Gene Simmons says the rock business is dead

I guess it depends on how you want to define it. On the basis of record sales, he's probably right. OTOH, touring is still big business for (mostly aging) rockers. U2 made over $700MM on their 2011 tour and The Wall was pushing about $500MM when it shut down in 2013. Not as many big numbers this year, but Fleetwood Mac will probably end up north of $200MM before the calendar turns. The numbers may be trending down for rock tours, but I wouldn't call $200MM+ "dead" by any means.

My understanding is that Gene is kind of an eccentric guy (a friend of mine worked closely with him for almost a decade), so you've got to take his view with a grain of salt. Ultimately, I'd say that there's a nugget of truth in the statement...it's just overly broad.

Re: large scale theatrical shows and Kiss

It's tough to recall who started the whole production intensive rock show thing. I remember that a bunch of prog bands were doing the full-blown production well before Kiss came along (+/-1973 IIRC). Yes, ELP, and a few others were doing that in 1970ish. I saw Genesis in 1971 and they already were employing costume changes, lighting effects, flash pots, etc. Kiss may well have commercially exploited that approach on a mass scale earlier than most and tip your hat to them for that. However, the approach was already well established before they came along.