KISS-ed off

The question now remains: After this tour, after they've Hoovered in every last dollar and plundered every last village, where do they go next? Can they keep playing the arenas, or will they eventually fall off their platform boots and hit the clubs one more time?

Ultimately, Simmons is the predator, never satisfied with what's on his plate and always looking to see what's on yours. At the end of the day, the tour, the minute, he wants more.

"Always more," he says. "More money, more good tunes, more fame, more women. That's what it's about. Once you're the champion pole-vaulter of the world and nobody else comes close, aren't you at home trying to break your own record? I'm not in competition with anybody. I'm in competition with myself. It's the striving, the hunt, not the kill. I want more. It's called living." And no one's going to get in his way.

KISS performs Tuesday, September 17, at the Miami Arena, 721 NW 1st Ave; 530-4444. The show is sold out.