YOSHIKI to Collaborate with KISS for Kouhaku Uta Gassen Performance

YOSHIKI will team up with American rock legends KISS for a special televised performance on Japan’s NHK network.

The artists will appear together as “YOSHIKI feat. KISS” (“YOSHIKISS”) during the famous New Year’s Eve special "Kouhaku Uta Gassen" (“Red and White Music Battle”), the most-watched television program in Japan. The program is also broadcast worldwide.

This televised performance with KISS follows YOSHIKI’s surprise on-stage appearances with the band at Tokyo Dome and Kyocera Dome Osaka during their End of the Road World Tour. YOSHIKI joined them for a piano performance during Beth and played the drums on Rock and Roll All Nite.

YOSHIKI previously worked with KISS to create a 72-piece orchestral cover of Black Diamond for the 1994 tribute album Kiss My Ass: Classic Kiss Regrooved, and Gene Simmons joined YOSHIKI on stage to perform Rock and Roll All Nite at the 2016 Visual Japan Summit in Tokyo.

The upcoming performance will mark the first time YOSHIKI and KISS have appeared on television together. “I want us to create a performance that will have a big impact,” YOSHIKI said. “I think we’re really going to shock people.”

For YOSHIKI, KISS was a life-saving force in his childhood as he dealt with the despair caused by the sudden death of his father. Gene Simmons also famously appeared in the X JAPAN documentary "We Are X" to praise the band, stating “If those guys were born in America, they might be the biggest band in the world.”

This "Kohaku Uta Gassen” appearance will mark YOSHIKI's fifth consecutive performance at the annual event since 2015, including sets both as a solo artist and as the leader of X JAPAN. He defeated Godzilla in 2016, played the drums for the first time following his cervical vertebra surgery in 2017, and made history in 2018 as the first artist to perform on the program for both the red and white teams, appearing as YOSHIKI feat. HYDE for the "Attack on Titan" theme Red Swan and playing the piano for Sarah Brightman during her performance of Miracle.