“The band’s longtime stylist David Mathews claimed he was wrongfully terminated for pushing back against “unsafe” practices on tour.”
— Nancy Dillon for Rolling Stone Magazine
Metal Sludge — Kiss retired from touring back in December of 2023, but Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley are still front page news just as 2025 gets started.
In the latest from Kiss, the band’s co-founders and leaders Simmons and Stanley have reportedly reached a settlement with David Mathews who was a longtime Kiss employee.
Mathews who started working for Kiss in 1992 according to this new piece at Rolling Stone was the band’s stylist “whose primary job it was to apply and style Kiss’s stage wigs.”
We have shared some excerpts from the Rolling Stone article below.
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After a judge warned they might have something to lose after all, Kiss frontmen Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley have settled the wrongful termination lawsuit brought by the iconic band’s longtime hairstylist.
The “Nothin’ to Lose” musicians were speeding toward a Jan. 22 trial when lawyers on both sides informed the judge early Monday that a settlement had been reached, the court’s clerk confirmed to Rolling Stone. The trial was cancelled and a follow-up hearing set to confirm the pact was scheduled for March. There was no immediate comment from lawyers on either side.
Last month, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Armen Tamzarian urged the sides to reach a private resolution. He said the first time he read the 2023 lawsuit brought by plaintiff David Mathews – which alleged labor code violations and a retaliatory 2022 termination linked to Mathews’ complaints about allegedly “unsafe” Covid protocols on tour – he felt the dispute presented “very serious risks” for both Mathews and the band.
“If this goes to trial, it would not surprise me if Mr. Mathews got nothing. It would not surprise me if he made a big pot of money. This is the kind of case any rational person would settle. There’s big risk this could swing dramatically one way or the other,” the judge said at a hearing in early December. “This is a tough case for plaintiff to win, but if he wins, there are deep, deep pockets there, and there could be a big result.” He warned the dueling lawyers they were both “overconfident” in their positions.
In his lawsuit, Mathews said he started working for Kiss in 1992 as the stylist “whose primary job it was to apply and style Kiss’s stage wigs.” He later rose to the level of overseeing the band’s wardrobe and dressing room teams and often worked 12 -to 15-hour days without stopping, according to his lawsuit.
Mathews said he was with the band in Illinois in October 2021 when guitar tech Francis Stueber, 53, started showing severe Covid symptoms. Mathews claimed he alerted the band’s manager Doc McGhee to Stueber’s dire condition, but no “timely” action was taken. Stueber died in his hotel room on Oct. 17, 2021. Two weeks after his death, Rolling Stone published a piece titled, “Couldn’t Believe How Unsafe It Was’: KISS’ Roadies Blame Lax Covid Protocols for Guitar Tech’s Death.”
Read more at Rolling Stone.
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