Just because Gene Simmons has retired the makeup, spandex and spikes doesn’t mean he’s retired from performing music.
After Kiss performed its final concert in 2023, he quickly created the Gene Simmons Band, without pyrotechnics or crazy outfits. At the Fred on May 2 in Peachtree City, it will just be the band and the music. (Tickets start at $89 via freshtix.com.)
“Kiss was a traveling city,” said Simmons in a recent phone interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “Sixty crew, three triple-decker buses, private jet, 20 tractor-trailers, the works. The Gene Simmons Band is much easier. The equipment is rented. I show up with a guitar pick and we have fun. I never imagined it’d be so easy. I love the flexibility.”
Credit: Rob Griffith /AP
Credit: Rob Griffith /AP
But Simmons is also an entrepreneur and investor who now spends his time juggling multiple enterprises.
He co-owns film production company Simmons/Hamilton, which has two upcoming major films: “Deep Water,” a $40 million horror thriller starring Ben Kingsley and Aaron Eckhart, and “The Canyon,” a thriller with Mel Gibson. He also owns 23 Rock & Brews restaurants nationwide. And he happily hawks MoneyBag Soda, which uses pure cane sugar, and a similarly named vodka.
In fact, Simmons postponed several dates on this tour in April until next year because of his crazy schedule.
“Lawyers, conference calls, with all that stuff happening,” Simmons said, “I couldn’t devote enough time to get the guys set and do those shows at the same time.”
But the Peachtree City date survived. “My schedule opened up!” he said.
Credit: Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP
Credit: Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP
The Gene Simmons Band will heavily feature Kiss songs like “Rock and Roll All Nite” and “Calling Dr. Love.” Other band members have played with ’80s icons, including guitarist Brent Woods (Sebastian Bach, Vince Neil) and drummer Brian Tichy (Whitesnake, Billy Idol, Foreigner).
Since Simmons began touring with the new group, he has prided himself on making the experience interactive to the point he’ll invite people on stage to rock with him.
“If I see a 5-year-old playing air guitar, I’ll pull that kid up on stage and have him join me for ‘Parasite,’” he said. “Or I’ll pull as many as 30 fans on stage to sing along to ‘I Love it Loud.’ In other words: no rules.”
He said he couldn’t bring fans on stage during a Kiss show because of all the wires and gadgetry. “If they stepped in the wrong place, they’d be a shish kebab!” he said.
Ever the entrepreneur, he is offering one fan per concert a chance to hang out with him all day as “roadie for a day.” The cost? A mere $12,495. The perks: having breakfast with Simmons at the hotel, joining him for meetings during the day, driving in a limo to the venue, working the soundcheck, getting introduced to the crowd during the concert and bringing home an autographed bass guitar. Naturally, the VIP also gets to watch the concert from the stage and hang out backstage.
“I’ve never offered this type of VIP experience before,” Simmons said. “It’s something I always imagined I wanted to do when I was a kid. I wondered what it would have been like hanging out with Mick Jagger of the Stones or Sly & the Family Stone.”
A year ago, Kiss sold its catalog to Pophouse Entertainment for a dollar amount in excess of $300 million. Other acts that have cashed in their music to a third party include Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Pink Floyd and Queen. Kiss is collaborating with Pophouse on how to leverage the Kiss legacy and name even if he has no desire to tour again with the band. (He remains tight with Paul Stanley, less so with Ace Frehley and Peter Criss, the other two original members.)
“Pophouse are futurists,” Simmons said. “The next two years, Kiss will continue in ways that no other band has imagined. We have a movie coming on Netflix that is being cast now. There will be a documentary and a cartoon show. There will be a traveling Kiss show.”
There are also plans for an eventual avatar concert similar to ABBA with digital versions of the group using motion capture technology from George Lucas’ studios.
“It’s going to be mind-blowing,” he said. “It’s going to be nothing anyone has ever experienced.”
Simmons, now 75, has no intentions of slowing down any time soon.
“I’m the luckiest guy on the face of the planet,” he said. “I’m forever grateful to the gods, the Fates, America. I’ve been able to climb the heights and reach the heights. I’ve gotten the fame and money and chicks and all the accoutrements that go with it. Do you think I want to sit back and wait to die? No way!”
IF YOU GO
Gene Simmons Band
7:30 p.m. Friday, May 2, $89-$99, Frederick Brown Jr. Amphitheater, 201 McIntosh Trail, Peachtree City, freshtix.com
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