Nobody in the Shrine Auditorium on the night of February 28, 1996, knew it was coming.
Tupac Shakur walked out to the Grammy Awards stage in a Versace suit and a Death Row Records medallion. What the crowd expected was a presenter. What they got was something nobody had seen in nearly 17 years. 'You know how the Grammys used to be,' he said, 'all straight-lookin' folks with suits, everybody lookin' tired, no surprises. We tired of that. We need something different. So let's shock the people.'
From the wings came Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Ace Frehley, and Peter Criss, the original, founding lineup of Kiss, in full makeup and their Love Gun-era costumes. The last time those four men had shared a stage in that makeup was December 1979. Sixteen years of estrangement, legal disputes, solo careers, and bad blood had passed. None of it was visible that night. The Shrine erupted.
The appearance was brief. The four presented the award for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal (which went to Hootie & the Blowfish for 'Let Her Cry') and walked off. But the two minutes those men stood on stage in their elaborate costumes was an undeniable sign that improving relations between the group of rock royalty was real.
Related: Gene Simmons Just Did Something He's Never Done Before — and He Did It for Ace Frehley
The groundwork had been laid six months earlier. On August 9, 1995, Kiss performed on MTV Unplugged at Sony Music Studios in New York, and Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons contacted former members Peter Criss and Ace Frehley to participate. Fan reaction to Criss and Frehley at the Unplugged show was so positive that it became the catalyst for the full reunion. It was the first time the original four had shared a stage since 1979, though notably without the makeup, a distinction that made the Grammy reveal six months later that much more satisfying.
On April 16, 1996, six weeks after the Grammys, the band held a press conference aboard the USS Intrepid in New York City to announce the Alive/Worldwide Tour, with the event MC'd by Conan O'Brien and simulcast to 58 countries. Gene Simmons admitted later he wasn't sure they could fill arenas. Tickets for the first show went on sale on a Friday night, and by Saturday morning the band's manager called to report they had no more tickets left. The entire stadium had sold out in under an hour.
The Alive/Worldwide Tour lasted just over a year, playing 192 shows across North America, Europe, Japan, Australia, and Latin and South America, and earning $143.7 million, the most successful Kiss tour in the band's history. The setlists drew almost entirely from the 1970s catalog. The pyro was back. So was Simmons breathing fire and spitting blood. The four men who had not gotten along well enough to stay in the same band had gotten along well enough to sell out stadiums on five continents, though that positivity would not last.
It had all started with two minutes at the Grammys. Tupac told the room he wanted to shock the people. He delivered.
The rest of the night belonged to Alanis Morissette, who took home four trophies for Jagged Little Pill, including Album of the Year, a record-tying haul that made her the youngest artist to win that award at the time.
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