Updated 6:08 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 31: Kiss canceled its DTE Energy Music Theatre date after bassist Gene Simmons tested positive for COVID-19.
Originally published Tuesday, Aug. 31:
As wearers of flame-retardant space armor and clown paint, the members of controversial campy rock band KISS may be many things, but anti-vaxxers they are not. Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons, Tommy Thayer, and Eric Singer were forced to postpone a gig last week when it was revealed that Stanley, 69, contracted a breakthrough case of COVID-19 — just four days into the latest leg of their massive farewell tour, which launched in 2019. According to an Instagram post, everyone on the tour from band to crew are fully vaccinated, going as far as to have a “COVID safety protocol officer” on staff full time.
Formed in 1973 New York City thanks to an ad placed in the Village Voice, KISS has managed to be a contender on both “best” and “worst” rock ’n’ roll band listicles for more than 45 years. Some hail the band for being harbingers of pseudo-satanic arena-rock and showmanship. Others are quick to chastise the band’s tongue-wagging, blood-spitting, glam rock gimmickry, uncompromising pageantry (er, stagecraft), and undying misogyny. If you’re Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler, you likely fall into the former camp and might share the sentiment that Kiss is a “comic book rock band [with] spackled faces [and] a couple of hits.”
“I believe we create unknowingly or knowingly, we create our destiny,” Stanley told Metro Times in 2019. “It doesn’t necessarily mean we wind up where we thought we would. We play a major role in determining our direction and that leads us to whatever we’re going to go to. So, this was the path that I wanted and to believe that I would be doing it 45 years later is unfathomable. Yet, here I am and here’s the band packing arenas and going down a storm because we’re KISS and we’re forever.”
Doors open at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 1 at DTE Energy Music Theatre; 33 Bob Seger Dr., Clarkston; 313-471-9700; 313presents.com. Tickets are $52.50+.
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