KISS legends Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley are being sued over the death of one of the band’s late guitar techs. In October 2021, Francis Stueber died just a couple days after contracting COVID while on tour with KISS. Now, TMZ reports that Stueber’s family is taking Simmons and Stanley to court over the tragedy.
According to the outlet, Stueber’s family says that the coronavirus infection began spreading around other crew members of the tour in August 2021. Notably, Stanely contracted the illness at this time, and Stueber’s family alleges that COVID-19 continued spreading around tour staff due to poor safety enforcement measures. They claim that anyone on tour who tested positive for the virus was expected to quarantine in their hotel room whenever they were, but no other specific protocols were enforced, allegedly.
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Stueber’s family states that he contracted COVID-19 while in Detroit and has to quarantine in a Sheraton hotel. They go on to accuse longtime KISS manager Doc McGhee of promising Stueber that they would get him medical attention but ultimately failing to do so. The lawsuit goes on to claim that when McGhee asked someone else from the tour to check in on Stueber, but when they did he was found dead. He’d just tested positive for Covid-19 two days prior. Stueber’s family is suing Gene, Paul, Doc, Marriott hotels, and Live Nation for damages. TMZ reports that it reached out to reps for KISS but had not heard back at the time of this writing.
This makes the second lawsuit the band has faced from the terrible situation. Earlier this year, the band’s longtime hairdresser filed against them in court, claiming the band fired him after he raised concerns over tour COVID-19 protocol management. Hairstylist David Mathews accused McGhee of mishandling the circumstances surrounding Stueber’s death. Simmons and Stanley were both named as defendants in the suit as well.
According to Matthews’ lawsuit, after Stueber began to feel ill, both Matthews and Stanley encouraged McGhee to have Stueber taken to the hospital, which he agreed to do. However, Matthews claims that McGhee later told him that Stueber did not want to go to the hospital, which he says conflicted with what Stueber had told him previously. The men once again urged Stueber to go to the hospital, which he again agreed to do. McGhee allegedly stated that a Live Nation representative would pick Stueber up and drive him to the hospital, but this never happened.
“Unfortunately, it was apparent that Mr. McGhee did not act in a timely manner. The Live Nation representative did not arrive until the following morning. When visitors entered Mr. Stueber’s room at about 1 a.m., he was found dead,” Matthews claims. Rolling Stone ran a story about the tragedy, which Matthews states upset KISS and their management. He alleged that he was blamed for being an anonymous leaker to the outlet — which he denied — and subsequently fired. Matthews sued the band over wrongful termination, failure to pay all wages, and retaliation in violation of labor code.
