KISS will play its last-ever shows on December 1 and December 2 at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The dates for the concerts were announced earlier today (Wednesday, March 1) during an in-studio interview with “The Howard Stern Show”.
KISS launched its farewell trek in January 2019 but was forced to put it on hold in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. “End Of The Road” was originally scheduled to conclude on July 17, 2021 in New York City but has since been extended to late 2023. The trek was announced in September 2018 following a KISS performance of the band’s classic song “Detroit Rock City” on “America’s Got Talent”.
So is this really the end of Kiss? Probably not. Kiss manager Doc McGhee said in an interview with Podcast Rock City that the end of this tour is only the “end of Kiss as we know it.” McGhee mentions that he doesn’t see the band getting out there in makeup ever again, but that there are plenty of other “opportunities” for the band.
“One thing about Kiss, we’ve always been that band that went to places where most bands didn’t go. So we play everybody’s town… You name it, we’ve played there. So we always go where the people are anyways. The reason why we’re continuing doing this last [run]is because obviously the pandemic has stopped us from finishing. And the fact that people just wanted to see us. But we had to end it at some time, which will be this year.
“There’s a lot of talk about everything. And nobody knows what’s gonna happen in the future. So what we’ve kind of put in our minds is let’s go through this like this is the end of Kiss as we know it. And whatever comes our way, with technology and everything else, we’ll look at it. Will be Gene and Paul out there in makeup? No. I can tell you that. They’re hanging their hats up after the [final]show, which is gonna be very, very difficult and very emotional for them after 50 years of doing this. And they love it.”
