Kiss want to play Israel — but logistically it is difficult
Jewish Telegraph, April 2023
ROCK legends Kiss are currently on their End of the Road tour which will see them give up touring with a final concert in New York in December.
Yet, in their 50-year-long existence, they have never performed in Israel — despite it being the birthplace of founder member Gene Simmons.
The bassist — who is a supporter of the Creative Community for Peace — was born Chaim Witz in Haifa to Holocaust survivor Florence Klein.
The 73-year-old was shown visiting family in Israel on his reality TV show Gene Simmons Family Jewels.
According to CCFP advisory board member Traci Szymanski, Kiss — whose other founder member was Jewish-born New Yorker Paul Stanley — want to play Israel “100 per cent”.
Simmons last week said that despite the band giving up touring, they would still play the odd gig or even a Las Vegas residency — so this could give hope for an Israel show.
“Logistically, it’s never worked out,” Traci told me. “It’s not a cheap show or an easy show to produce.
“It is pretty elaborate. So it’s a big production. Financially, it has to make sense for a company to bring them to Israel. But I know it’s always been on the agenda and something they wanted to do.”
CCFP director Ari Ingel added: “Gene Simmons is a very big supporter of Israel. Other members of his band are also big supporters of Israel, it just logistically does not make sense.
“They have such a big crew that comes with them. They are not the four of them showing up, playing in a pub; they have a whole production and when they come to town, it’s not cheap.
“Some times the promoters can only pay X amount of money, but the band needs this amount of money to make a profit. And they don’t want to go if they’re not making a profit. So it doesn’t make sense.
“And we’ve seen that with other bands throughout the years. I don’t want to name names, but there are some really big artists where, unfortunately, Israel is just a tiny country. And when you just have 50,000 friends at only one show, you can’t spend three days going to Israel, right?”
He added: “If you could drive from, say, Beirut, then to Tel Aviv, then to Damascus, and then to, Qatar or wherever. Yeah, maybe it makes sense. But unfortunately, there’s no fans of acts like that in those countries anyhow.”
