During a recent interview with Chaoszine, KISS’ Gene Simmons was asked about the possibility of Ace Frehley and Peter Criss joining the band on their final tour. He says “the door’s always open,” but he doesn’t think they are physically fit enough to do a full show.

Simmons said the following:

“We’ve tried. I keep trying. Paul and I met with Ace, trying to convince him to come back. He said, ‘I want this. I want that.’ Well, we can’t do that. I asked Ace and Peter to be in the documentary [‘Biography: KISStory’, which premiered on A&E in June 2021]. They said no. They might do it if they have complete control of the edit. I said, ‘We can’t do that, because even we don’t have that. But I won’t control what you say; you can say whatever you want.’ The answer is no — both of them. I asked Ace and Peter, ‘Come out on tour. We’ll get you your own room and everything. Come out on the encores.’ Ace said, ‘No. The only way I’ll come out is if I’m the Spaceman and you ask Tommy [Thayer, KISS’s current guitarist] to leave.’ I go, ‘Well, that’s not gonna happen.’ First of all, I care about Ace, but he’s not in shape — he can’t play that way and doesn’t have the physical stamina to do that…

Look, we care about them. We started this thing together and they were equally important to the beginning of the band with Paul and I — no question. But as time went on… Not everybody is designed to run a marathon. Some people are designed to be in a band for a year or two, or a few years, and then that’s all they can do. And both of them have been in the band three different times. How many chances in life do you get? All I know is when I put my hand in fire the first time, I got burnt; I didn’t get a second or third chance.

So, the answer is the door’s always open. If they wanna jump on stage at any time and do the encores with us, terrific. But no, we’re not gonna get rid of Tommy or Eric [Singer, current KISS drummer]. In fact, Tommy and Eric are the best things that happened to us. They gave us new life [and] new appreciation for what we do because they were fans first. And every once in a while, Eric or Tommy will turn around and say, ‘Wow! Isn’t this great?’ And it makes us realize, ‘Yeah! Wow! Isn’t this great?'”

He continued when asked if he saw footage of Frehley and Criss performing at Creatures Fest in Nashville, TN:

“Somebody showed me about 30 seconds, yeah. It was very sad. I felt sad for Peter… When I called to invite Peter to be in the documentary, his health isn’t what it should be. I don’t wanna get too specific because it’s part of his private life. But no, physically, he wouldn’t be able to do it. Neither would Ace.”

[via Blabbermouth]