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Kiss guitarist Tommy Thayer has said there is still a future for the band, despite the fact they've officially retired from touring – and that could include new music, additional live performances, and more.
The glam rock giants supposedly finished for good with a blockbuster show at Madison Square Garden in 2023, which brought their exhausting End of the Road tour – their second farewell tour – to a close.
Last month, however, they played two unmasked concerts at a Kiss fan event in Las Vegas. Their unplugged performance was preluded by a candlelit tribute to founding lead guitarist Ace Frehley in the wake of his tragic passing, and there was a reunion of their unmasked line-up as Bruce Kulick made a special appearance during their electric set.
Speaking to MusicRadar, Thayer believes they could still have quite a busy future.
“There’s a lot in the works for Kiss moving ahead,” he confirms. “We’re not touring anymore, of course, but there’s still a ton happening behind the scenes.”
More live shows, it seems, are on the menu, with the guitarist saying that “the Vegas event was fantastic, and it really exceeded our expectations.
“You could feel that everybody was having a great time. I know the fans absolutely loved it, and I can definitely see it happening again.”
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He isn’t ruling out more activity beyond that. He’s already opened up about the avatar versions of the band are in the works, and while reuniting in the studio isn’t completely out of the question, he admits it isn’t a certainty.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
“As for another Kiss record, I’m honestly not sure yet,” Thayer says. “It really depends on where things go and how everything evolves over the next year or two. But I do feel like we all still have a lot of great ideas and a desire to keep creating and doing all the things we love doing.”
If rock n’ roll has taught us anything, it’s that farewell tours are very rarely a last goodbye. Just look at Mötley Crüe, who have welcomed John 5 into the band and released new music, since their retirement party in 2015.
A freelance writer with a penchant for music that gets weird, Phil is a regular contributor to Prog, Guitar World, and Total Guitar magazines and is especially keen on shining a light on unknown artists. Outside of the journalism realm, you can find him writing angular riffs in progressive metal band, Prognosis, in which he slings an 8-string Strandberg Boden Original, churning that low string through a variety of tunings. He's also a published author and is currently penning his debut novel which chucks fantasy, mythology and humanity into a great big melting pot.
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