KIX's Final Show 45 Years After Debut Not Decided Suddenly, Says Vocalist Steve Whiteman

KIX vocalist Steve Whiteman said he is ready to take a bow soon.

Forty-five years after KIX debuted, the band announced its retirement from the music industry. It prepared one final concert on Sep. 17 at the Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Maryland, before officially calling it quits.

Steve Whiteman Planned About KIX's Retirement a Year Ago

A few months before KIX's final concert, Whiteman appeared on Meltdown of Detroit's WRIF radio station that the band's last show was prepared over a year ago. He revealed that he planned about it before the group even confirmed its retirement.

Per the vocalist, he told his bandmates that he would be done at the end of 2023.

"I'm sick to death of the travel and the hotels and the waiting in green rooms. It takes three days to do a show anymore because it's all 'fly dates,' one-offs," the singer explained. "So I just to the point where I'm 66 and my wife is ready to retire. And we just wanna enjoy life."

The interviewer asked what he thought it would be like to hold KIX's last show, to which Whiteman assured the listeners that he has been ready for it.

The vocalist spoke candidly about the emergency health issue KIX drummer, Jimmy Chalfant, went through while they were performing on stage in November. Whiteman said it changed the whole perspective of what they were doing in the band's later years.

He also received a confirmation from the drummer, who decided he would stop playing after the September show.

Whiteman's comment resonated with what Ronnie Younkins recently told Tulsa Music Stream in a recent interview. The guitarist opened up about how he and his bandmates saw the signs of KIX's retirement in the years leading to its last show.

KIX's Legacy Explored

Debuted in 1977, KIX first conquered the music industry through its self-titled album. It soon reached popularity when it dropped the 1988 "Blow My Fuse," which sold nearly 1 million copies due to its hit track, "Don't Close Your Eyes."

Despite the attention it received, KIX took a hiatus in 1995 before it reunited and started touring again 10 years later. The band marked its first album, "Rock Your Face Off," since the release of "Show Business" in 1995.

Before announcing its retirement, the band still released "Midnite Dynamite Re-Lit" in November 2020 to mark the 35^th anniversary of "Midnite Dynamite."