“Well, that sounds really scary,” laughed Peter Criss when I mention the looming end to his career with a special two-show sendoff at the Sofitel Hotel in Melbourne and The Cutting Room in New York.
“There comes a time when people from all professions – football, baseball; I don’t care what it is, man – you never wanna be told to get off the stage by your fans. You wanna leave it the way it should be left and go out with respect. I’ve been playing music for over 50 years. I started KISS back with the boys in 1971 and we had major success. All of it has been great. They put us in the Hall of Fame; I wrote a great book; I’ve won People’s Choice. I have been so blessed. I have been privileged to perform with the Rolling Stones, to Paul McArtney, to Aretha Franklin. Everybody now is in their 70’s and I don’t wanna wake up in doom-time and have to sell my soul (laughs). I feel really good at the moment. I beat cancer finally and I have also started to meet with the fans one-on-one, which is a whole different thing to being on stage with 1000’s of people and just seeing little faces and not knowing who is there. I have loved actually meeting my fans—KISS fans and Peter Criss fans—and it’s unbelievable how many amazing people there are in the world. I could never thank them enough for the great life I have today. I still feel like I have a fire under my butt and watching all of these other great guys come back and perform… Of course, it takes a little longer to get out of bed and get around and do things, but I’ve really worked hard. I’ve been going back to boot camp and playing with these young guys that drive me up the wall all day (laughs). I ain’t that old man, I’m not in a box yet! It’s been exciting and I feel like I’m getting ready now for the main event. I bowed out with KISS in front of thousands and thousands of people and now I wanna say goodbye my way. I’ve wanted to do something intimate like this for a long time and share it with my fans. Someone asked me how I’m gonna feel playing smaller venues and I told them I started out in nightclubs. I played them for fifteen years for fifty people or one hundred people and the clubs for me were always so cool. They were more intimate and you were closer to your audience. It’s a whole different vibe to a big stadium. I wanted to bow out on a smaller stage because this really will be a whole musical experience. It’s gonna be cool and it’s gonna rock the house. I’m not dead yet and I’ve got one show after Australia in my hometown in New York City. I’m digging it.”
We go much further in depth into Peter Criss’s past more about the tour, but you’ll get have to get yourself a HEAVY Digi-Magazine subscription, to read all about it.
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See and say farewell to Peter Criss at the KISS Konvention.
Only 5 days to go and very limited tickets left!
www.facebook.com/pg/kisskonventionaustralia/events
We go much further in depth into Peter Criss’s past more about the tour, but you’ll get have to get yourself a HEAVY Digi-Magazine subscription, to read all about it.
[button color=”green” size=”big” link=”https://digi.heavymag.com.au/” icon=”fa-book” target=”true”]HEAVY DIGI-MAG ISSUE #24[/button]
