Leslie Collins at the Kansas City Business Journal recently spoke with KISS legend Gene Simmons about his restaurant venture with bandmate Paul Stanley, Rock & Brews. An excerpt from the article is available below:

Rock & Brews prides itself on freshly made food and never uses frozen beef, an unusual quest in the restaurant business, said Kirk Williams, regional franchise partner for Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Colorado.

Asked how many restaurants they plan to open in the next one to five years, Simmons said it's best not to focus on numbers.

"That's not the way to do it," Simmons said. "We want to go one step at a time and make sure the quality is there. You're only as good as your partner. You don't want to open up something from far away if you don't know who has skin in the game, who has roots in the local community, who cares about the local community and hires locally. The last thing we want to do is open too many and have any one of them not do well. The best advertising we can do is to make our bosses happy."

Go to this location for the complete story.

Simmons and KISS bandmate Paul Stanley recently spent the morning with KOB Eyewitness News 4 to promote the new Rock & Brews location in Albuquerque, NM.

"It is actually a profound pleasure and honor to be in Albuquerque," said Gene Simmons, who said the Duke City was always on their list. "It's always been a place, you know, people stop in if they don't live here and love the community, because it's a million people so it's just big enough to be a city. Also, small enough to care about your neighbor."

KISS will play a nine-show Las Vegas residency this fall. KISS Rocks Vegas hits The Joint at Hard Rock Hotel & Casino beginning November 5th. Tickets are on sale now. To purchase or for more information visit the Hard Rock Hotel box office here or charge-by-phone at 1-888-9-AXS-TIX. VIP ticket and room and show packages are available at HardRockHotel.com.

Watch a video trailer for the Vegas run below:

"Whatever you're used to with KISS, this will pump it up that much more," says guitarist Paul Stanley. "If KISS is on steroids, this is a double dose." Tickets for KISS Rocks Vegas will start at $49.50 and are on sale at AXS.com. Vegas Hard Rock spent more than a year trying to book a KISS residency, says Chas Smith, vice president of entertainment. The Joint previously has hosted extended stays by Santana, Motley Crue, Guns N' Roses, Def Leppard and Tiësto.

He's preparing the Hard Rock for a full-scale KISS Army invasion. "The activation will encompass the entire property for the month they're out here — from the performances onstage to wrapping the hotel with Kiss stuff to having team members wearing Kiss shirts," Smith says. Under the KISS Rocks Vegas configuration, The Joint will seat about 3,200.

For the Vegas shows, KISS will have a stage production "that's different from what they're touring with and make it one of a kind," says Smith, who is in discussions with members of the KISS production team. "That's really exciting, considering what Kiss has done in the past. They've got some crazy ideas for what they want to do in this venue. In a smaller environment, doing some of those elements will almost make it like a 3-D atmosphere."

Read more at USA Today.

KISS Rock Vegas dates:

November 

5 - The Joint at Hard Rock Hotel & Casino - Las Vegas, NV 
7 - The Joint at Hard Rock Hotel & Casino - Las Vegas, NV 
8 - The Joint at Hard Rock Hotel & Casino - Las Vegas, NV 
12 - The Joint at Hard Rock Hotel & Casino - Las Vegas, NV 
14 - The Joint at Hard Rock Hotel & Casino - Las Vegas, NV 
15 - The Joint at Hard Rock Hotel & Casino - Las Vegas, NV 
19 - The Joint at Hard Rock Hotel & Casino - Las Vegas, NV 
22 - The Joint at Hard Rock Hotel & Casino - Las Vegas, NV 
23 - The Joint at Hard Rock Hotel & Casino - Las Vegas, NV

A video message from the band about the shows follows: