Paul Stanley has said KISS’ upcoming avatar show will be like “Cirque Du Soleil meets Star Wars and a KISS concert”.
The future production will be overseen by Pophouse Entertainment, the company behind ABBA’s ‘Voyage’ show, in which the Swedish pop group were represented by holographic virtual avatars on stage.
Pophouse acquired KISS’ catalogue, brand name and IP in April, while the band first unveiled their ‘new era’ at the final show of ftheir farewell tour last December in Madison Square Garden. After leaving the stage, the band members’ avatars were revealed, and they went on to perform ‘God Gave Rock And Roll To You’.
Shortly afterwards, the band’s co-founder Gene Simmons confirmed that the band’s virtual avatars will “get better”, and revealed that “about 200 million” dollars was being invested in the technology.
Around the same time, KISS also shared a teaser clip revealing when fans will be able to see their avatars perform. “50 years is a long time, and what the future holds is in the making,” reads the caption, while the video includes the wording: “2027 a show is coming.”
Now, Stanley has opened up about the show’s development so far. Appearing on Steve-O’s Wild Ride! podcast, he said: “What we’ll be doing with these amazing avatars will take us to another place, another level. Now, those [preview images] images at the Garden were really — I had mixed feelings about showing those because they’re so early on, they look nothing like that.”
“I mean, the avatars are identical. I mean, they look like us. And I think the idea was really just to show people that we’re going to move on and continue, but it won’t be like that. And what we’re putting together with George Lucas and Pophouse, this amazing company out of Sweden, is an immersive experience that you’ll come to, and there’ll be heat and fire and wind and things flying around.”
“The idea of us making a recreation of a concert, I mean, how long can you look and go, ‘Wow, that looks just like an amplifier’? That’s not what we’re doing. I would say it’s Cirque Du Soleil meets Star Wars and a KISS concert. So it’s gonna be amazing.”
In the same interview, Stanley also spoke about their decision to give up the band’s IP and catalogue to the company. “You have to imagine that for us to create something and nurture it through the good and the bad for 50 years and then give it to a [someone else], it’s like leaving home. Yeah, it’s leaving home. But I’m still who I was. If I was the Starchild before, I’m Starchild now. That doesn’t change. I’m who I’ve been. And it’s such a unique situation that I don’t think anybody else can ever fathom the magnitude, because people have a hard time giving up their publishing; that’s like their babies. Well, we gave up our babies and the house and the block.”
ABBA’s Voyage, which was held at the purpose-built 3,000 capacity ABBA Arena in London’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, grossed a total of more than £100million in 2023 from over a million visitors and 374 performances.
