History repeats itself… right? Or does lightning never strike twice?

 As the time ticks down on the watch of Kiss and the band’s The End of the Road World Tour, members of the Kiss Army are asking, “Where are Peter Criss and Ace Frehley?”

 Despite the band adding 100 more shows to their current tour, the band has been very clear that once they are done and the last show is played, then that’s it, they are done for good.

 Older fans might roll their eyes at those remarks because they’ve seen one Kiss farewell tour come and go yet the difference between the two tours is, that the original Catman and Spaceman aren’t on the stage.

 After the farewell tour of 2000 ended, Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons decided to continue on with the band without Frehley and Criss, opting to bring in Tommy Thayer and former member Eric Singer into the band sporting the classic Catman and Spaceman looks.

 Simmons has said that “If they [Ace Frehley and Peter Criss] want to jump on stage at any time and do the encores with us, terrific.”

 For some fans, an encore would be worth it since it has been years since all four members have played together let alone eight years since the band was in one room together at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction.

 If you’re like me and missed the first farewell tour due to not even being on this planet, then you want Frehley and Criss back full-time. 

 “We don’t talk to Peter, but we do talk to Ace. We haven’t talked to Peter in a long time,” said Kiss manager Doc McGhee when he talked to loudwire.com.

 The fact that they are even talking in the first place is a miracle. Each original member has done something with another member on solo and side projects but never as a full band. Frehley and Criss reunited on stage at Creature Fest 2022, while Frehley and Simmons went on tour together with their solo bands a few years back and Stanley even guest starred on Frehley’s 2016 record titled “Origins, Vol. 1.”

 All the pieces are in place for a reunion, I think everyone secretly, deep down inside wants to get the band back together, at least I would for whatever that’s worth.

 Since I just mentioned the word “worth,” on multiple occasions Simmons and Frehley have mentioned that the price must be right to reunite. 

 Frehley has even gone as far as to say, “I said, ‘I never closed the door on anything.’ If the money’s right and it’s presented to me in the right way, anything can happen,” he told Eddie Trunk of Trunk Nation.

 Gene Simmons, being the smart businessman that he is should jump on this opportunity. Fans would come out in the thousands to see at least three-fourths of the band, on stage, in makeup, playing Kiss songs.

 I say three-fourths because Peter Criss is the oldest out of the original members and I understand that drumming is very physical. With that being said, if Criss came out to do “Beth” and “Black Diamond” during any form of a reunion show then that would be enough for me at least.

Now, I’m not one for conspiracies but there is one little piece of the entire puzzle that sticks out to me the most.

 Ace Frehley was originally supposed to be in Europe this entire summer doing a run of shows as well as festivals. I say originally because he never went and had to cancel all his tour dates.

 The Ace Frehley website put out a statement saying “due to unforeseen circumstances, Ace Frehley’s upcoming European tour has been cancelled. Ace looks forward to seeing all of his European fans again in the future!”

 What could this “unforeseen circumstance” be that he couldn’t do any European shows at all?

Frehley has gone on record to say that “the only way I would consider coming back is [if] I took over Tommy’s place,” he told the Juliet: Unexpected podcast in an article put out by ultimateclassicrock.com.

 Could the original Spaceman be reuniting with The Starchild and Demon in full makeup and stage attire that he hasn’t donned since the early 2000s?

 Kiss has always said that they were a band for the fans. In interviews, Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons have said that they were the band that they never saw and that they listened when the fans wanted something.

  “They were in and out of the band – fired – three times. For drugs, alcohol, bad behavior, and being unprofessional. So, the only reason Ace and Peter were let go the first time, and then the second time and then the third time is that they weren’t carrying their load” a line Simmons keeps repeating, this time with guitarworld.com.

 It’s almost like a bad marriage with a child involved. Mom and Dad are together, one leaves, and then comes back and the family tries again but it doesn’t work out years down the road, the family is older and wiser and, just maybe they try again one more time.

 In the end, both sides are only hurting their fans. The fans generally want to see a reunion before almost 50 years of Kisstory (see what I did there) but to rest and the band takes one last bow off stage.

 The fans are the ones that are going to be hurt the most in the end. I don’t think that they will think of the grand show that the band put on and how much pyrotechnics were involved or what songs they play. What they’ll remember is how Ace Frehley and Peter Criss were either there as full members of the band like in the ‘70s and ’00s, or how egos got in the way of something that could have been magical for one last time.