The Covid-19 outbreak resulted in the cancelation or postponement of all mass gathering events all over the world. Kiss bassist and singer, Gene Simmons said in a live Broadcast with US Ambassador in New Zealand that the band will listen to scientists, not politicians to get back touring.
Gene Simmons said about Kiss getting back on tour:
“First and foremost, it doesn’t matter about me, me, me and the band and all that stuff. The most important thing is to keep you guys safe, ’cause we love you. Without the fans, we’re nothing and we’re nobody. I’d be asking you, if you were next in line, if you’d like some fries with that. In fact, that person is cooler than I will ever be. So it’s less about self-aggrandizement and more about we are going out there once it’s safe. Once we have a vaccine out there and the scientists — not the politicians — are telling us, ‘Okay, open the doors. Celebrate life. Go out there and enjoy yourself.’ Then we’re going out there.”
“We’ve already done 110 cities in the world [on the ‘End Of The Road’ tour],” he continued. “We were coming to New Zealand and Australia, and first time Paul [Stanley, KISS frontman] hurt himself, and that’s been in the papers, and we had to cancel that, and New Zealand as well. I promise you, as I’m sitting here today, we look forward to coming back.”
He continued:
“There are different rules [for different regions]. There are more people in Los Angeles county than there are people living in Australia — 28 million, something like that, in the county. And there are more people than New Zealand. L.A. specifically, and New York specifically, especially New York, people are on top of each other. There are so many people, it’s difficult when you’re in an apartment building to come out of anywhere and keep social distancing — it’s almost impossible. So we have to figure this out — the scientists and the politicians, and hopefully they’ll get together.”
“[There should be] New York rules, London rules, Paris rules, Tokyo rules… There are more people in Tokyo than these other cities, where everybody is in large buildings packed in together. Never mind India and China, where you have a billion and three hundred million people and a billion and four hundred million people packed into one country. Those are different kinds of rules — and should be — than rules in New Zealand, where you have lots of clean, fresh air and distancing between the people.”
“So I would urge all politicians… And New Zealand’s got a terrific prime minister — very, very impressive… I hope the politicians and the scientists get together and understand there needs to be different sets of laws depending on how closely packed we are to each other. You don’t have to be a genius to figure that out.”