https://soundcloud.com/user-700527792/sets/kiss-the-end-of-the-road-tour-all-access

KISS launched the first leg of their massive End Of The Road World Tour on January 31st at Rogers Arena in Vancouver, BC.

Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons, Tommy Thayer and Eric Singer were recently interviewed by national radio personality Dan Neer to discuss this global goodbye. The 60-minute “All Access” special can be heard via the SoundCloud widget below.

When asked by Neer to envision the closing moments of the tour’s final show, Stanley replied: “I don’t wanna say bittersweet, because there’s nothing bitter about it. It’ll certainly be incredibly emotional, because I have so much to look back on that the band has made possible, that the fans have made possible, and I wanna know at that last show that I gave it everything I could. And I’ll walk away proudly.”

Simmons added: “I’m a fairly big guy — I’m 6′ 2″, I’m probably closer to 250 pounds. I’m not a skinny guy, and proud of it. But I know I’m gonna be weeping like a 12-year-old girl who has someone stepping on her feet at that last show. Tears of happiness, I might add. How many people on earth get to do what we’ve done? You’ve gotta take that perspective, because KISS has always been more than a band. KISS has been a unifying force for different generations… When you see a five-year-old kid at a concert — our concert — who has KISS makeup and is sitting on the shoulders of his dad who’s wearing KISS makeup, who’s next to his dad, who’s 50 or 60, and he’s wearing makeup. And that kid does my hand gesture for the first time in his life… It’s hit me before. I turn around, and you’re in tears, because you realize it’s more than a concert and it’s more than songs — it’s a part of people’s lives. They tattoo their bodies with our faces, they name their kids after our songs. It’s a culture. It’s a nationhood.”