KISS pulled from Michael Jackson tribute show

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Simmons, whose comments caused such a stir, claims to have bedded over 4600 women in his career
Simmons, whose comments caused such a stir, claims to have bedded over 4600 women in his career (Image credit: FRED PROUSER/Reuters/Corbis)

"Where there's smoke there's fire. There's no question in my mind he molested those kids. Not a doubt." This is not a statement you'd expect to read from a man set to take part in a Michael Jackson tribute concert.

Eyebrows weren't so much raised as blasted into space when it was announced that KISS had been booked for the Michael Forever concert alongside Smokey Robinson, Cee Lo Green, Christina Aguilera and erm, Alien Ant Farm in Cardiff's Millennium Stadium on 8 October 2011.

Jackson was acquitted of molestation charges in 2005, but in early 2010, KISS star Gene Simmons caused controversy with inflammatory comments about the King Of Pop in a Classic Rock interview, which you can read in more depth here.

According to Billboard, Chris Hunt, CEO of organisers Global Events Live, called the addition of KISS to the line-up an "oversight", commenting: "Under the circumstances, we fully agree that even though KISS is a band Michael admired, we have no choice but to rescind our invitation to them to appear in our tribute concert."

This is the latest blow for an event that has been opposed by Michael's siblings Randy and Jermaine, despite having the backing of their mother Katherine and others in the Jackson camp.

Find out more about the Michael Forever tribute concert here.

Chris Vinnicombe

Chris Vinnicombe worked with us here on the MusicRadar team from the site's initial launch way back in 2007, and also contributed to Guitarist magazine as Features Editor until 2014, as well as Total Guitar magazine, amongst others. These days he can be found at Gibson Guitars, where he is editor-in-chief.