Gene Simmons is the front man, lead singer and bass player for KISS, the theatrically-inclined 1970s rock band who wore face paint for all their public appearances. Simmons was born in Israel, but he and his mother emigrated to New York in 1958 and he soon began going by the name Gene Klein. After a brief turn as a schoolteacher, he took the name Gene Simmons and helped found KISS with Paul Stanley (guitar, b. Paul Stanley Eisen, 20 January 1952), Peter Criss (drums, b. Peter Crisscoula, 20 December 1947) and Ace Frehley (guitar, b. Paul Frehley, 27 April 1951). Simmons, in demonic makeup, played bass, sang, spat fire and stuck his tongue out really far. The band played heavy metal with a theatrical flair that featured elaborate stage productions with comic-horror themes. KISS toured relentlessly; their live double album KISS Alive (1975) made them superstars, and for the rest of the 1970s they were one of the top acts in the world. In the '80s they recorded sporadically while Simmons, always the busy businessman, pursued other ventures, taking a few movie roles and (incongruously) managing the career of Liza Minnelli. KISS reunited in the mid-1990s, and Simmons continues to be involved in many ventures besides rock and roll, including a line of clothing, a magazine, a cartoon show and a book (KISS and Makeup, 2001). He has twice starred in reality TV shows: teaching British schoolkids in Gene Simmons' Rock School (2005), and appearing with his family in Gene Simmons Family Jewels (2006).
A notorious ladies' man, Simmons was at times romantically linked to Cher and Diana Ross, and has lived with actress Shannon Tweed since the mid-1980s. They have two children: Nick (b. 22 January 1989) and Sophie (b. 7 July 1992)... Another 1970s rocker with a family-based reality show is Ozzy Osbourne.
Although Gene Simmons found fame as a blood-spurting, fire-breathing, bass-playing demon with Kiss, his early years were about as far removed as you can possibly get from the notorious heavy metal band. Born August 25, 1949, and named Chaim Witz, he and his mother left Israel by the late '50s, relocating to the United States (New York City, to be exact). Witz's name was then changed to Gene Klein, as he discovered comic books and rock & roll soon after (he was even being groomed to be a rabbi at one point). As a teenager, he played bass in a number of New York-area bands (Long Island Sounds, etc.), and while in his early 20s, even tried his hand at teaching grade school. His teaching career was short-lived, as he meet another young rock & roll hopeful around this time: Stanley Eisen.
Together, the duo formed their first band together, Wicked Lester, who borrowed heavily from their heroes, the Beatles, and just about any other hip musical style at the moment. The band recorded an album that never saw the light of day, but while in the band, the two first came up with the idea of putting on a real show for the audience: makeup, costumes, and a grand stage show. They eventually hooked up with two other New Yorkers, Peter Criscoula and Paul Frehley. All the members changed their names (Eisen became Paul Stanley; Criscoula to Peter Criss; Frehley to Ace Frehley; and Klein was re-christened Gene Simmons), and assumed identities relating to their personalities. Kiss then became one of the top hard rock acts of the 70s and beyond.
While Kiss' fame was sky-rocketing, Simmons tried his hand at another facet of the music biz: scouting up-and-coming talent. He tried to convince Kiss' manager to sign a young California band called Mammoth in the mid-'70s, who eventually renamed themselves Van Halen. Simmons' pleas fell on deaf ears, but the event sowed the seeds for Simmons launching his own record company (albeit short-lived) in the '80s, Simmons Records, as well as briefly managing Liza Minnelli. In addition to his work with Kiss, Simmons has tried his hand at acting on the big screen with varying degrees of success; Runaway, Trick Or Treat, Wanted: Dead Or Alive, and Never Too Young to Die are just some of the films he's appeared in. Simmons is also a shrewd businessman, often credited as the main force behind turning Kiss into a mega-dollar-generating, merchandising machine (look no further than Kiss' top-grossing 1996-1997 reunion tour).
With Kiss announcing their Farewell Tour in 2000, some assumed that it would be the last the public would hear from Simmons and company. But this proved hardly to be the case, as the band toured the world (off and on) for the next few years. Meanwhile, Simmons became involved in numerous projects: including penning an autobiography (2001's Kiss & Make-Up), creating his own magazine (Gene Simmons' Tongue), developing his own clothing line ("Gene Simmons' Dragonfly"), hosting the TV show Hit Men, and was in discussions for re-launching his Simmons Records label, his acting career, and starting up his own TV talk show (The Gene Simmons Show). Simmons took a break from farewell tours in 2004 and released his second solo album, ***HOLE, on the Sanctuary label. ~ Greg Prato, All Music Guide
Career Highlights: Wanted: Dead or Alive, Runaway, The Decline of Western Civilization 2: The Metal Years
First Major Screen Credit: KISS Meets the Phantom of the Park (1978)
Biography
Gene Simmons is best known as the co-founder and arguable leader of the rock band Kiss (he's the one who wears the "demon" makeup and spits blood on-stage, among other antics). After the band became popular in the late '70s, Simmons embarked upon a relatively short-lived acting career that began with the made-for-TV movie Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park (1978). He made his solo acting debut as a villain in Never Too Young to Die (1986). He went on to play villains in more films until his acting began interfering with his music. Simmons was born Chaim Witz in Israel but was raised in the U.S. After graduating from college, he spent a few months teaching sixth grade, but then left to become a musician. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Gene Simmons (born Chaim Witz [Hebrew: חיים ויץ, pronounced /ˈxɑː.im/] on August 25, 1949) is an American rockbassist, vocalist, and actor. He is best known as "The Demon", the blood-spitting, fire-breathing, and tongue-wagging bassist and one of the lead vocalists in the hard rock band Kiss, a group he co-founded in the early 1970s.
Simmons was born in Haifa, Israel in 1949, and emigrated to New York City at the age of eight,[1] with his mother Florence Klein — a JewishHungarian immigrant. Florence and her brother, Larry Klein, were the only two members of her family to survive the Holocaust. His father, Feri Witz, did not accompany them to the U.S. After arriving in the U.S., young Chaim Witz took the name Eugene Klein (later Gene Klein), Klein being his mother's maiden name. In the late 1960s, he changed his name to Gene Simmons to honor legendary rockabilly performer Jumpin' Gene Simmons.[2]
Simmons formed the rock band Wicked Lester in the early 1970s with Stanley Harvey Eisen (now known as Paul Stanley) and recorded one album, which was never released. Dissatisfied with Wicked Lester's sound and look, Simmons and Stanley attempted to fire their band members; they were met with resistance, and they quit Wicked Lester, walking away from their record deal with Epic Records. They decided to form the ultimate rock band, and started looking for a drummer. Simmons and Stanley found an ad placed by Peter Criss, who was playing clubs in Brooklyn at the time; they joined and started out as a trio. Paul Frehley, better known as Ace Frehley, responded to an ad they put in the Village Voice for a lead guitar player, and soon joined them. Kiss released its self-titled debut album in February 1974. Stanley quickly took on the role of lead performer on stage, while Simmons became the driving force behind what became an extensive Kiss merchandisingfranchise.
In 1983, while Kiss's fame was waning, the members took off their trademark make-up and enjoyed a resurgence in popularity that continued into the 1990s. The band hosted their own fan conventions throughout 1995, and fan feedback about the original Kiss members reunion influenced the highly successful 1996-1997 Alive Worldwide reunion tour. In 1998, the band released Psycho Circus, the first album in almost 20 years by the original line-up. Since then, the original line-up has once again dissolved, with Tommy Thayer replacing Ace Frehley on lead guitar and Eric Singer (who performed with Kiss from 1992 up through 1996) replacing Peter Criss on drums.
Equipment
Gene Simmons has used various bass guitars during his career including:
While a self-described liberal on social policy issues,[3] Simmons has also described himself as a supporter of the foreign policy of the George W. Bush administration.[4] He supported the 2003 invasion of Iraq, writing on his website: "I'm ashamed to be surrounded by people calling themselves liberal who are, in my opinion, spitting on the graves of brave American soldiers who gave their life to fight a war that wasn't theirs...in a country they've never been to... simply to liberate the people therein".[5] In a follow-up, Simmons explained his position and wrote about his love and support for the United States: "I wasn't born here. But I have a love for this country and its people that knows no bounds. I will forever be grateful to America for going into World War II, when it had nothing to gain, in a country that was far away... and rescued my mother from the Nazi German Concentration Camps. She is alive and I am alive because of America. And, if you have a problem with America, you have a problem with me".[5]
During the 2006 Lebanon War between Israel and Hezbollah, Simmons sent a televised message of support (in both English and Hebrew) to an Israeli soldier seriously wounded in fighting in Lebanon, calling him his "hero".[6]
Controversies
In a February 4, 2002 interview on the NPR radio show Fresh Air with Terry Gross, Simmons said to Gross regarding his claim to have bedded more than a thousand women: "If you want to welcome me with open arms, I'm afraid you're also going to have to welcome me with open legs" (paraphrasing The Who's hit song "You Better You Bet"). To this Gross replied, "That's a really obnoxious thing to say." Simmons refused to grant permission to NPR to make the interview available online on the network's website. However, the interview appears in print in Gross's book All I Did Was Ask (ISBN 1401300103), and some unauthorized transcripts are also available.[7] A part of the interview was re-broadcast on Fresh Air on Aug 31, 2007.[8]
In a later Fresh Air interview, satirist and future United States SenatorAl Franken related to Terry Gross his own encounter with Gene Simmons. According to Franken, he was awaiting a racquetball partner at a club when Simmons, whom Franken had not recognized, challenged him to a match, stating "I'll kick your ass", only to suffer an embarrassing loss to Franken. Simmons responded by calling for another match, and when Franken indicated that since his racquetball partner had arrived, he couldn't play Simmons again, Simmons responded by making loud "boc, boc, boc" chicken sounds. Franken then offered to play Simmons with $500 at stake, at which point Simmons walked away.[9] Franken told Gross not to blame herself for her experience with Simmons, and that Simmons' behavior at the racquetball club made him "the most awful person I've ever met."
In 2004, during an interview in Melbourne, Australia, Simmons described Islam as a "vile culture" wherein women had fewer rights than dogs. He described Islam as a threat, claiming that they wanted to leave the Middle East and supplant non-Muslims in other parts of the world by force. The Muslim community took offense, with Australian Muslim of the Year, Susan Carland, asserting that Simmons' stereotyping of Muslims was inaccurate and that she never walked behind her husband as Simmons stated all Muslim women were required to do.[10] He later said on his website that he was talking specifically about Muslim extremists.
In 2005, Simmons was sued by a former lover, Georgeann Walsh Ward, who alleged that she had been "defamed" in the VH1 documentary When Kiss Ruled the World, which she claimed portrayed her as an "unchaste woman" and implied that she had been merely a band groupie rather than a committed girlfriend of Simmons. Ward insisted that she had been involved in an "exclusive monogamous relationship" with Simmons since before Kiss was formed.[11] The suit was settled as of June 29, 2006.[12]
In June 2008, in an interview with AOL News, Simmons blamed those who upload and download copyrighted music for the hard times that the music industry is experiencing. Simmons was quoted as saying: "The record industry is dead. It's six feet underground and unfortunately the fans have done this. They've decided to download and file share. There is no record industry around so we're going to wait until everybody settles down and becomes civilized. As soon as the record industry pops its head up we'll record new material." This is not the first time that Simmons has blamed those who upload and download copyrighted music for the falling fortunes of the music industry. In a November 2007 interview, he is quoted as saying that "Every little college kid, every freshly-scrubbed little kid's face should have been sued off the face of the earth."[13]
In 2008, a video on the Internet surfaced which purported to be Simmons engaging in sexual activity with an unnamed woman. Simmons later stated that the tape was recorded without his consent or knowledge and that his legal team was pursuing legal options.[14]
Simmons debated Bob Lefsetz in a heated exchange at Canadian Music Week in March 2009 about Simmons Records and the music industry generally. Both men had engaged in a controversial e-mail campaign against each other shortly before the debate.[15][16]
In July 2009, Simmons made controversial remarks about Michael Jackson following the pop icon's passing the previous month that the children who accused him of molestation should be heard as well. The Kiss frontman also referred to Jackson as "sick"[4].
Simmons also contends that he has "never been high, drunk, or smoked in [his] life".[17] (However, in Kiss: Behind the Mask, former Kiss drummer Peter Criss states, "It was dirty of us, but we just wanted to get Gene high [...] Someone made hash brownies [...] And he ate 'em."[18] Simmons also refers to this incident (although he does not explicitly mention that the brownies contained marijuana) in his biography, KISS and Make-up.[19])
Film and television work
Simmons has been the creative force behind such television projects such as:
Mr. Romance, a show created and hosted by Simmons on the Oxygen cable television channel.
Rock School, a reality show in which Simmons tries to make a rock band out of a group of children trained in classical music in the first season, and in the second, a group of kids from a comprehensive school in Lowestoft.
In 2007, he appeared alongside other celebrities, as well as regular people, in the music video for "Rockstar" by Nickelback.
Video game appearances
Gene Simmons is a playable character in Tony Hawk's Underground, unlocked when completing the story mode on Normal difficulty, and also appears with his Kiss bandmates in the Hotter Than Hell level to play one of three songs upon collecting the four K-I-S-S letters.
