Gene Simmons apparently has no 'kid gloves' in that pile of silver studded leather that he airs out once every two years to suit up for a tour. Because he announced the separation of David Lee Roth from KISS' End Of The Road Tour in a bluntly brutal interview in Rolling Stone today. When asked about who was opening the tour now that it's about to get back on the post-Covid tour route, Gene said it would not be Diamond Dave. Though he didn't give an exact reason, it was what he DID say about DLR. That Dave was the 'ultimate frontman' during his prime but 'didn't know what happened to him in recent years'. In his heyday according to Simmons, who was instrumental in lighting the fuse that was Van Halen's meteoric rise in rock n' roll, whatever Dave's 'special sauce' was, it went beyond other singer's fronting the bands of that day. But added, "And then, I don't know what happened to him...something." Finishing that thought off with, "I prefer Elvis Presley in his prime, I don't want to think of the bloated naked Elvis on the bathroom floor." Harsh!!! KISS open the show in Mansfield, Mass tomorrow and will be in Detroit at DTE September 1. After they finish on the road they've put together a series of dates in residency in Vegas.