KISS frontmen Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley launch casino restaurant ahead of Crandon concert
`WABENO – “Rock and Roll All Nite” got a head start Friday morning when KISS frontmen Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley made a stop at Potawatomi Casino Hotel Carter to take care of some preshow business.`
A guitar was smashed onstage and confetti covered the crowd as the two, sans makeup, participated in a groundbreaking for one of their Rock & Brews restaurants at the casino.
The pyro will have to wait until the main event: a stop on the legendary band’s End of the Road World Tour tonight at Crandon International Raceway in Crandon.
KISS has said it will be their last tour, an exclamation point on a 50-year career. Their unlikely appearance in Wisconsin’s northwoods has generated rock ‘n’ roll buzz across the state, but Simmons said they wouldn’t have missed the chance to get in one last Wisconsin show.
“Our history goes back a long ways. I probably have some kids running around here,” Simmons said during one-on-one media interviews prior to the groundbreaking.
“I’m kidding,” he said. “You can’t stop without coming to the heartland. You just can’t.”
Simmons said the “Potawatomi folks” have become part of the family. Simmons and Stanley, who co-founded Rock & Brews, opened one of the restaurants at Potawatomi Hotel & Casino in Milwaukee in August.
“The best fun you can have with your pants on,” Simmons joked.
During the groundbreaking in Wabeno, Potawatomi singers, dancers and drummers performed and presented Stanley and Simmons with beaded medallions representing their band characters, the Starchild and the Demon, respectively.
After Stanley smashed a guitar onstage, he talked briefly to the crowd gathered in the casino and then said he was turning it over to “the talkative one” (Simmons).
“A smart man knows when to shut up,” Simmons said and left it at that.
As the band winds down its tour dates before the final two shows Dec. 1 and 2 at Madison Square Garden in New York City, Simmons said he feels immensely proud.
“Look at this amazing journey. It’s been 50 years. Fifty years. We’ve been around longer than some of the countries have been around on Earth. There are new countries that are younger than we are,” he said.
“But the idea is to get off that stage before it’s a joke.”
Forest County Potawatomi has said it’s expecting as many as 40,000 for the Crandon Rocks concert, which is being held on the same weekend as the 54th Polaris Crandon World Championships at the raceway.
Kendra Meinert is an entertainment and feature writer at the Green Bay Press-Gazette. Contact her at 920-431-8347 or [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @KendraMeinert.
This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: KISS frontmen Simmons, Stanley meet media ahead of Crandon concert
