Kiss frontman Gene Simmons is giving fans the chance to be his personal assistant for one day … if they are willing to pay $12K.
“[It’s] the ultimate Gene Simmons experience,” the rocker, 75, says on his website.
Simmons is offering these paid experiences as he embarks on a solo tour with his Gene Simmons Band throughout the spring. Some of the more conventional offerings include getting a signed bass and a backstage meet-and-greet for a pricey $6,500.
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However, Simmons fans who actually want to help set up one of his concerts – and surely there is someone intrigued by the opportunity – will have to fork over a staggering $12,495.
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For this immense sum, the fan and one guest of their choosing get to meet up with Simmons and his team on the day of the gig to go over the rocker’s daily schedule. After a private meal with Simmons, the fan will work with his road crew to set up all of the band’s gear before showtime.
Fans will also get to take part in Simmons’ soundcheck before being brought up on stage by the singer during the show. All sorts of swag is promised as well, including a signed setlist from the concert and an autographed bass used in a Kiss rehearsal.
KISS super-fans with enough cash for this “experience” will need to act quickly because Simmons is only allowing one person per show to sign up.
Simmons and Kiss have been criticized throughout their careers for occasionally crass and opportunistic merchandising tactics.
In 2001, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees announced that fans could be buried in an officially-licensed Kiss Kasket for $3,900. The casket, which could double as a drink cooler, was decorated with photos of Simmons and bandmates Paul Stanley, Ace Frehley and Peter Criss.
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The rocker personally advertised the Kiss Kasket with the slogan: “I love livin’, but this [casket] makes the alternative look pretty damn good.”
Over the years, Kiss has also branded its own Kiss Kondoms, air guitar strings (as in, bags filled only with air), inflatable tongues and even a signature toilet paper.
In 2001, Kiss headlined a heavily-promoted retirement tour with 142 shows. Kiss soon reversed course and resumed performing two years later without guitarist Frehley for their World Domination Tour in 2003. Their live shows continued until their End of the Road World Tour wrapped up at Madison Square Garden in New York City on December 2, 2023.
Simmons clarified to 519 Magazine shortly before KISS’s final concert that their latest tour was “the end of the road for the band, not the brand.”
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“Kiss is a universe of its own – movies, merchandise, maybe even Broadway. The band will end, but the Kiss experience … it’s immortal,” he insisted. “It’s the end of touring … We are the hardest-working band on stage. I’ve got 40 pounds of armour and all the rest of it and seven-inch platform heels. Each of the dragon boots weighs as much as a bowling ball. Physically, it’s tough to do that.”
Kiss has since partnered with digital effects studios Industrial Light and Magic and Pophouse to create 3-D avatars, with the intention of launching a travelling hologram concert tour in the future.
“This thing that we’re doing with Pophouse is a jaw-dropping, never-before-seen thing,” he told The Adam Carolla Show in December 2024. “And I can’t get too specific except to let you know the following, ’cause it’s out there. We flew up to George Lucas’ ILM and we did motion capture, just to make sure that it feels and moves like us, ’cause it is us. The experience is gonna be beyond anything you can imagine. Because imagine a caveman goes to IMAX and beholds, experiences a 3D event. They just wouldn’t understand.”
Simmons went on: “The only way I can describe what’s gonna happen in the next two years or so … Most of us know what virtual glasses are. And all of a sudden, the room and the world you’re in disappears. And if you look down, the floor that you’re standing on is no longer the floor. You could be floating in space or on another planet. So no matter where you look, in back of you, forward, up, down, you’re in this alternative universe. Now imagine that experience with sound and heat and all that kind of stuff without glasses.”
Simmons is next scheduled to perform at the House of Blues in Anaheim, California on April 3 and at the Pechanga Resort Casino in Temecula on April 4.
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