Last night, KISS brought their End of the Road to their adopted home of Los Angeles. Tearing through their catalog of hits shouldn’t have been a surprise — they generally play the same set every night. That includes wearing the same stage garb every night.
However, they called a poignant audible that surprised the Staples Center crowd.
Following the band’s first encore song of “Beth,” Paul Stanley grabbed the mic to tell the crowd that they were in the house that Kobe built and then put on a #24 Kobe Bryant Lakers jersey.
“None of us would be here if this place wasn’t really like a memorial to somebody who was so much more than a basketball player, somebody who’s been a role model,” Stanley said of playing “Do You Love Me?” “And tonight, I think we dedicate this show not only to Kobe and his daughter Gigi, but to all the people who perished on that helicopter.”
On the day Bryant died in January, Stanley tweeted out a photo of him and the Lakers legend meeting in the Staples Center tunnel.
WOW! Kobe. Such A Shock. My Condolences To His Wife And Children. Very, very sad. #KobeBryant pic.twitter.com/4UM6Vap8Dc
— Paul Stanley (@PaulStanleyLive) January 26, 2020
As KISS started the song, purple and gold balloons fell from the rafters and the numbers 2, 8 and 24 adorned the screens out of tribute to Kobe and Gianna Bryant.
Watch the moment from last night’s show in Los Angeles below:
