1975 Rock Anthem, Born From a Cake Metaphor, Could Literally Play Forever
A rock song written in 1975 made a promise that nobody expected anyone to actually keep.
Fifty years later, it just might happen anyway.
The story starts in a small New York apartment, where Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons first met. Simmons saw the potential immediately. Stanley wasn't completely convinced. He almost said no to starting a band with Simmons at all. "I think he thought Lennon, McCartney and Gene were the only three songwriters in the world," Stanley said, "and all of a sudden he had to make room for a fourth."
He said yes anyway, and the two built KISS around an idea they borrowed from The Beatles. "We also took pride in having the same freedom The Beatles had," Simmons said. "Their philosophy was, 'No matter what kind of music we do, it's still The Beatles.' That's what was amazing about them. They could do music hall, psychedelia, anything, and they did. Yet somehow it always sounded like The Beatles."
Inside the band, Stanley had a specific job, and he explained it with a comparison that has nothing to do with rock and roll. "If we were making a cake, Gene would talk about the frosting and the dressing on the outside," he said. "And I would go, 'But we have to have a cake.'"
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That same instinct ended up shaping the band's biggest song, ‘Rock and Roll All Nite.' Their record label told them they needed an "anthem." Back then, that wasn't really a common thing yet. "When I started writing it, there were no 'anthems,' per se," Stanley said. "Our record company president sat us down and told us we needed an anthem, and we had no idea what that meant. His examples were Sly and the Family Stone's 'I Want to Take You Higher' and 'Dance to the Music.'"
Stanley wrote the lyrics, then he realized they fit perfectly over a chorus that Simmons was already working on for a different song. The two pieces just made sense.
A Promise From 1975 Might Finally Come True
The album that song came from just got a 50th anniversary deluxe edition, with the track newly remastered.
But the bigger story might be what comes next for the rock icons.
KISS played their final live show in December 2023. Since then the band has been working with Pophouse Entertainment, the company behind ABBA Voyage, on an avatar-based show set to launch in Vegas in 2028. The avatars themselves are being built by Industrial Light & Magic, the visual effects company founded by George Lucas.
For Paul Stanley, it comes down to something very simple. "The great thing about being an icon is you can stay young forever," he said.
Doc McGhee, who's managed KISS since 1995, feels exactly the same way. "It's the ability to make KISS immortal and take them into the future," he said. "That's what everybody would want, it just was not previously possible or done correctly."
A song that promised to keep rocking forever might be about to get the chance to prove it.
"This is not the end," Gene Simmons said. "This is the beginning."
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This story was originally published June 14, 2026 at 6:30 AM.