Los Angeles – UPI
Kiss and Def Leppard will join forces for a North American tour this summer. The two bands announced the news via live stream on the Live Nation website on Monday. The joint venture will be called the 2014 Heroes Tour and will visit forty-two North American cities. It begins June 23 in West Valley City, Utah, and ends August 31 in Woodlands, Texas. Kiss guitarist Paul Stanley said the tour will "deliver good news and excitement," and Def Leppard singer Joe Elliott added that the event has been a long time in the making. Elliott expressed that he and Kiss bassist Gene Simmons first discussed a joint tour some years ago while on a rock-and-roll all-stars tour together. "It's finally happened, which is fantastic," Elliott enthused. The band members were in agreement that a collaborative tour made sense. "We've run into each other at festivals," Stanley said. "It just seemed to be a natural fit." "It's two great bands that are going to be playing for the same amount of time," Elliott added. "It's joint forces. I don't see it as competitive at all." Tickets for the 2014 Heroes Tour go on sale this Friday, March 21. A dollar of each ticket sold will be donated to the Wounded Warrior Project.