LAS VEGAS — Gene Simmons will go unmasked, but he’s never unplugged.

The Kiss co-founder is amped about avatars, eager to lead the Kiss Army into Virgin Hotels Las Vegas and says virtual Kiss will blow your boots off.

Kiss is coming back to Las Vegas later this year for Kiss Army Storms Vegas. The property-wide, fan event is set for Nov. 14-16.

Kiss will perform without makeup on Nov. 15, also talking from the stage and answering fans’ questions. The event is a partnership of the band, Pophouse Entertainment, boutique vacation Topeka, and destination company Vibee. The event celebrates the band’s 50th anniversary, and will be their first live performance since announcing their “farewell” from the stage after two shows at Madison Square Garden 15 months ago.

Experience packages, starting at $999 (not including fees) for the three-day event, are on-sale to the general public on April 7 at 7 a.m. Pacific time. For presale opps and fan-club information, go to kissonline.com.

Here are highlights from a phone chat with Simmons earlier this week:

The Kiss avatar show will ‘blow away’ Sphere technology.

The next iteration of the “masked” Kiss will be a production from Pophouse — co-founded by ABBA’s Björn Ulvaeus — and George Lucas’ Industrial Light & Magic digital-effects company. Avatars representing Simmons, Paul Stanley, Tommy Thayer and Eric Singer will perform remastered music from the Kiss catalog. This is similar to the licensed “ABBA Voyage” live virtual concert running in London, which Ulvaeus’ company also developed.

Asked if he’s seen shows at Sphere, Simmons said, “Oh, yeah. Without taking anything away from it — because it’s terrific — it looks like they’ll go broke, but I hope not, because it’s all about giving people excitement. But our Kiss avatars, with the name being a placeholder, is gonna blow that away.”

Simmons described this magical production.

“Imagine if some magic happens, and you’re thrown into another realm, another dimension, another reality, and everything that you’re aware of disappears,” he said. “Oh, it’s great. It’s crazy.”

He didn’t dispute or confirm Stanley’s timeline for the show to premiere.

The founding Kiss vocalist told Billboard in September the show would premiere in Las Vegas in 2027.

“No comment, Sir,” Simmons said. “Nobody wants to find out in July what they’re getting for Christmas.”

There’s no massive production planned for the Kiss Army Storms Vegas event.

“We will not do the makeup. We will hold true to the promise,” Simmons said. “There’s no stage show. There’s no crew. We won’t have 60 people levitating drum sets and all that stuff. This is more personal gathering of the tribes, where we meet them, greet them, maybe have a Q&A.”

The event will expand across the hotel.

“There might be some Kiss tribute bands, almost like a convention, if you will,” Simmons said. “So it’s much more personal. And of course, we can’t get by without playing, so we’ll get up and do some tunes. What they are, how long, I don’t know.”

Kiss World is not moving.

Kiss has an ongoing partnership with the Kiss World glow-in-the-dark miniature golf and memorabilia display at the Rio. Las Vegas couple Patrick and Christina Vitagliano operate the business. The project is unrelated to the band’s November event at Virgin Hotels. Simmons is not planning to relocate the golf course or his items, which he owns outright.

“That’s my collection. Pophouse Pop does not have dibs on my personal collection. I can do whatever I want,” Simmons said. “I decided to put it at the Rio. As you know, Las Vegas has 40 million people that go through town and then go back home. If I can’t bring my collection to everybody, this is a way to make it easier for people to take a look. The intention is to keep it at the Rio. If Christina and Patrick decide they want to move hotels, that’s fine. But my intention is to keep it in Las Vegas.”

Presenting the band in makeup was a collective idea.

The original members of Kiss, including drummer Peter Criss and guitarist Ace Frehley, started wearing makeup in the spring of 1973. Who’s idea was it?

“Respectfully, for our legacy, and for everybody who’s been in the band, including Ace and Peter. There isn’t one among us who can ever raise their hand and say, ‘It was my idea,’” Simmons said. “We were just four knuckleheads with no resume, no experience, who decided to put together the band they never saw on stage. Somehow, we decided, ‘Hey, let’s go down to Woolworth,’ the department store. They had the Whoopee Cushions and gag stuff and all that. They had a place for Halloween makeup. It just happened, and the makeup we put on for the first time has lasted a half-century.

_________

©2025 Las Vegas Review-Journal. Visit reviewjournal.com.. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.