Peter Criss and Ace Frehley declined offer to return for last ever Kiss shows, says Gene Simmons

Gene Simmons has revealed he asked former Kiss members Peter Criss and Ace Frehley to perform at the band’s last ever shows, but both refused.

Kiss are in the middle of their farewell ‘End Of The Road’ tour, which they are in the UK for this week. Their last-ever shows are set to take place at Madison Square Garden in their hometown of New York on December 1 and 2.

Fans hoped Criss and Frehley would make an appearance at Kiss’s last shows, but the chances of that happening appear slim, seeing as Simmons has claimed multiple offers were made and declined.

“For the older fans, the ones who’ve been around for 50 years, they’re old, and some of them wanna see Ace and Peter. The newer fans never saw them and they don’t know,” Simmons told Linea Rock [via Classic Rock]

“But the older fans wonder about Ace and Peter. Well, I asked both Ace and Peter a few times ‘Do you wanna come out for the encores? Do you wanna do some shows?’ And they both said ‘no.’ So, I don’t know what to say about that.

“But it’s always welcome. But there are many other big stars, superstars, who wanna jump up onstage and play a song. But we’re not sure about that. Maybe the best thing to do is to end the way we started – four guys with guitars. No keyboards, no synthesizers, nothing. Just playing.”

Frehley and Criss were part of Kiss’s original line-up alongside Simmons and vocalist and guitarist Paul Stanley. Criss departed in 1980 and Frehley in 1982, but both participated in the band’s 1996 reunion.

Tensions intensified between Frehley and Stanley earlier this year. Stanley explained on The Howard Stern Show back in April that part of the reason the band didn’t perform when they were inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 2014  was because the Rock Hall wanted the band to perform with their original line-up.

“At this point, that would be demeaning to the band, and also would give some people confusion. ‘Cause if you saw people onstage who looked like KISS but sounded like that, maybe we should be called PISS,” he said.

From there, Frehley went on SiriusXM’s Trunk Nation with Eddie Trunk and threatened to spill some secret KISS “dirt” if Stanley didn’t apologise for the remark within one week. Said “dirt” supposedly came in the form of a 120-manuscript containing “career-ending” details about both Stanley and Simmons.

Frehley then said Stanley called him on the day of the one-week deadline, not to apologise but to say “fuck you”.

Meanwhile, a biopic on the band’s early career, Shout It Out Loud, is reportedly set to land on Netflix next year.

Kiss will play their final UK shows this week – you can see the full itinerary below and buy any remaining tickets here.

JULY
05 – The O2, London
07 – AO Arena, Manchester 
08 – OVO Hydro, Glasgow 

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