PAUL STANLEY PREVIEWS KISS FAREWELL TOUR 

Paul Stanley Previews Kiss Farewell Tour

. Called The End of the Road, the upcoming road trip is expected to start in January 2019 and run for a considerable time.

“The farewell tour took place 19 years ago,” Stanley told

in a podcast interview. “The farewell tour was at the end of the time that we had brought back the two original members [

], and it was such drudgery and so difficult and so unhappy that it just seemed like, ‘Let’s put the horse down.’ And after the tour was over, it didn’t take me very long to realize I didn’t want to say goodbye to the band; I wanted to say goodbye to two members.”

He said the band has “never been better” than in recent years, but that “it’s time to think about an end.” He responded to accusations that his voice had begun to lose its trademark characteristics, saying he’d “been doing a lot recently” to ensure its quality. "If you want to hear me sound like I did on Kiss

recently took a dig on the subject, saying that, unlike Stanley, he’d “sing everything” onstage, “because my voice always works” and adding, “I don’t lose my voice.”

“Gene and I have been together, I think, 47 years or something around that," Stanley noted. "He’s out having a great time.” He then seemed to take his own dig in return, pointing out that Simmons is "doing these – most of them are free concerts, and when he charges tickets, they don’t sell a lot of tickets – and I’m sure he’s trying to keep it light for the couple hundred people or whatever, and that’s great!”

Still, he added, “I was just with Gene, obviously, day before yesterday and we have a bond that is enviable.”

Stanley refused to confirm or deny the possibility of former members making guest appearances on the final tour. “I really can’t say,” he stated. “This will be a celebration of Kiss and not any individual lineup or any individual members. I wouldn’t rule anything out, but it’s not the crux of what we’re doing.”

He noted that he wasn't "being coy either. I don’t want to mislead anybody. Really, that’s not something that’s been given a lot of thought at this point. The majority of our time has gone into what is the stage going to be, what is the show going to be, and we’re actually in the midst of toying with set lists now.”

Meanwhile, former guitarist Frehley offered his own thoughts on the Kiss retirement issue and his potential involvement in the final tour. “I had a meeting with those guys several months ago, and they talked about retiring to me, and that didn't seem right either,” he said in a recent live interview (via

). “I read comments on the internet, and I fall off my bed laughing. There's all these people that have all these different ideas of a configuration of what the next Kiss tour should be, and it's crazy – but overwhelmingly, they want me back in the band, I think. That's what I'm reading on the internet.”

Explaining that he hadn’t been asked to take part, Frehley added, “I'm doing fine on my own. My career is on an upswing; I'm having a ton of fun. I like producing my own records. … I’ve had a lot of freedom, and working with Paul and Gene again, it would be different. But then again, I'd probably make $5 or $10 million, so I might consider that.”

Next: 12 Farewell Tours That Weren't Actually Goodbye