KISS icon Gene Simmons recently spoke with Mick Burgess at The Northern Echo in anticipation of the band's upcoming show in Newcastle, England. Following is an excerpt from the interview.

Q: You started the farewell shows earlier this year. How does it feel knowing that this will be the last visit that you’ll make to some of these places?

Simmons: "It’s bittersweet. I will tell you that after 46 years, it’s time. We have self-respect but we also have an enormous pride in the fans and remember we introduce ourselves every night with 'You wanted the best, you got the best, the hottest band in the word, KISS' and we’ve always prided ourselves with making those words true and the day we don’t believe that’s true is the day that we get off the stage. We’ve all seen many bands who’ve stayed on stage too long so we`re going out on top. This is a victory lap. We’ve been everywhere, done almost everything and that makes it the right time to go. We all believe that Muhammad Ali was the greatest but he should have quit when he regained his title the third time. He didn’t live up to the legend of Ali so we don’t want to do that. We want to go out on top and thank the fans for being there for so many years. What an amazing ride this has been."

Q: You have 20 studio albums and the four solo albums to pick from. There’s a lot of songs there and a lot of people calling for certain songs. How difficult is it for you to pick the songs outside of the must play classics?

Simmons: "We all wish for problems like that but we are also aware that in the UK, 'Crazy Nights' was a big hit for us so we’ll be doing that. We are trying to be sensitive to the fact that, as you go around the world different songs resonate more in certain places so in Australia it’s 'Shandi', of all songs and if you go to South America, believe it or not it’s 'Charisma'. We try to be flexible and add a few songs here and there."

Q: Of course, you can’t please everybody but have you considered revisiting a couple of your classics that you haven’t played in years such as "Strutter", "I Stole Your Love", "She" or "Nothin’ To Lose" for example?

Simmons: "You know what? Why not? I’ll put those songs on the table with the guys and we’ll look at it. It’s duly noted. We play for two to two and a half hours so we’ll play as many songs as we possibly can. Almost anyone who gets up on stage has a big opening thing and then they quieten it down and then build up to the crescendo at the end. We are taking a Mike Tyson point of view which is in the first five seconds we are going to kick you in the nuts and punish you. We do this from the outset of the show and there’ll be hardly any quiet moments. We’re just going full steam ahead for the whole show."

Read the complete interview here.

KISS brought their End Of The Road tour to Tauron Arena Kraków in Kraków, Poland last night (Tuesday, June 18). Pro-shot footage from the concert can be seen below:

Find the band's complete End Of The Road tour itinerary here.