SAN DIEGO >> How liberating is it for Gene Simmons to prepare to tour 13 months after playing his final December 2023 farewell concert with Kiss, the band that made him so wealthy in its 50-year run that he boasts of being part of the “1 percent?”

“It’s very liberating,” said the veteran bassist and singer. “I can wear sneakers if I want. I don’t have to fly through the air, or spit fire, or wear 40 pounds of studded leather and seven-inch dragon boots.”

With a reported net worth of $400 million, Simmons, 75, also doesn’t have to work another day in his life. But the man long known by Kiss fans as “The Demon” dismisses the idea of retirement as unthinkable.

“My ego won’t allow it,” said the 6-foot-2 Simmons, whose towering level of self-confidence has long been a matter of public record.

It is unclear how his ego is handling the fact that 17 of the April and May concerts on his 26-date tour with the Gene Simmons Band were abruptly canceled on March 20. The shelved California shows include what would have been the tour-opening date in Anaheim and an April 4 date in Temecula.

No reason has been given for the cancellation of those shows on the tour, which is now scheduled to begin on May 2 in Georgia. A spokesperson for Simmons did not respond to multiple requests from the Union-Tribune to explain why the concerts had been so suddenly shelved.

Typically, only a medical emergency or anemic advance ticket sales would lead to such a drastic move so close to the scheduled start of a tour. However, Christina Vitagliano — who handles Simmons-related VIP concert experiences — assured fans in an online post: “GS is ok; nothing wrong health-wise!”

Simmons has yet to comment on his suddenly truncated tour, or on the March 23 announcement that Kiss will reunite in November for a makeup-free “unmasked” performance in Nevada as part of the Kiss Army Storms Vegas fan club event.

This interview took place March 5, 15 days before the cancellations occurred.

The four-man Gene Simmons Band debuted in 2017, the year before Kiss launched its six-year “End of The Road” farewell tour. The Gene Simmons Band went on hiatus in the fall of 2018 and remained inactive until last April.

The current lineup teams the group’s namesake with drummer/vocalist Brian Tichy and guitarists/vocalists Brent Woods and Jason Walker. Their repertoire leans heavily into the Kiss catalog, replete with such fan favorites as “Deuce,” Cold Gin,” “Calling Dr. Love” and the inevitable “Rock and Roll All Nite.”

But there are also some twists, including cover versions of Led Zeppelin’s “Communication Breakdown” and “Whole Lotta Love” and Motörhead’s “Ace of Spades.” There’s also a new version of Van Halen’s “House of Pain,” a song Van Halen recorded with Simmons after he offered the then-unknown band a production deal in 1976.

“And we do songs that Kiss never did live, like ‘Spit,’ which I originally titled ‘Sh—,’ “ Simmons said, speaking from one of his Southern California homes (he owns six).

Does he miss Kiss and its many years of playing over-the-top, high-production shows in arenas and stadiums around the world? Apparently not.

“Kiss was such a behemoth,” said Simmons, who was born Chaim Witz in Haifa, Israel, four years after the end of World War II. “You had to plan which song got played when because the lights and pyro had to be carefully coordinated. And you had to press the right buttons at the right time to levitate and fly across the stage.

“Kiss traveled on private jets. We had a road crew of 60 people, 20 tractor-trailers, and a partridge in a pear tree. It was like a small city and it took 12 hours just to set up the stage. This band I have now is an entirely different, free-flowing thing. I can literally jump off the stage into the audience, if I want, and bring people from the crowd up on stage to sing ‘Rock and Roll All Nite.’ It’s loosey-goosey. And, of course, if you want to be my roadie ....”

That’s right, you can be Simmons’ “roadie/personal assistant” for a day at each of the remaining stops on his now-trimmed-back tour. You will meet with Gene and his band early in the day to go over the schedule for that night’s show, hang out backstage, have a pre-concert meal with the group, be on stage for the concert, and be introduced to the audience.

Exactly how much will Simmons pay his roadie-for-a-day?

“Excuse me?” he replied. “It’s the other way around.”

Fans must pay a minimum of $12,495 for what is being billed on Simmons’ website as the Ultimate Gene Simmons Experience. For that amount, you can bring along a friend and also receive a Simmons’ “signed rehearsal bass guitar.” The more budget-minded can opt for a Gene Simmons Bass Experience, priced at the comparatively bargain rate of $6,500.

“Anybody who wants to can go to genesimmons.com for all the specifics,” he said.

The Ultimate Gene Simmons Experience will also afford well-heeled fans the opportunity to help with the equipment load-in prior to each concert, in a manner.

In a novel move, Simmons is requiring each venue on his now-shortened tour to provide all the equipment and stage crew members for his performances. In effect, there is no load-in, at least not in any conventional sense.

“It’s like a commando unit; there’s nothing holding us back,” Simmons said. “No trucks, no road crew. It’s just the band and our sound guy, and that’s it.”

Is this a profitable business model?

“That’s never been asked of me, and that’s fairly surprising,” he replied. “Because it goes without saying that it is profitable. Profitable is my middle name: Gene ‘Profitable’ Simmons.”