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KISS bassist and co-founder Gene Simmons has explained the band's reasoning for calling off its planned winter residency in Las Vegas.
Speaking with the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Simmons confirmed that the band "definitely" plans to revisit the idea at a later date.
"Our original plan was to come in just before New Year's, but it was just too busy," Simmons said. "When I came into town and joined my friend Dave Grohl onstage [on December 4], that same night you could see George Strait at T-Mobile Arena, literally across the street. You go down the street and you can see many more artists. I mean, it's packed. There are more artists per square inch in a city that never sleeps than anyplace on the planet."
Simmons said Kiss might look to reschedule the residency for next winter or possibly early-2023. The initial plan was for the band to set up at the Zappos Theater for a 12-date residency this fall/winter.
"With all due respect to all the other artists who are terrific, and who are great and iconic, we'd rather wait for the traffic to die down and bring the best show on Earth, period," he said.
Kiss is currently in the middle of its 'End of the Road' farewell tour. The tour was originally scheduled to wrap up in the summer of 2021, but that timeline was thrown out the window due to uncertainty around the COVID pandemic.
The band's longtime manager, Doc McGhee, said in September that Kiss's final concert would almost certainly occur in 2022. Frontman Paul Stanley later suggested the tour might extend through early-2023, but no further.