons was at it again, telling Adam Carolla that the show would be “a jaw-dropping, never-before-seen thing.”

“The experience is gonna be beyond anything you can imagine,” the God Of Thunder continued. “Because imagine a caveman goes to IMAX and beholds, experiences a 3D event. They just wouldn’t understand. So, the only way I can describe what’s gonna happen in the next two years or so… Most of us know what virtual glasses are. And all of a sudden, the room and the world you’re in disappears.

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Kiss frontman Gene Simmons declared that “rock ’n’ roll is dead” because “freckle-faced” kids feel entitled to download music for free.

In an interview with conservative pundit Bill O’Reilly, the 75-year-old rocker, in addition to addressing the fate of the music industry, discussed his decision to record music for a recent Ronald Reagan bio-pic and agreed with O’Reilly that Donald Trump is a “rock star.”

Asked to highlight “one big change” he had observed in the music world over the years, Simmons made a bold assertion.

“Unfortunately, the business model is dead and new bands don’t have a chance, especially rock bands,” he said. “In a certain way, rock is finally dead, rock ’n’ roll is dead because the freckled-faced kid next door to you, who is a good kid with a good family and everything, has become entitled—feels entitled to be able to download and file share and get all of this music for free.”

It is a claim that Simmons has been making for at least 10 years—he offered a remarkably similar take to Esquire in 2014, denying that shifts in music taste were to blame for hard rock’s descent.

“Rock did not die of old age,” he said then. “It was murdered. And the real culprit is that kid’s 15-year-old next-door neighbor.”

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An official licensed KISS Unisex T-Shirt featuring the ‘Holiday Logo’ design motif. This high quality T-Shirt is available in a black colourway.

Order now at KISSArmyWarehouse.com!

Great looking Christmas ornament featuring the KISS logo. Measures 3.5 inches wide.

Order while they last at KISSArmyWarehouse.com!

Bringing shock rock to the forefront of the music industry, the iconic KISS showcased just how crazy a concert can get. For five decades, the band toured the world, offering fans a chance to see the legendary band in person. Throughout that time, KISS sold over 100 million albums and landed members like Gene Simmons in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Ending their time on stage back in December 2023, Simmons promised a new avatar version of their famous concerts. And keeping his promise, the hitmaker offered an update on what fans should expect.

Appearing on The Adam Carolla Show, Simmons opened up about the new concert and what the band has been doing over the last year. According to Simmons, “This thing that we’re doing with Pophouse is a jaw-dropping, never-before-seen thing. And I can’t get too specific except to let you know the following, ’cause it’s out there. We flew up to George Lucas’s ILM and we did motion capture, just to make sure that it feels and moves like us, ’cause it is us. The experience is gonna be beyond anything you can imagine. Because imagine a caveman goes to IMAX and beholds, experiences a 3D event. They just wouldn’t understand.”