Photo: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty
KISSis preparing to take its final bow.
The American hard rock band rose to fame in the 1970s, thanks to hit songs like “Rock and Roll All Nite” and “Black Diamond,” and built a dedicated fanbase that has remained loyal through the decades.
The band currently includes Simmons, Stanley, Eric Singer, who joined the band in 1991, and Tommy Thayer, who became a member in 2002. Past KISS members include Eric Carr (drums), Vinnie Vincent (guitar), Mark St. John (guitar) and Bruce Kulick (guitar).
In addition to their music, the group is also known for their signature onstage makeup designs. Each look represents a different persona: the “Demon” (Simmons), the “Starchild” (Stanley), the “Catman” (Singer) and the “Spaceman” (Thayer). In 1983, the band ditched their costumes and makeup during what became known as KISS' “unmasked” era. It lasted for over a decade before the group’s original lineup reunited briefly in 1996, bringing their iconic personas back along with them.
In September 2018, the groupannounced their farewell tour, revealing that they planned to retire from touring after the final concerts.
KISS.Kevin Winter/Getty
“All that we have built and all that we have conquered over the past four decades could never have happened without the millions of people worldwide who’ve filled clubs, arenas and stadiums over those years,” KISS said at the time. “This will be the ultimate celebration for those who’ve seen us and a last chance for those who haven’t.”
The End of the Road Tour began in 2019, but was put on pause due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It will conclude in December 2023 withtheir “final shows ever"at New York City’s Madison Square Garden. The band has expressed that after their final touring shows together, they may still be open to a future Las Vegas residency or one-off concerts.
Here’s a look into the lives of the members of KISS, then and now.
Gene Simmons, 73
Gene Simmons.Paul Natkin/Getty ; Gilbert Carrasquillo/Getty
Gene Simmons, né Chaim Witz, was born in Israel on Aug. 25, 1949. He immigrated to New York City at age 8 with his mother and changed his name to Gene Klein, taking on his mother’s maiden name. Forhis stage name, the band’s co-lead singer and bassist took inspiration from rockabilly singer Jumpin' Gene Simmons.
Simmons was inhis first band, The Lynx, as a teenager. In 1968,he joinedBullfrog Bheer, and later formed the group Wicked Lester with Paul Stanley. The duo ended up walking away from the group and a record deal to create KISS. Outside of music, Simmons worked as a sixth-grade teacher in New York for six months andwas the assistantto aVogueeditor in 1973.
Simmons has remained KISS' bassist and co-lead singer since the group’s inception. His persona, the “Demon,” is infamous for sticking out his tongue, vomiting fake blood and even spitting fire on stage.
In addition to the band, Simmons has launched several other successful ventures, including a magazine, record label and an animated show,My Dad the Rock Star.
The rocker is thefather of two children, daughterSophieand son Nick Simmons, whom he shares with his wifeShannon Tweed-Simmons. The couple has been together since 1983, but waited 28 years to officially tie the knot in 2011. His family life was chronicled onGene Simmons Family Jewels, his reality series that ran on A&E from 2006 to 2012.
Simmons prefers to keep his personal circle small, tellingGoldminemagazine that outside of his bandmate Stanley,he doesn’t have friends.
“Even today as I sit here, other than Paul [Stanley], and we only get together when we do stuff for the band … How do I say this without sounding inhuman? I don’t have friends,” he told the outlet.
In April 2023, Simmons made headlines after hebecame ill at a KISS concert in Braziland needed to pause the show before sitting down for the remainder of the performance. The following day, the musicianresponded to fans' concern on Twitter, writing that he “experienced weakness because of dehydration,” but it was “nothing serious.”
Paul Stanley, 71
Richard E. Aaron/WireImage ; Amy Sussman/Getty
After Wicked Lester broke up in 1972, the pair teamed up with Peter Criss and later Ace Frehley to form KISS, a name Stanley came up with after taking inspiration from Criss' previous band Lips.
After KISS' self-titled album debuted in 1974, Stanley decided to legally change his name to “Paul Stanley,” citing marketing reasons in addition to the fact that he’d never been fond of his moniker. He also officially took on his KISS persona, the “Starchild,” and became known for wearing a painted star over his right eye.
In addition to collaborating with Simmons in KISS, Stanley has worked on a number of outside ventures with his bandmate, including the restaurant franchise Rock & Brews and a now-defunct football team called Los Angeles Kiss.
As for his personal life, Stanley was married to actress Pamela Bowen for nine years until their divorce in 2001. The former couple share one son, Evan Shane, born in June 1994. In November 2005, the rocker married his second wife Erin Sutton, with whom he shares three children: son Colin Michael, born in September 2006; daughter Sarah Brianna, born in January 2009; and daughterEmily Grace, born in August 2011.
“There is nothing greater in life than family, and my accomplishments as a father rank at the top of my successes,” he told PEOPLE in 2011.
Ace Frehley, 71
Fin Costello/Redferns ; Daniel Zuchnik/Getty
Paul Daniel “Ace” Frehley was born on April 27, 1951, and grew up in the Bronx. After playing as a member of various bands through his teens, he officially joined KISS in January 1973, coming up with the group’s iconic lightning bolt logo.
Frehley took on the persona the “Spaceman,” known for his over-the-top and out-of-this-world guitar style (during his solos, his signature Les Paul Custom guitar wouldfill the stage with smokeas he played).
Despite becoming one of the most popular guitarists in the world, Frehley was famously self-taught and never had any formal instruction. “I never took a guitar lesson, and just about every day, somebody comes up to me and says, ‘If it wasn’t for you, I never would have picked up a guitar,’ " he said in 2018.
The rocker later rejoined KISS in 1996 for a reunion tour, with all four original members performing together for the first time since 1980. In September 1998, the band released their 18th album together,Psycho Circus, the first to involve the original four members since their 1979 release,Dynasty. He left the group again in 2002.
“Gene, your memory is really incorrect!…” Frehley wrote on Facebook. “I was NEVER FIRED from KISS, I quit twice (not 3-times) of my own free will, because you and [guitarist] Paul [Stanley] are control freaks, untrustworthy and were too difficult to work with!”
Frehley married Jeanette Trerotola in 1976, and they share a daughter Monique together. As of 2018,they were still legally married, according to Frehley, though he has been engaged to Rachael Gordon since 2010.
Peter Criss, 77
Al Pereira/Getty ; Mike Pont/Getty
Criss also served as the lead singer on a few KISS songs, including their 1976 hit “Beth,” for which he is credited as a co-writer. However, just a few years later in 1980, Criss ended up leaving the band, though the circumstances of his departure have been largely debated (Simmons and Frehley have both said that he was fired, while Criss maintains he quit).
After leaving KISS, Criss spoke to PEOPLE about some of his struggles while in the band. “It always had to be Gene’s way. It was an ego thing,” he said. “There’s more to music than three chords.”
At the time, the musician was preparing to go on tour forOut of Control, his first of five solo albums. For his first venture outside of KISS, Criss explained he was aiming for “a more sophisticated following. I don’t want to duck bottles anymore. I’ve had it with fire and bombs onstage. I see myself in a tux in Las Vegas.”
Outside of the band, Criss was married to his childhood sweetheart Lydia Di Leonardo from 1970 until 1979. He met formerPlayboyplaymate Debra Jensen while attending a party atRod Stewart’s mansion, and the pair married in 1979. They welcomed a daughter, Jenilee, together in 1981, but divorced in 1994. In May 1998, he married his third wife Gigi Criss.
In 2007, Criss discovered a lump on his chest while working out. In February 2008, doctors removed a nodule from his breast, which they diagnosed as breast cancer. A surgery the following month removed the cancer.
“So many people must die from this,“he told CNNin 2009. “Somebody has to step up to the plate and say something to get them aware of how dangerous this is. Lots of men die: They wait, they don’t go in, they put it off.”
Eric Carr
Luciano Viti/Getty ; Fryderyk Gabowicz/picture alliance/Getty
Paul Charles Caravello, born July 12, 1950, grew up in Brooklyn, New York. He replaced Criss as KISS' drummer in 1980 andadopted the stage nameEric Carr.
Carr’s first public performance with the group was on July 25, 1980, at the Palladium in New York City. Instead of using Criss' “Catman” persona, he came up with the “Fox” character.Music from “The Elder"was the first album he worked on with the group, and he also dabbled in guitar, bass guitar, piano and background vocals.
Eric Singer, 64
Kevin Winter/Getty ; Daniel Knighton/Getty
Eric Singer was born in Cleveland, Ohio, on May 12, 1958. The drummer’s father was a local bandleader and played a large role in influencing his love of music. Among Singer’s other inspirations are bands including The Who, The Beatles and Led Zeppelin.
Singer first joined KISS in December 1991 following the death of Eric Carr. He played on the band’s 16th and 17th studio albums,RevengeandCarnival of Souls: The Final Sessions, and embarked on several tours. In 1996, however, the band’s first drummer Criss returned to the group when the original members reunited for the Alive/Worldwide tour. Singer stepped away, only to rejoin again in 2001. After temporarily departing once again in 2002, he permanently rejoined the band in 2004, and has remained a member ever since.
Outside of KISS, Singer has toured and/or performed withQueen’sBrian May,Alice Cooper,Black Sabbathand more. He is also the drummer for his KISS bandmate Paul Stanley’s side project, Soul Station.
Tommy Thayer, 62
Stephen Lovekin/FilmMagic ; Daniel Knighton/Getty
Tommy Thayer was born on Nov. 7, 1960, and grew up in Beaverton, Oregon. He was raised in a family of musicians, and first picked up an electric guitar at age 13.
Pre-KISS, Thayer co-founded the band Black ‘n Blue, which opened for KISS on tour in 1985. In addition to being part of their opening act, the rocker was involved with the band in various capacities before officially taking on the role of lead guitarist.
In 1994, he began working with Simmons and Stanley on their bookKisstory, and managed their 1995 Worldwide Kiss Convention tour. He also served as a producer and editor of several long-form video and film releases for the group. Thayer officially joined the group as the lead guitarist during a private concert in Jamaica in March 2002, replacing Ace Frehley and wearing the “Spaceman” makeup and costume for the first time.
Outside of the band, Thayer isinvolved in multiple charitable organizations, including serving on the board of directors of the Arnold Palmer Education Fund and the Thayer Family Foundation. He is also on the board of trustees at Pacific University in Oregon. In May 2018, the universityhonored the musicianwith an honorary doctorate of humane letters “in recognition of his tremendous career and philanthropic leadership efforts.”
Thayer married Amber Peek in 2006, though the couple have since separated. In March 2021, the guitarist announced via Instagram that he hadconnected with his daughterSierra the previous summer, whom he had not previously know about.
Vinnie Vincent, 70
After departing KISS, Vincent formed a new band, Vinnie Vincent Invasion, in the mid-1980s, and released two albums before breaking up in 1989. He briefly reunited with KISS in 1992, appearing as a songwriter on the albumRevenge, but again butted heads with Simmons and Stanley during the project. (“Vinnie was up to his old tricks again,” Simmons toldRolling Stone, alleging that Vincent sued the band over a contract dispute).
A few years later, in May 2022, Vincent appeared with former KISS guitarists Ace Frehley and Bruce Kulick for a performance of four of the band’s songs at Creatures Fest in Nashville.
As for his personal life, the guitarist shared twin daughters with his ex-wife AnnMarie Peters, who wasmurdered in 1998after they had divorced. Vincent later cited his daughters as one of the reasons he refused to sign his initial contract with KISS.
“I had a family,” hesaid in 2018. “I had twins that I didn’t know I was gonna have, and there was no money to take care of them, and there was no money to buy a home. We were living with relatives, and I was on call 24 hours a day, which was OK — it was all OK. But I couldn’t move on; there was no future.”
In 1996, he married his second wife Diane Kero, an ex-girlfriend of Frehley whom he had met the previous year at a KISS convention in Chicago. She died on Jan. 13, 2014, at age 47.
Mark St. John
Mark St. John (far right) with his KISS bandmates in 1984.Polygram Records/Wikimedia Commons
St. John never performed in a persona for the group, as they hadtheir live unmaskingthe year prior. He only appeared in one video for the band, the hit single “Heaven’s on Fire” from theirAnimalizealbum, the only album he was featured on. St. John reportedly clashed with other members of the band while recordingAnimalize, and Stanley later said they had trouble solidifying his solos due to a lack of “structure” in his playing.
The musician’s time in the group was cut short when he developed reactive arthritis, which caused swelling in his arms and hands. He was only able to perform two full shows and one partial show before Bruce Kulick began filling in for him, eventually officially replacing St. John in the band in December 1984.
Bruce Kulick, 69
Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic ; Paul Archuleta/FilmMagic
Bruce Howard Kulick was born on Dec. 12, 1953, in Brooklyn, New York. Prior to joining KISS as their lead guitarist, Kulick worked with artists includingMichael BoltonandMeat Loaf. Like St. John, he never took on an onstage persona or wore makeup while a member of the group.
Kulick became an official member of KISS in September 1984 to replace St. John following his arthritis diagnosis. During his time with the band, he appeared on five studio albums and two live albums.
Kulick left KISS in 1996 following the Alive/Worldwide tour, which saw all four original members of the band reunite, though he did contribute to the group’s 1998 albumPsycho Circus.
Kulick began dating Lisa Lane in 2008, and they married in 2014. The couple lives in Las Vegas together, and occasionally records acoustic covers of popular KISS songs, which they share on Kulick’sYouTube channel.
source: people.com
