Gene Simmons

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For the actress, see Jean Simmons. For the rockabilly singer, see Jumpin' Gene Simmons.

Gene Simmons
Born	August 25, 1949 (age 57) Haifa, Israel
Genre(s)	Hard rock
Affiliation(s)	KISS
Years active	1970—
Official site	[1]

Gene Simmons (born Chaim Witz August 25, 1949) is the performer and entertainment mogul best known as "The Demon", his blood-spitting, fire-breathing, tongue-wagging personality in the rock band KISS. He plays bass guitar and sings vocals.

1 Biography
2 Television
3 Music industry production
4 Controversy
5 Trivia
6 Solo albums
7 DVD
8 Further reading
9 References
10 External links

[edit] Biography

Born in Haifa, Israel, Simmons immigrated to New York City in 1957 with his mother Flora Klein—a Jewish Hungarian immigrant and the only member of her family to survive the Holocaust—after his father, Feri Witz, abandoned his family. His mother had worked two jobs to make ends meet, and her absence due to working left some emotional scarring that Gene has shared in Family Jewels (a reality-based television program on the US network A&E) and his desire to be rich ensues. Flora took her eight year old son Gene to America, ‘The Land Of Opportunity’. Flora wanted success for her new only child as his life would need to be lived in place of those who had perished in the camps. Part of the boy’s empowerment came from his mother’s intense belief in him.

After arriving in the U.S., he took the name Gene Klein (Klein having been his mother's maiden name). In the late 1960s, he changed his name again, to Gene Simmons, as he felt that "Gene Klein" did not have enough of a ring to it. He has cited Lon Chaney Sr. as one of his favorite actors.^[1]

Simmons became involved with his first band, Lynx, then renamed The Missing Links, when he was a teenager. As time went on he disbanded The Missing Links to form the Long Island Sounds. While he played in these bands, he kept up odd jobs on the side to make more money including making fanzines and buying used comic books. Gene then attended Sullivan County Community College in Fallsburg, New York. He then joined a new band Bullfrog Beer, the band made a demo, "Leeta", which was eventually released on the KISS box set in demo form.

Simmons formed the rock band Wicked Lester in the early 1970s with Stanley 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 went looking for other musicians and eventually joined up with drummer Peter Criscuola and lead guitarist Paul Frehley — who would become Peter Criss and Ace Frehley, respectively. When Simmons and Stanley's attempts to fire their old band members met with resistance, they simply quit Wicked Lester, walking away from their record deal with Epic Records. They formed a new band with Criss and Frehley, which they soon dubbed KISS. KISS released their first self-titled debut album in February 1974 and have continued to perform to this present day, with Stanley as lead performer on stage and Simmons being the driving force behind the extensive Kiss merchandising franchise. Since their 1974 debut, KISS has undergone numerous line up changes, with Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons being the only two consistent members. In 1983, while KISS's fame was waning, they took off their trademark make-up and enjoyed a resurgance of popularity throughout the 1980s into the 1990s. In 1996 the original line up of Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Ace Frehley, and Peter Criss reformed and went on a reunion tour. It was the most successful tour of 1996. They also released Psycho Circus, their first new album in almost 20 years with the original line up in 1998. Since then, the original line up has once again dissolved, with Ace Frehley and Peter Criss being replaced by Tommy Thayer on lead guitar and Eric Singer (who performed with KISS from 1992 up through 1996) on drums.

Simmons currently lives in Beverly Hills, California with former adult film star Shannon Tweed, his longtime partner (Gene opposes getting married). They have two children: a son, Nicholas (b. 22 January 1989), and a daughter, Sophie (b. 7 July 1992). They appear with him on their reality show Family Jewels on A&E.

[edit] Television

Simmons has been the creative force behind such television projects as:

My Dad The Rock Star, a cartoon by the Canadian animation company Nelvana, about the mild mannered son of a Gene Simmons-like rock star.

Mr. Romance, a show created and hosted by Simmons on the Oxygen cable television channel.

Rock School, a reality show in which Gene 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 'tough' comprehensive school. Rock School was aired on Channel 4 in the UK, Channel Ten in Australia, TVNZ's TV2 in New Zealand, VH-1 in the United States,Nelonen in Finland, TV4 in Sweden and Much Music in Canada.

Gene Simmons Family Jewels, another reality show for A&E which debuted on August 7, 2006. The premise is essentially the same as The Osbournes, with cameras following Simmons and his family around to document their home life. It has been released on DVD in two editions.

Gene Simmons in a scene from the TV-series Rock School.

Simmons and the rest of KISS appeared in an episode of Action League Now as toy versions of themselves performing the song "Rock and Roll All Nite".

Simmons has also appeared on three episodes of Family Guy as himself. In one episode, Peter Griffin takes his wife Lois to a KISS concert gala, and it is revealed that Gene Simmons had a previous sexual relationship with Lois (known then as "Loose Lois") when he was still known as Chaim Witz. In another episode, Simmons is shown starring with the other members of KISS in a Christmas special called KISS Saves Santa. In yet another episode, Simmons performs oral sex (off-camera) on Lois while standing just inside the Griffin's garage, an exaggeration of his trademark tongue length (several feet long in the episode).

Simmons has made guest appearances on TV shows such as Miami Vice, Mind of Mencia, Third Watch, American Idol, and others.

Simmons also appeared in the pilot Sable, which also starred Rene Russo. The pilot was never broadcast, as Simmons could not continue with the show. It went to another actor for six episodes, then never returned. Simmons tried to sell the show as a movie based on the comic, but that also fell through, and he lost the rights to make a theatrical film.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Music industry production

He produced some albums for some bands during the '80s and '90s. Some of those artists include:

Doro Pesch - In her album called "Doro" in 1991;
EZO - A Japanese band which achieved fame in Japan as Flatbacker. Simmons brought them to North American show business, changing their name to "EZO". He produced their first and self titled album as EZO, in 1988.
Wendy O. Williams - Gene produced her W.O.W. album in 1984, and enlisted fellow KISS members Paul Stanley, Ace Frehley, Eric Carr and Vinnie Vincent to perform on it as well.

[edit] Controversy

A February 4, 2002 interview on the NPR radio show Fresh Air with Terry Gross, Gene Simmons said to Gross, "If you want to welcome me with open arms, I'm afraid you're also going to have to welcome me with open legs," to which 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 station's website. However, the interview appears in Gross's book All I Did Was Ask (ISBN 1401300103), and some unauthorized transcripts are also available.^[2]

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.^[3] The suit was settled as of June 29, 2006.^[4]

[edit] Trivia

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He was inducted into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame on October 15, 2006 along with fellow KISS members Paul Stanley and Ace Frehley.

One of Simmons' trademarks is his long tongue which he often sticks out during concerts. Due to its unusual length, Simmons has long been the subject of an urban legend that he had a cow's tongue surgically grafted onto his. Simmons has denied this and simply says that he has a long tongue.

Simmons sent a video recording in August 2006 to an Israeli soldier severely wounded in combat in Lebanon, praising him as his hero. Simmons spoke in "confident Hebrew" at one point during the video, according to Associated Press.^[5]

According to Simmons' biography, Simmons himself insisted there be a clause inserted into every contract bands and artists signed when they joined $immons Records, expressly forbidding recreational drug use and possession. From a legal standpoint, this meant that, should an artist or band member be arrested on drug charges, they could also be sued for breach of contract.

Simmons claims that he has never drunk alcohol or taken drugs with the exception of one incident, that was described in his book KISS and Make Up, when he was tricked into eating pot brownies that were made for Peter's birthday.

Simmons has sued King Diamond for having the same make-up he had.

On New Year’s Eve 1973 in New York City, Simmons attempted to breathe fire onstage for the first time. Toward the end of “Firehouse,” Simmons filled his mouth with kerosene and blew a large fireball, which set his hair sprayed head ablaze. A roadie used a wet towel to extinguish the flames. Simmons repeated the mishap another half-dozen or so times in his career.^[6]