'You can set up amplifiers and drums to your heart's content': Gene Simmons defends paid roadie scheme
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Gene Simmons has never been accused of missing a marketing opportunity. Even so, the Kiss bass guitar player raised eyebrows earlier this month with the news he was charging fans $12,495 for the opportunity to be his roadie for the day.
Now the God of Plunder has defended himself in an interview with the New York Post. 'When I was a kid and went to see shows, I was always curious, 'What's it like when they're in a hotel? What's it like when the stage is set up? What's it like being onstage when they're performing and seeing the audience from the stage?'' he explained.
'I decided, 'You know what, nobody's ever done it. Why not open the idea to be my personal roadie for the day?''
The 'Ultimate Gene Simmons Experience' is available to one fan per show on his solo tour.
Simmons said select lucky fans would have the opportunity to travel in the bus and haul gear. 'You ride with me to the gig. You can set up amplifiers and drums to your heart's content.
'You're onstage, right offstage to my right. You can video the crowds, whatever. And I pull you onstage to sing a song with me.'
For those who fear this sounds like servitude, Gene stressed that participants would be allowed to eat. 'You meet at the hotel where you have breakfast together or, you know, whatever floats your boat,' he said.
Purchasers of the experience would also leave with a signed bass.
Simmons recently cancelled multiple shows until early 2026, but assured fans his health was not an issue. Purchasers of the Ultimate Gene Simmons Experience for cancelled shows may choose between a refund or moving their experience to one of the remaining dates.
Kiss, meanwhile, have announced an unmasked Vegas show with former guitarist Bruce Kulick – the band's first gig since their farewell tour ended in 2023.
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I've Been A Big Hater Of Disney's Live Action Remakes, But After Snow White, I Feel Like There's An Easy Way To Fix It
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. So Disney is taking a break from live-action remakes, and I have to say I'm not too surprised. I'm the kind of girl who grew up watching Disney as if it were the air I needed to breathe. Switching on Disney Channel was like switching on my own personal oxygen tank. I'm pretty sure my parents, at some point, knew all the theme songs by heart of every single show, or all the Disney soundtracks as well, and not willingly. But when these Disney live-action remakes started to happen, I had a feeling that they were either going to go terribly wrong or they would do really well. And…so far it's been a pretty big mixed bag where I'd say about 60% of the time you get something that's not too great. And I've regularly talked about this pretty consistently on this website. However, I actually have something I need to say about this change Disney is making—one that I think a lot of people will agree with. If they were to continue, there's an easy way to fix these Disney live-action movies, so let's get into it. So, before I give you my reasoning, my truth must speak first – I've been a hater of these live-action movies in the past. In fact, I literally just wrote an article about how I'm sick of them, and while I think Lilo and Stitch might be the outlier, most don't entertain me anymore. When the first movies began to release years ago, there was a lot to love, mainly because they were new and exciting. Oh, Disney is releasing its best animated movies, but they're going to be live-action now with pretty stars and beautiful visuals and everything? That sounds exciting! But at the end of the day, most ended up becoming half-baked remakes that tried to be something new when the blueprint is right there. I used to love them. Truly, I did. But over time, they just diminished in quality to the point where we ended up getting Snow White…and while I do believe Rachel Zegler is still the perfect Snow White because she has the voice of an angel, the rest of the movie was just…not that great. However, I've been thinking a lot about this, and I know what to do with these live-action films if Disney were to keep making them. The solution is simple, really. Literally. It's. That. Easy. Just go to the source material. Do you want to know why so many of the original live-action films did so well? They didn't try to reinvent the wheel. They stuck to the material that most everyone and their mother knew because it's Disney. These are the stories that we have grown up with, the tales that our parents told us to fall asleep to, and then took us to the theatre to see. Why would we want to see them changed? Honestly, I'm not even talking entirely about the Disney versions. I'm talking about the actual story that the movies are based on. I feel that with so many of these adaptations, they've been trying to work in different aspects of pop culture and modern-day political stances, and so much more, that it's lost the magic that these tales once had. Are there certain things that need to be changed? Of course. These are older stories, and some things haven't aged well. But most are still fine. The source material is fantastic and well-loved for a reason. Why change it? This is the biggest thing, though—if you're going to recreate the movie, recreate what you know the fans already love. Recreate the scenery, the dresses, and the themes that we all understand because the last thing we want is some new message shoved down our throats that wasn't already there in the first place. Sure, this begs the question of why these live-action films even need to be made, but honestly, I don't find it terribly unethical to remake the movie. I actually think it's pretty par for the course because animation is such a fantastic medium of film that it makes sense people would want to create a live-action version of certain films to test the powers of technology and all that. And if Disney is going to move in that direction, then why not stick with the same story that we all know? If you want to change a few aspects, that's fine, which is precisely what Cinderella did. The 2015 film from Disney isn't an exact adaptation of the original film – it's actually considered another adaptation of the original story. Still, it hits the same story beats as the animated film. There are a few changes that really make the movie stand out, from how Cinderella and the prince first meet to what happens after the ball. These changes add depth and emotion to the story without taking away its key themes, which is how I feel many other Disney live-action remakes have done. Personally, I think Beauty and the Beast and The Little Mermaid are the only other two live-action remakes that have relatively kept the same theme and plot, and maybe that's because they're so beloved. But it feels like the other ones have tried to change too much – or, in The Lion King's case, not that much at all, and instead feed us the most lifeless 'live-action' CGI animals in history. Yeah, that film should have just stayed animated. I think my last major point would be that while it's okay to make slight changes to the story in order to fit more into it, you don't need to try so hard to make additions at all. They should really only be there if the story makes sense to have them there. For example, I actually like 'Evermore' from Beauty and the Beast. I think it adds a lot more depth to Beast's character and adds more humanity to the story overall. But notice how the movie itself is the same kind of story as the film. They didn't try to push new themes down your throat or anything else. It was just Beauty and the Beast with the addition of a new song. That is how it's supposed to be, and what other live-action Disney remakes need to take from this. I don't know, maybe I'm sticking up for Disney a little hard, but I feel like there is a secret pathway to success with these films. I think it really is just as easy as listening to the fans and creating movies that have the stories we all know and love. Every person nowadays is trying to sell something to you, whether it's physical, emotional, or whatever. Too many people have too much access to preaching their ideas over and over, and the last thing we want is to see that in a movie that we all know, something the original never had. If we're going to be watching a film that we all know and love, make the movie that we know and love. If you want to make changes, fine, make a few subtle changes. But if you're going to change the entire storyline, don't call it an adaptation of the movie, because that is where you will lose fans, time and time again. Okay, rant over. I think I need to rewatch some old Disney movies to calm down. It's time for a marathon.
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Lilo & Stitch Quietly Passed A Box Office Milestone That Previously Went To Sinners
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. We're slightly less than halfway through the 2025 movie schedule, and some wild times have already been had at the box office. A pair of Marvel movies failed to make their usual explosive debut, and instead, one of the biggest movies of the year has been Sinners, an original film not connected to any franchise. The film had previously been the second highest-grossing movie at the domestic box office, but Disney's Lilo & Stitch remake has now taken that honor. At over $267 million at the domestic box office, Sinners had been the number two movie of 2025. Lilo & Stitch now sits at nearly $285 million. It's going to take some doing for Disney's little blue troublemaker to become the highest-grossing movie of the year, however. A Minecraft Movie currently sits atop the box office at $423 million. With numerous major blockbusters set to come out over the next couple of months, it's quite likely that Sinners will continue to slide down the box office chart. Still, wherever it happens to end up, its achievement cannot be overstated. Franchise filmmaking had already been the focus of studios back when more people still went to theaters, and in an era where getting people to do that is becoming increasingly difficult, audiences aren't leaving the house to see anything other than familiar franchises. To be fair, the fact that it took Lilo & Stitch as long as it did to overtake Sinners at the box office is a testament to the film's popularity and staying power. Stitch had an opening weekend that was three times that of Sinners. Sinners, however, had virtually no drop in its box office take between its first two weekends, a nearly unheard of statistic. Lilo & Stitch saw a nearly 60% drop between its first two weekends, which is fairly standard for major tentpole releases. If Lilo & Stitch means anything in the broader box office landscape, it's that despite the overall failure of Snow White, live-action remakes of popular animated films are still popular with fans. Lilo & Stitch is in the upper tier of the box office results for those films, only behind movies that grossed a billion dollars worldwide, like Aladdin, Alice in Wonderland, and The Lion King. Lilo & Stitch seems unlikely to reach quite those heights; it's broken $600 million and the global box office, but with the movie having been released in all countries, save Japan, where it will open this weekend, it has certainly made most of the money it's going to make. The major thing that may stop the momentum of Lilo & Stitch may, ironically, be another family-friendly live-action remake of a popular animated film. How to Train Your Dragon is set to hit theaters next weekend.
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I Don't Mind Lilo And Stitch's Live-Action Changes, But There's One That Really Bothers Me
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Alright, we have to talk about Lilo & Stitch. The new movie specifically. Before I get into this, let's bring up Disney's live action remakes in general. These movies tend to lean towards changes that not everyone agrees with. I wrote an entire article about how live-action adaptations from Disney could succeed if they stick to the source material and then make changes that not only relate to the story but also preserve the themes of the movie. Most of the films have not done that. We either have movies like Snow White, which is excellent for families and children but is certainly not the same story that we all know, or we have films like The Lion King, which is essentially just a carbon copy of the original with no substance and no flavor. Now, we have Lilo & Stitch, a personal favorite of mine – a movie I was actually excited about before it came out. And I have to admit, there are specific changes in there that I didn't mind, but there's one I really can't get behind. So today, we're going to talk about it. The good news? Lilo & Stitch isn't a soulless cash-grab, and with any Disney live-action remake, that's an absolute win. Did it generate a substantial amount of money? You betcha. Lilo & Stitch has remained the box office king for weeks at this point. But the main reason is that the story is essentially the same. Lilo is a lonely and somewhat eccentric kid. She and her sister have lost their parents. Stitch is an alien who crashes on Earth and ends up becoming part of their family, even though he's crazy – the whole nine yards. Is it as good as the original? No, nothing can beat the original, but it still has a heart and it's still fun. At the end of the day, for something like this, that is one aspect I can get behind. There have been so many of these movies that I have watched in the past, and have just hated because they feel so boring, drab, and unentertaining. They'll make me want to turn it off and watch the original. But, Lilo & Stitch succeeds. Stitch is still enjoyable; the movie has funny moments. All in all, I think it's a good addition to the 2025 movie schedule. However, there is one change I don't like…and that has to do with Nani. There are plenty of changes in 2025's Lilo & Stitch. Cobra Bubbles not being a bigger part, is a major one. Another is not making Gantu not the main villain (and not even including him at all). Even adding in the neighbor, Tutu, for Lilo and Nani is one I don't mind. It's how Nani ultimately decides to care for Lilo that I don't enjoy. When I rewatched the animated classic for the first time in years, I felt a seriously special connection to Nani for many reasons. I think it's really because I'm a grown-up now (or at least trying to be), and I could really see where Nani was coming from by taking care of Lilo. It's not like Nani was all grown up at that point, either. Nani was still a young woman when her parents died, and then, all of a sudden, she was the sole responsible person taking care of Lilo. She had to get a job and give up her life to be the perfect person for Lilo when, obviously, she wasn't that, and throughout the film, we saw her grow with Lilo, not only as her sister but also as she learned to be accepting and rebuild their family from the ground up. She did everything in her power to not be separated from her sister. But now, Nani goes to the mainland? And leaves her sister with her neighbor as her guardian? I…I don't know about that. From my perspective, in this situation, I'm unsure how I would feel about leaving my little sister with my neighbor to take care of her. I understand that the school Nani goes to is her dream school, but throughout the film, we clearly see that she still wants to be there for Lilo. However, her decision to attend school in California to study marine biology is something that feels somewhat separate. If I were in her shoes, even if I had the portal gun that she gets at the end, I still would want to be as close as humanly possible just in case something happened. Another aspect of this is that Tutu essentially taking on guardianship of Lilo (and also taking care of Stitch) feels very unrealistic. Look, I'm sure there are plenty of great neighbors out there. I live in an apartment building, so it's hard for me to relate to that because I don't get to see my neighbors as often as I'd like. But I'm still trying to imagine a world where I would be totally okay letting my neighbor take care of my kid sister while I went to school hours away. Even then, I really don't think most neighbors would be that open to taking in a child, especially Tutu, who is literally in her seventies. That's essentially becoming a mother again that late in your life, and that's not a simple thing to do. It helps that Lilo is at least a little older than a toddler, but to give up your retired life for that? I can't see that happening. Look, I'm not saying Nani leaving ruins this movie. I think, by today's standards, her decision to pursue a degree is something I can agree with. But a part of me wishes that it had been somewhere in Hawaii instead of going to the mainland. To me, that would have made more sense. What made the first movie so special was watching Nani really become that parental figure for Lilo and seeing the special montage of them growing closer alongside Stitch, David, and everyone else, as well as literally and figuratively rebuilding their home together. We don't really see much of that at the end of the film because Nani has decided to go to college and leave her sister with Tutu. It's nice that she can still visit and see her as much as possible, but it also feels as if it takes away a substantial part of Nani's character development. She's still grown, but just not in the way that I'm used to…and it does make me feel disappointed. Either way, the family is still intact, which is all that matters. However, it just feels like another case where a Disney live-action adaptation is changing things up for the sake of change – and not always in a good way.
