KISS Rented Out Los Angeles's Forum Arena To 'Check Out' The Pyro For 'End Of The Road' Tour

During a recent interview with Madison Vain of BUILD Series, KISS co-founder Paul Stanley said the group's upcoming "End Of The Road" farewell tour will feature the "greatest show we've ever done."

"It's a chance for us to go out one more time [and] relive those times with people around the world to celebrate and do the greatest show we've ever done," he said. "Everything that you see [in the commercial promoting the tour] is kid stuff compared to what we're doing this time. That was the warm-up act, so we're going out this time with something that really encapsulates everything we've done. We're putting the cap on it, and then blowing the cap off."

"I know this tour is going to be bigger and badder," guitarist Tommy Thayer added. "We've done a lot of great tours, but this one's going to be exceptional because we've already been spending months of time rehearsing, working on the show. We just spent an afternoon last week at the Forum in L.A. — we just rented it out, just for us to see our pyro and see what it's going to look like. We needed a place that big to check it out. It's going to be over the top. We have been spending a lot of time rehearsing and getting everything ready on a level that we haven't ever done before."

On some KISS tours in the past, the extensive pyrotechnics the band deploys in concert not only left a mark on the audience, but also on drummer Eric Singer's body. "I've got some scars to prove it," he said. "I've been burned a few times, and then you hear me, like, MF'ing a few people on the crew for that. It just goes with the territory. We put on our garb, and it's like we're getting ready for battle, and it is somewhat like a battlefield on stage, especially for me. I've got all the pyro right around me. I receive the brunt of it. I look at fans that are 50, 100 yards out [who] jump [after] an explosion. It's right next to me."

"The amount of pyro and special effects we're using on this tour is really just insane," Stanley added. "We really wrote the book on this, and I'm proud to say it. If you see a rap star show, rock star show, country show, they all have KISS DNA in them. Everybody does a KISS show at this point, and thankfully so, because the audience is the ones that get the benefit of it. However, you can do a KISS show, but you can't be KISS, and we're going to take it this time to a whole new level. It's Armageddon in more senses than you might think."

Portions of the tour's proceeds will benefit military veterans, Stanley explained. "We sometimes confuse political views with our military, and we never should. It's the military that gives us the opportunity to have political views," he said. "Unfortunately, these people, when they return, whether they are physically or psychologically damaged, they don't get what they deserve. These people come back and should be welcomed as heroes and be given everything they need. Not just them — their wives, husbands and families — and we sell them short. For us, whether it's giving a dollar from every ticket to Wounded Warriors or other organizations, or bringing a Color Guard out on stage, or, oh my God, God forbid, we actually sometimes do the Pledge Of Allegiance, because it's cool. Patriotism is cool. Loving your country is cool. Regardless of whether you agree with everything that goes on, you have the opportunity to disagree with what's going on. We're proud supporters of the military, and owe everything to them."

KISS's "End Of The Road" tour kicks off January 31 in Vancouver, British Columbia and is expected to continue for more than two years.