Watch: STANLEY SIMMONS Performs At BUDDY GUY's John Lewis Civil Rights Award Ceremony

On May 27, STANLEY SIMMONS, the collaborative project of Evan Stanley and Nick Simmons — sons of Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons, respectively, from KISS — performed at the John Lewis Civil Rights Award ceremony honoring Buddy Guy at the Renaissance Shoals Conference Center in Florence, Alabama. Fan-filmed video of STANLEY SIMMONS's entire concert can be seen below (as uploaded by the hissdemon channel on YouTube).

STANLEY SIMMONS made its live debut on May 4 at the House Of Blues Voodoo Room in San Diego, California.

The band will release its debut album, "Dancing While The World Is Ending", on August 28.

STANLEY SIMMONS has so far released three singles from the 12-track effort, "Body Down", the title cut, "Dancing While The World Is Ending", and "Temporary Love".

Though Evan and Nick have been close since childhood — raised on the road by their fathers — the idea of collaborating musically never crossed their minds. That changed in December 2024, when an impromptu Instagram reel brought them together in front of microphones for the first time.

"We were shocked," Evan and Nick recalled. "The chemistry was instant. The way our voices locked together… it was undeniable."

What began as a casual moment quickly evolved. By February 2025, Evan and Nick tried writing together — again, just for fun — and lightning struck twice. STANLEY SIMMONS was born. The pair soon realized they had stumbled into the project each had always hoped to make: a return to something expressive and organic, driven by musicianship, storytelling and emotion.

Early bedroom demos caught the attention of legendary producer Rob Cavallo (GREEN DAY, FLEETWOOD MAC, PARAMORE, MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE, Dave Matthews),who immediately signed on to produce the duo's debut full-length record and stepped into the role of manager.

In a recent interview with The Drew Lane Show, Paul Stanley stated about STANLEY SIMMONS, which released its debut single, "Body Down", in December 2025:  "Nick and Evan have basically known each other their [whole] lives, but didn't really get close until the last year where they said, 'Oh, let's try singing or writing. Their album, which I've heard, is frigging phenomenal. I mean, it's as good as anything I've heard in the last three or four decades. It's that good. So it's terrific, and it's organic."Paul also dismissed accusations which have been leveled at STANLEY SIMMONS for supposedly leveraging their famous parents to gain a head start in the music industry, saying: "The idea of nepotism — if you suck, you'll fall on your face. I don't think there's anything wrong with taking advantage of having some sort of familiarity. But ultimately, most people who trade on that fail because it's not enough. So, I think STANLEY SIMMONS, it's just fantastic."

After host Drew Lane noted that "Body Down" "sounds like CROSBY, STILLS, NASH & YOUNG" and asked Paul if Evan and Nick are "influenced by classic rock", the KISS guitarist/vocalist responded: "They're very inspired by all the greats. And I have to say that as good as 'Body Down' is, the rest of the songs leave that in the dust… Oh, the songs are just crazy good. And there's flavors of all different artists in what they do, in the same way that virtually everybody who's out there or has succeeded has elements of something else. So I don't have a problem with that. It's not imitating; it's being inspired by. So, they're great. I can't say enough about them. I've just been wowed."

As for whether Evan and Nick ask their dads for any advice regarding their music careers, Paul said: "I think they ask — I know Evan asked me my opinion of things. And I always preface it by saying, 'It's just my opinion, and you have to go with what you believe.' And he does. I said, 'I can give you my point of view.' And I think it's great that anyone asks somebody else's opinion, and uses that to their advantage, but to rely upon me to make decisions — I'm not qualified to make decisions about what [he should do]. Only he is."

In an episode of the Caught On The Mike podcast, hosted by former Midwestern musician Michael Clark, Evan and Nick spoke about "Body Down" and their upcoming debut album. Regarding why they chose to name the project STANLEY SIMMONS, Evan said:  "It's funny when you say the obvious marketing angle, it's a really funny one for us, or to anyone who is familiar, our parents are in a band together, and it's a pretty big band and that's great and it's really cool. I think it's one of those things where online it's a very funny thing. You read these comments, and it's, like, 'You're trying to do your own thing, but then you use their names. Riding their coattails.' I'm, like, dude, it's literally our names. This is my birth name. It's our legal name."

Nick chimed in: "I didn't actually anticipate that, which is stupid. I should have. But when we talked about it, we were, like, 'Oh, we like a lot of bands that do that: CROSBY, STILLS & NASH, HALL & OATES and SIMON & GARFUNKEL. We could just be STANLEY & SIMMONS' or whatever. And so we did that conversation. And we were, like, 'Yeah, sounds good. That makes sense, with the type of music we're doing.' Yeah. And then people were, like, 'Look at them milking the fucking [KISS connection].' And we were, like, 'Oh, I guess… I didn't really think about that.'"

Evan continued: "The thing is, you're damned if you do, you're damned if you don't. Because at the end of the day, there are so many talented musicians out there, and there's so much great music coming out. There's also just an ungodly amount of platforms to try and keep up with, and there's so much noise to cut through. So there's so much great stuff, and then also because everyone has a platform, everyone wants to use it and be loud, so then there's also a lot of noise. So anything that we can do to help cut through the noise and get people to listen to our music, I'm willing to do. I have no problem with that, because at the end of the day, someone will listen once out of curiosity, but they won't listen a tenth time because they're curious. They're gonna either love it and connect with it and be part of it or they won't be. And that's not something you can buy. You can get in front of people and we're very, very lucky in that way. But it's so funny reading all the comments. It's kind of, like, 'Okay, so you don't want us to use this, but then when we don't, you ask why we don't.'"

Stanley added: "To us, the reason we went with STANLEY SIMMONS is this was such an unexpected collaboration. We've been friends for a long time, but we'd never really done anything together. And when we tried writing, we were, like, 'Wow, this is something. Let's run with this.' And from the get-go it has been — I think the word 'organic' and 'authentic', both of those words get tossed around so much, but this was never trying to be a thing… And then it was, like, 'Let's write a song or two together. And maybe we'll do one or two songs together. It'll be fun.' And then we wrote the first one. It was, like, 'Well, wait. This is the best song I've ever been a part of. There's something to this.' … And that's kind of why we went with STANLEY SIMMONS, is just, 'Hey, this is who we are.' We're not trying to be the da da. It's just our names. There really isn't a thing, except the thing is that it's just us singing together and playing stuff that we like."

Regarding the collaboration's musical direction, Evan told KTLA's Andy Riesmeyer: "We grew up loving a lot of roots stuff, Americana folk, so you hear a lot of that in there. It really has nothing to do with what our dads do. I think the interesting thing is we do actually have a lot of the same influences."

Nick added: "We were excited. I never get to do just stripped down, rootsy Americana music. And so it was, like, 'Let's do it. 'Cause it would be fun.' And then people were, like, 'No, you should do this.'"