Kiss becomes first band in US to go virtual with digital avatars

Kiss ended their “The End of the Road” farewell tour with a final performance Saturday at Madison Square Garden.

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The bands’ founders Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons, guitarist Tommy Thayer and drummer Eric Singer, left the stage during the encore and shared their digital avatars, according to The Associated Press. The avatars performed “God Gave Rock and Roll to You.”

The new avatars that were revealed were a tease to the group’s next chapter, which is digital immortality, the AP reported.

George Lucas’ special-effects company, Industrial Light & Magic, in partnership with Pophouse Entertainment Group created the avatars. According to the AP, the two companies recently created the “ABBA Voyage” show in London that allows fans to attend a full ABBA concert that is performed by their avatars.

“Kiss could have a concert in three cities in the same night across three different continents. That’s what you could do with this,” Sundin, CEO of Pophouse Entertainment said, according to the AP.

“What we’ve accomplished has been amazing, but it’s not enough. The band deserves to live on because the band is bigger than we are,” Kiss frontman Paul Stanley said, according to the AP. “It’s exciting for us to go the next step and see Kiss immortalized.”

“We can be forever young and forever iconic by taking us to places we’ve never dreamed of before,” Kiss bassist Gene Simmons added. “The technology is going to make Paul jump higher than he’s ever done before.”

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