Kiss founders Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley have begun talking up the forthcoming Kiss avatar show, which is set to launch in Las Vegas in 2028.
The production, co-created by KISS and Pophouse Entertainment, the Swedish music investment firm co-founded by ABBA’s Björn Ulvaeus, was teased at Kiss’ final show at New York’s Madison Square Garden, and will be hosted in a bespoke theatre in ‘Sin City’, with avatars created by the George Lucas-founded visual effects company, Industrial Light & Magic.
Simmons, Stanely and long-time Kiss manager Doc McGhee discuss the as-yet-untitled show In a cover story for the May 2026 issue of Pollstar magazine, and reveal that it will include new, never-before-heard Kiss songs.
“It will be a true immersive experience that really magnifies the band and the iconic nature of what we’ve built for 50 years,” says Paul Stanley. “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.”
“Pophouse is a terrific bunch of entrepreneurial futurists,” adds Simmons. “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.”
“The fans should start to think about this as not the end of anything,” he adds. “This is the phoenix rising out of the ashes. As a form of life, caterpillars aren’t very impressive, but they survive, and then it looks like they’re dying as they go into a cocoon. But then you get a beautiful butterfly that sprouts wings and goes to places and soars above that the caterpillar never imagined. This is not the end. This is the beginning.”
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Kiss are also planning a band biopic, to be directed by McG (Charlie’s Angels), a documentary, and other projects tba.
When Pollstar suggests that the band are doing press for these projects “a little prematurely”, Gene Simmons replies, “It’s foreplay”.
