KISS to postpone Raleigh tour stop after singer tests positive for COVID
Updated Sept. 8, 2021, with news of rescheduled concerts.
KISS is rescheduling a second show — Saturday’s tour stop in Raleigh — after singer Paul Stanley tested positive for COVID-19.
Coastal Credit Union Music Park at Walnut Creek announced the rescheduling Friday.
The band announced it would postpone a show Thursday in Burgettstown, Pa., after Stanley’s diagnosis.
“I had been sick with flu-like symptoms and was tested repeatedly and was negative,” Stanley tweeted Thursday. “As of late this afternoon I tested positive. The crew, staff and band have all tested negative once again.”
The band is currently embarking on the final stretch of its End of the Road World Tour, which began in January 2019, and was later delayed due to the pandemic.
Everyone on the tour, including the band and crew members, are fully vaccinated, KISS said Thursday.
“The band and their crew have operated in a bubble independently to safeguard everyone as much as possible at each show and in between shows,” the band said on Facebook. “The tour also has a COVID safety protocol officer on staff full-time that is ensuring everyone is closely following all CDC guidelines.”
On Aug. 31, Gene Simmons also tested positive, and the band postponed additional shows.
On Sept. 7, the band announced rescheduled dates for five of the shows, now that Simmons and Staley have been cleard by doctors. The Raleigh show, as well as shows in Hartford, Conn., and Milwaukee will be postponed to 2022, the band said. Those dates have not been announced, but all tickets will be honored for the new dates.
More concerts being put on hold
KISS is the latest band to recently cancel or postpone a show in Raleigh, amid rising case counts and hospitalizations from COVID-19 throughout the Triangle and the rest of North Carolina.
Last week, country music duo Florida Georgia Line halted their entire tour, which included stops in Charlotte and Raleigh, due to the rising number of COVID-19 cases and the risks associated with large gatherings.
And Southern rock band Blackberry Smoke canceled their Aug. 17 show at Red Hat Amphitheater while guitarist Paul Jackson continued to recover from COVID-19.
In light of the resurgence in cases, fueled by the more transmissible delta variant, numerous musical acts and venues have said they will require performers, employees and concert-goers to show proof of full vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test to enter concerts this fall.
That includes Live Nation, which stages shows at Coastal Credit Union Music Park and The Ritz, and which will require attendees to follow the new policy beginning Oct. 4.
The Hopscotch Music Festival, scheduled to be held in Raleigh Sept. 9 to 11, also said last week it would require attendees to show their vaccination card (a photo of the card on your phone is acceptable) or a negative test result to gain entry.
And if you’re planning on attending any ticketed shows at the World of Bluegrass festival this fall, you’ll need to show proof of vaccination. The festival will be held throughout downtown Raleigh Sept. 28 to Oct. 2.
This story was originally published August 27, 2021 at 2:14 PM.
