KISS Forever at Pollstar Live! 2026: How Pophouse Defines The Next Era Of KISS In Vegas

Rock royalty graced the stage at Pollstar Live! 2026, when KISS founding members Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley and manager Doc McGhee joined Pophouse Entertainment CEO Jessica Koravos to talk about KISS Forever, the avatar show coming to Las Vegas in 2028.

Pophouse Entertainment Group is the music catalog investment team responsible for ABBA Voyage avatar currently residing in London, England. It was that show that inspired KISS to do the same, according to their long-time manager McGhee, who said seeing the ABBA Voyage show sparked “hope for the future”.

Stanley explained that KISS had always been an interactive experience, as anyone who’s ever attended a show by the band can attest to. The avatar show was a chance for these iconic characters, or personas, to live on forever.

“It’s not going to be a concert,” he said, “we’re there as your travel guides through KISS world.”

Koravos said the two things the band wanted from the avatar show it wasn’t willing to compromise on were “immortality and a lot of pyro,” to which Simmons nodded and said, “True that.”

He delved into the band’s history, recalling how they were “just four knuckleheads off the streets of New York” who thought of most other bands as incredibly boring. “They had great songs, but once you opened your eyes, there was not much to see. They didn’t dress up for the occasion.”

KISS did, and the rest is history, as they say.

While the audience got to see some footage from the motion capturing of the band’s movements and facial expressions, the panelist didn’t want to disclose too many details about the actual content of the show beyond that. Simmons said, “it’ll blow your socks off, but we can’t tell you much about it.”

All emphasized the incredible use of technology, which had already improved exponentially since the ABBA Voyage show was produced. Stanley hinted that the avatars would be able to respond to the audience, but didn’t elaborate. He referenced bands performing inside Sphere, saying the Las Vegas venue minimized the bands performing in it, because the Sphere was the real star. “This is the antithesis of it,” he said, “it’s about the band. We allowed Pophouse to take our baby, which we’ve nurtured for 40 years, because we felt comfortable that we could hand it over. We’re involved every step of the way. My avatar is younger and better looking than me. But he makes me want to go to the gym, which is good.”

Koravos brought up the KISS Army, the band’s incredibly loyal fanbase, to which Simmons responded, “KISS fans are peculiar, other bands are jealous of our fans. They name their children after our songs, they tattoo us all over their bodies.”

And they launched KISS conventions, the next of which will take place in Las Vegas in November, with the band on site and Pophouse likely to unveil new details about the avatar show.

Stanley recalled the formation of the KISS Army, which began when a group of fans from Terre Haute, IN surrounded their local radio station because it refused to play KISS songs. The radio station eventually gave in, and the KISS Army was born.

McGhee recalled the beginnings of his working relationship with the band: “The first time we all got together was Mötley Crüe in 1983 a couple of shows. When we really got to spend some time together was on Jon Bon Jovi 1984 tour of Europe, where we played every sh*thole in Europe. We became pretty close and always stayed in touch.

“Every now and again when Gene wanted a favor – for nothing – he would call me, and say, ‘I have a record coming out, will you put your bands on?’ – for nothing. I would do it, and we just hit it off. When they decided to put make-up back on they called me, and it was a no brainer.”

He also joked about why he like the avatars a lot better than the real deal: “They’re go on on time, they never call me to the dressing room, they never chew my ass up, they never slime me after the show. It’s great, when I want them to go on I just press play.”

When Koravos wanted to know what being slimed after a show meant, he explained: “When Gene goes on, he’s a demon. But he takes it a little too far. He gets in this real demon mode, and when he get’s off he’s full of all kinds of shit, blood and eggs and everything on it, and then he looks for me, because he wants to yell at me about something that went wrong, and he comes over and grabs me and then slimes me.”

Both Stanley and Simmons also took the audience through the creation of their iconic characters. Stanley’s character is the ring-leader, an evangelical preacher preaching rock n roll, somebody that would acknowledge the audience and make them participate, like a game show host. “The star came about because early on I realized that so much of the star quality was lost when we started out (…). It’s an extension of a part of me. It was never about dressing up and putting on a costume, but finding a part of yourself an put it out for people to see.”

Simmons, who couldn’t speak English when he first arrived in the U.S. with his mother, aged 8, was fascinated with movies, silent films like the original Phantom of the Opera that worked a lot with light and shadow, and drawn to films that played around with the concepts of good and evil. That’s what informed the creation of his character.

It was on a whim that the band even start using make up, Simmons used the word “singularity” when recalling the day it happened. While rehearsing in a “rat-infested loft” they decided to leave the house and buy face paint, clown white and a few other colors, drew it on, looked at each other and got off on it. “It was pretty close to what it looks like today,” he said.

The band’s incredibly successful merchandize business didn’t begin as a money-making endeavor, but in response to fans starting to make their own KISS shirts etc. The band started to put order forms inside their CDs, fans would then send cash to a warehouse that would serve their orders. The band’s merchandise collection includes a KISS casket, and Simmons recalled two examples of deceased fans being buried in one at their funerals. “Our mandate is to make the fans proud,” he said.

Both Stanley and Simmons emphasized that the fans always came first and have guided the band’s decisions throughout its career. “We’re fans of the band ourselves, and the avatar show reflects that. We asked ourselves, what would a fan want to see?”, said Stanley.

The KISS Forever show is scheduled to open in Las Vegas in 2028, inside a theater built for the purpose. Stanley said it was critical for the technology to work to have every seat in the house offer the same viewing experience.

And Koravos unveiled that, eventually, the plan was to take the show on the road and into conventional arenas, as well.

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