Paul Stanley: Previewing Kiss Avatars was ‘Double-Edged Sword’

Paul Stanley admitted Kiss had put themselves in a difficult position when they decided to preview their avatars at the band’s farewell show.

The guitarist promised that the characters to be seen in the future will look far more realistic than those shown on the screen after they’d bowed out in December.

Asked on the Allison Hagendorf Show (video below) what the upcoming performances will look like, Stanley said: “Not what you saw.” He added: “It was a double-edged sword because we were showing people the avatars in their infancy. And they look nothing like that – they will be mind-bogglingly realistic.”

He accepted there had been “good and bad” to the onstage teaser clip. “People will look and go, ‘Well, that doesn’t look anything like them.’ But what [they] will be is incredible. The state of the art and what technology can do nowadays is incredible.”

Stanley compared the Kiss plans with ABBA’s Voyage virtual show, saying: “Pophouse, the people behind that, are the people who are working with us… that show is just incredible – and yet that technology is now old.” Noting the involvement of Industrial Light & Magic, he added: “George Lucas is involved with the avatars. And the people involved with it are really incredible.”

Kiss Don’t Want to Recreate Concerts with Their Avatars

Asked about the actual contents of the show, Stanley said it wouldn’t be any kind of re-enacted Kiss concert. “We want to create something that’s a go-to and a must-see for everybody,” he explained.

“Kiss fans will love it – but other people who could care less about KISS will want to see it… it will really cross that bridge of what’s real and what’s not, and combine the two.

“The idea that we’re going to simulate a live show – leave that to somebody else. We have no desire to do that. We want to create Kiss, which is something that breaks the rules, not lives within them.”

Watch Paul Stanley on ‘The Allison Hagendorf Show’