KISS to be honored at Kennedy Center Honors with Trump hosting

KISS will join this year’s cohort of Kennedy Center Honors honorees, recognized for lifetime contributions to American culture, while the ceremony’s organizer, President Donald Trump, will personally host the event. The lineup also includes George Strait, Gloria Gaynor, Michael Crawford and Sylvester Stallone. The announcement underscores the Kennedy Center’s tradition of celebrating diverse arts across genres, even as the involvement of a sitting president who has courted controversy in recent years adds a new political dimension to the gala.

The honorees are celebrated as icons in their fields, and for KISS the recognition comes with a moment many artists dream of. Paul Stanley spoke of the band’s long arc, saying, from their earliest days, KISS has embodied the American ideal that anything is possible and that hard work pays off, and that the Kennedy Center Honors’ prestige cannot be overstated. Gene Simmons called the honor “the embodiment of the American dream” and expressed the band’s deep gratitude. Ace Frehley described it as a dream come true he never thought would materialize, while Peter Criss simply said he felt blessed and that it was the greatest honor of their...