Kiss is in Brazil for the End of The Road Tour , the band's farewell tour. Since the announcement of the shows, many people haven't believed the group's intention to retire permanently from the stage; after all, this isn't the first series of shows announced as the band's farewell to the stage.
Indeed, the first Kiss tour announced as their last took place two decades ago with the band's original lineup, including Ace Frehley and Peter Criss . It consisted of over 140 shows between March 2000 and April 2001 on what was called The Farewell Tour .
What happened to make Kiss change their minds? Was the farewell tour just a marketing ploy? Despite the reunion of the original lineup and the good reception of Psycho Circus (1998), the band was tense behind the scenes, and Peter Criss didn't even finish the Farewell Tour, abandoning the shows when his contract with the band expired. The drummer was replaced by Eric Singer for the shows in Japan and Australia.
According to Ultimate Classic Rock , Paul Stanley wrote in his autobiography Face the Music: A Life Exposed about his frustration with his bandmates, with Frehley almost missing a performance, and the musical stagnation of Kiss, already on their third tour with the same setlist.
In 2004, Kiss returned to the stage, this time with Singer on drums and Tommy Thayer in the role of Spaceman, because the band finally realized that it didn't need to break up, only get rid of the problem represented by the former members, as Stanley explained in 2014.
The End of The Road Tour is Kiss's true farewell tour.
Twenty years later, with the band's founders in their 70s, the scenario is completely different, and there's no reason to doubt that this current tour is a true farewell from Kiss.
In a 2019 interview with BUILD Series , Stanley explained the decision to stop now. “The band has never been better than it is now, but we realized we won’t be this good forever. If we did the show in t-shirts [and pants], we could play until we were 90 years old, but we carry 20 kilos of equipment. We try to make it look easy, it’s hard work, but we love it,” he said. “Instead of fading away, Kiss doesn’t know how to disappear, we need to go out and explode.”
The vocalist also commented on the "skeptics" regarding the band's retirement. "You need to remember that when we perform in your city, it's over. We may have a show in Milan [ahead], but the night we play in your city, that's the farewell," he argued.
In the same interview, Gene Simmons wasn't so kind to those who doubt the band's word. "For those who don't believe this is our last tour, there are people who believe the Earth is flat, so believe what you want. We want to go out on top," he warned.
