- Music
- 09 Jun 23
Kiss's End of the Road world tour is set to finish this year at Madison Square Garden in New York
On the road for End of the Road, Kiss's 13-legged final world tour that kicked-off back in 2019, Gene Simmons visited the Houses of Parliament this past Wednesday.
After the band's Newcastle show, the Kiss rocker known for his Demon persona was hosted by DUP North Antrim MP Ian Paisley Jr. On his visit, he not only got a private tour but sat in on the House of Commons.
While apparently unfamiliar with Ian Paisley Jr himself, Simmons told BBC that he knew of Paisley's father, Ian Paisley Sr, and "what he did for Ireland."
The rockstar then continued on to urge the restoration of the Stormont Assembly, Northern Ireland's government, which hasn't been operational since 2022 due to the Democratic Unionist Party's (DUP) boycott protest against the trading arrangements made after Brexit.
Visiting the UK Parliament, by invite of MP Ian Paisley was truly an honor. Here I am with two gentleman in Parliament who wanted to make sure I was behaving myself. pic.twitter.com/I5ZDnR7L4u
— Gene Simmons (@genesimmons) June 7, 2023
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"It's important for that to happen because the people's business needs to get done. Northern Ireland is just as important as any country on the face of the planet and you can't have people pointing fingers."
In light of the visit, which was Simmons' first to the UK Parliament, he has also expressed interest in meeting with the Taoiseach. He missed the chance to do so when Simmons visited the Dáil a few years ago.
Afterwards, Simmons was sharing his admiration for the democracy fostered in Parliament in an interview with Good Morning Britain.
“Democracy is the only hope for mankind and the astonishing give and take of the monarchy, and existing, working democracy co-existing at the same time is fascinating, it’s almost like nowhere else in the world.”
While the End of the World tour marks the end of Kiss's live performances, fear not. Kiss has a biopic from Netflix the works, titled Shout It Out Loud, and the project seems to have fast-approaching 2024 release.
Find tickets for Kiss's End of the Road final tour dates here: