Hard rock legends KISS have shared new details regarding their upcoming plans for their digital avatar live experience. Upon completing their farewell tour back in December 2023, the group first announced their intention to live on forever as digital avatars. To achieve that end, they went on to sell the majority of their various rights associated with the band, including publishing rights, names and likenesses and more to Pophouse Entertainment Group AB in a deal estimated to be over $300 million.
Despite the expressed finality of the show referenced above, the band have since reunited for live performances since, albeit without their makeup and custom attire. As the band confirm in a newly published interview with Pollstar, the makeup patterns they used to sport were part of the aforementioned sale.
Thus far the band themselves have participated in the process of motion capture and more for the upcoming production, which is expected to first begin playing in Las Vegas, NV in 2028. To that end, Pophouse has teamed with Industrial Light & Magic, the powerhouse effects studio started by ‘Star Wars‘ creator George Lucas to get the technology in shape for the upcoming experience.
In this aforementioned new chat, bassist/vocalist Gene Simmons stated of this upcoming production, “Show is not the right word. When you are parachuting into a volcano, I would call it a show. These are semantics, but you know, I’m not anti-semantic.”
As for partnering with Pophouse, in what will be that company’s first foray into the U.S. market after finding success with a similar ABBA production overseas, Simmons offered:
“There’s a positive in that. It’s a world view versus an American view. And KISS always wanted to be and is, perhaps, the most recognizable iconic imagery, certainly in pop culture. There’s Mickey Mouse; there are one or two iconic visual images on the planet. So if one of the guys in U2, like the drummer, walked down the street, one or two people might say, ‘Oh, you’re the drummer.’ It’s undeniable that if any of the four KISS faces walk down the street, you get a crowd. In any country in the world. In Africa.”
Pollstar sought clarity on which members of the band’s various incarnations would be making the jump to digital form for this venture, which has previously briefly been shown in an early prototype form. Simmons‘ response was somewhat ambiguous, as he offered, “It’s going to be the iconic face personas, The Demon, the Starchild, and so on. Who you want to place into that lineup is up to you.”
Simmons also went on to say that in addition to fan favorites, new songs will be integrated into this avatar experience. When pressed for further detail on what this new material will entail, Simmons offered, “Exactly what that means, written by us. We have songs done.”
Simmons also further hyped up the current plans for these avatar live experiences, offering:
“Pophouse is a terrific bunch of entrepreneurial futurists. They did buy our makeup and the tunes, yes, but what they’re deep into is planting seeds for the future to make it even bigger. I’ll tell you what I mean. But the big move now is what we’re calling, as a place card, “the avatars.”
It’ll be less of a show and more of an experience, because as fantastic as virtual reality is – it fools your eyes – but your ears can hear what’s going on around you. So if, hypothetically, you see a dragon that breathes fire into your face, the visuals will give you that, but you won’t feel the heat, so imagine all your senses are being attacked right along with the visuals.”
Vocalist/guitarist Paul Stanley added:
“It will be a true immersive experience that really magnifies the band and the iconic nature of what we’ve built for 50 years. It’s very different from anything else that’s been out there. It has really no connection to some of the experimental holograms that were tried in the past, which were really very primitive. This will be virtually seeing us. My avatar looks just like me, not a cartoon or an artist rendition. The great thing about being an icon is you can stay young forever.”
