PAUL STANLEY: 'I Know That I Will Sound Great' On KISS's 'End Of The Road' Tour

KISS frontman Paul Stanley says that he knows he "will sound great" on the band's upcoming farewell tour.

When KISS kicked off its European tour in July in Barcelona, Spain, a number of YouTube videos surfaced online of Stanley clearly struggling to hit the high notes in many of the band's classic songs. This prompted renewed calls for the group to finally call it quits, with some KISS detractors insisting that Paul hasn't been able to deliver the band's material with conviction for many years.

Stanley spoke about his vocal issues during a brand new interview with Australia's Herald Sun, saying: "If anyone wants to hear me sound like I did on (1975's) 'Kiss Alive!', then put on 'Kiss Alive!' It would be absurd. Of course your voice changes. Any athlete's body changes. Any singer's voice changes. The naysayers and the scrooges will find the video of you falling on your ass, that's the one they'll post. But when you're playing to between 20,000 to 60,000 fans a night and beginning and ending a show with an audience going crazy, I'm not really that concerned with the sceptics.

"I'm in the same boat a lot of people are," he added. "I see singers around my age and we talk about it. The difference could be many bands have a singer where you go, 'Well, he sounds really good,' but so does the keyboard player singing along with him. Or the person singing off stage. KISS have never done that.

"I understand there's people who tend to spout negativity, but they're in the vast, vast, vast minority. I will do everything in my power and I know that I will sound great on this tour. That is not delusional. I don't look the same as I did at the beginning of the band, nobody looks the same today as they did decades ago, but it's all about degree. But there are realities, of course."

Stanley also confirmed there are no plans for KISS to make new music to go along with the "End Of The Road" tour. "I don't think there's any reason to record at this point. You're up against your past. Your past is much larger and more potent than the quality of your songs. It's about songs that had a moment in somebody's life, that's where the power comes. It's a photograph of a certain moment for somebody. Whether [it's] us or THE [ROLLING] STONES or any classic band, when people say, 'Why don't you do a new album?' they have no intention of wanting to hear it. They may tolerate a new song or two. But don't kid yourself, when THE STONES put out a new album, someone will say, 'That's terrific, now play 'Brown Sugar'.' It's the nature of the beast. I'd rather go out and celebrate our glories and not hunker down in the studio to do an album which, understandably, will never receive the embracing that earlier ones do."

He added: "If you put on a live concert of any of the classic bands and turn off the sound, I could tell you every time they're playing a new song because the audience sits down. People really don't want to hear those new songs live."

In September, KISS announced its "End Of The Road" farewell tour on NBC's "America's Got Talent", and two weeks ago, the band revealed the first set of dates and cities in North America, produced by Live Nation. International markets were announced simultaneously.

The North American leg of "End Of The Road" will launch January 31 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada at Rogers Arena and will hit an additional 43 cities.