(CelebrityAccess) — The rock band Kiss has pulled out of a planned residency at Zappos Theater at Planet Hollywood on the Las Vegas strip following a report in Rolling Stone detailing apparently substandard pandemic-safety protocols during the band’s recent U.S. tour.
The residency was scheduled to start on Dec. 29 and run through Feb. 5. but is now listed as ‘cancelled’ on Ticketmaster. Zappos Theater confirmed the cancellation as well, announcing on Twitter, “Unfortunately, KISS cancelled their residency.”
The cancellation follows the publication of a report by Rolling Stone that accused Kiss of being lax about COVID-19 safety protocols on their current ‘End of the Road’ tour.
As Rolling Stone noted, several members of the band, including Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley have been forced to cancel performances this year after testing positive for COVID-19. A number of the band’s road crew have become ill with the virus as well, including long-time guitar tech Fran Stueber, who died on October 17, just two days after testing positive.
“Every day during the shows, we weren’t tested. And there are so many unknowns,” one unnamed member of the band told Rolling Stone. “Did we superspread this, did we spread this thing from city to city? It’s horrible that Fran passed, and it’s horrible if this is our protocol just for us to tour. Is this going to be the normal, to stick someone in a hotel and if somebody dies, ‘Oh, well, off to the next guy?’”
According to Rolling Stone, the band issued a statement regarding the accusations of lax COVID protocols: “Our End of the Road World Tour absolutely had Covid safety protocols in place that met, but most often exceeded, federal, state, and local guidelines. But ultimately this is still a global pandemic and there is simply no foolproof way to tour without some element of risk.”
A rep for Live Nation did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
