KISS icon Gene Simmons recently opened up about touring with Rush when KISS took the Canadian band out on one of its first major U.S. runs. Simmons revealed that Rush faced difficulties booking tours because it was a Canadian act, but he and Paul Stanley did not care about the band’s background and decided to give it a chance.
Speaking on 101 WRIF, Simmons was asked about seeing Rush live and the bands’ famous touring history. He responded: “No, it’s a little—it’s a little different. We took them from nowhere. Nobody would give them a tour because they were Canadian, right?”
“But when Paul and I heard ‘Working Man’ and especially ‘YYZ,’ I’m going, ‘What is that?’ And we didn’t care where it was from. For heaven’s sakes, I wasn’t born in America. So, we took Rush out on their very first tour, and we’d had to torture the promoters.”
Simmons then recalled a show at San Francisco’s Winterland, where KISS, The Tubes, and Rush shared the bill.
“I remember Geddy, I think it was Geddy, who came into our dressing room as we were putting on makeup because we had to start two hours earlier while the opening bands were going on. And he’s going, ‘We’re really hungry. Can you arrange food?’ I go, ‘What are you talking about? You should have food in your dressing room.’ He goes, ‘No.’ The promoter cheaped out.”
“So, half made up, I went over to Bill Graham and I said, ‘We don’t go on. You don’t feed our bands, we don’t go on.’ So they went out and got burgers and stuff like that. Treat everybody the way you want to be treated.”
Simmons also remembered Rush’s later tribute to KISS during a San Diego performance. “It bears noting on the very last show in San Diego, when Neil Peart was still alive, what they did was pay homage to KISS. Right on stage were six-foot-tall—what were they called? Like when you wanted to buy KISS stuff, it was like the band was there, full height. And we were on the stage for the entire evening. Look, you will meet the same people going up as you will going down.”
The story reflects both Rush’s difficult entry into the American market and the lasting relationship between the two bands. Historical records also place Simmons’s recollections within Rush’s earliest years of U.S. touring.
Rush’s first confirmed U.S. show took place in Lansing, Michigan, on May 18, 1974. The band later appeared at Winterland in San Francisco on June 1, 1975, during an early period when it was still building an American audience.
The Winterland show featured KISS, The Tubes, and Rush on the same bill. The 1975 concert was also the event Simmons was referring to when he described KISS intervening after Rush was not provided with food backstage.
Bill Graham was the promoter Simmons confronted at the venue. Graham was a Berlin-born promoter who became one of the most influential figures in rock history. He helped establish San Francisco as a major concert destination through venues such as the Fillmore and Winterland and worked with many of the era’s most important artists.
The San Diego performance Simmons mentioned took place during Rush’s R40 Live 40th Anniversary Tour in 2015. The trek was the band’s final major tour and included dates across North America before concluding in Los Angeles. The San Diego-area show was therefore part of the farewell run rather than its final date.
The R40 tour also carried added significance because of Neil Peart’s health and the physical demands of touring. Peart had experienced ongoing health problems and had become increasingly cautious about continuing on the road. His participation in R40 ultimately marked the final touring chapter for Rush’s classic lineup before the drummer’s death in 2020.
