Gene Simmons
Gene Simmons, also known by his stage persona "the Demon", is an Israeli-American musician. He was the bassist and co-lead singer of the hard rock band Kiss, which he co-founded with Paul Stanley, Ace Frehley, and Peter Criss in 1973. Simmons, alongside Stanley, remained a constant member of the band until their dissolution in 2023. Simmons is also known for his long tongue and for his reality television show, Gene Simmons Family Jewels, which aired from 2006 to 2012. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2014 as a member of Kiss.
Early life and education
Simmons was born Chaim Witz on August 25, 1949 in Haifa, Israel to Jewish refugees from Hungary. His mother, Flóra Kovács , was born in Jánd in the Northern Great Plain region of eastern Hungary. She survived internment in Nazi concentration camps from November 1944 to her liberation from the Mauthausen camp in Austria on May 5, 1945. She and her brother, Larry Klein, were the only members of the family to survive the Holocaust. Witz's father, Ferenc "Feri" Yehiel Witz, was a carpenter whom Klein married in 1946; the couple moved to Mandatory Palestine the following year.Witz spent his early childhood in Tirat Carmel and was raised in a practicing Jewish household. He has said that his family was "dirt poor", scraping by on rationed bread and milk. At the age of seven, he began to pick wild fruit and sell it on roadsides together with a friend.
At age eight, after his parents’ divorce, Witz and his mother immigrated to the United States, settling in Queens, New York City. His father remained in Israel, where he had another son and three daughters. In the United States, Witz changed his name to Gene Klein, adopting his mother's maiden name. When he was nine, he briefly attended a Jewish religious school, Yeshiva Torah Vodaas, before transferring to a public school. He graduated from Newtown High School.
Klein attended Sullivan County Community College in New York. He graduated from Richmond College in Staten Island, New York with a BA in Education in 1970.
Career
Before his musical career began, Klein worked a variety of jobs in New York City. A proficient typist, he served as an assistant to an editor of Vogue. He also spent six months as a sixth grade instructor on the Upper West Side.Klein chose his stage name, Gene Simmons, in tribute to the rockabilly singer Jumpin' Gene Simmons. In other interviews, he claimed his stage name was inspired by actress Jean Simmons; he used the title of her 1946 film Great Expectations for a song on the 1976 album Destroyer. He practiced playing his guitar for hours on end.
The Beatles had a significant influence on Simmons. "There is no way I'd be doing what I do now if it wasn't for the Beatles. I was watching The Ed Sullivan Show and I saw them. Those skinny little boys, kind of androgynous, with long hair like girls. It blew me away that these four boys the middle of nowhere could make that music."
Simmons became involved with his first band, Lynx, then renamed the Missing Links, when he was 15 in 1964–65. Eventually, he disbanded the band to form the Long Island Sounds, the name being a pun on the Long Island Sound. In this band was also future Wicked Lester guitarist Steve Coronel, and future lawyer/author Alan Stuart Graf who convinced Simmons to buy his first bass as the band needed a bass player. In 1967, after losing Graf the band morphed into The Love Bag.
From 1968 to 1970, Simmons attended Sullivan County Community College in Loch Sheldrake, New York for two years. He joined a new band, Bullfrog Bheer. The band recorded various home demos including Leeta; this was later included on the Kiss box set. The band existed until 1970 with various line-ups.
Simmons, Coronel, and Brooke Ostrander who was in their 1969 band Coffee formed the rock band first known as Rainbow and later Wicked Lester in the early 1970s with Stanley Eisen. The band recorded one album, which was never released in its entirety. Dissatisfied with Wicked Lester's sound and look, Simmons and Stanley attempted to fire their band members. Met with resistance, they instead quit Wicked Lester, walking away from their record deal with Epic Records as they decided to form the "ultimate rock band" in its place.
Kiss
Kiss was formed in 1973.Looking for a drummer, Simmons and Stanley found an ad placed by George Peter John Criscuola, who was playing clubs in Brooklyn at the time; they joined and started out as a trio.
During this time, Criss and Simmons also appeared on an unreleased album by Captain Sanity together with members from Criss' previous band Chelsea. Paul Frehley responded to an ad they put in The Village Voice for a lead guitar player, and soon joined them. Kiss released their self-titled debut album in February 1974. Stanley took on the role of lead performer on stage, while Simmons became the driving force behind what became an extensive Kiss merchandising franchise. The eye section of his "Demon" makeup with Kiss came from the wing design of comic book character Black Bolt.
In 1983, as Kiss's popularity was starting to fade, the band decided to take off their iconic make-up in a bold move to reinvent themselves. The change paid off, sparking a renewed wave of success that carried through the 1990s. Around this time, original drummer Peter Criss was voted out of the band, and the group began looking for someone new to take his place. The new drummer was Paul Charles Caravello, who went by the stage name of Eric Carr, and played for Kiss from 1980 until his death in 1991. The band hosted its own fan conventions in 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 original lineup was once again dissolved, with Tommy Thayer replacing Ace Frehley on lead guitar and Eric Singer replacing Peter Criss on drums.
Film and television
In 1978, Simmons appeared with Kiss in the NBC made-for-television movie Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park.In 1981, Simmons auditioned at ABC for a role in a new Marcy Carsey-produced show called Grotus and was offered his own TV show, which he declined, as the pay was lower than what he made with Kiss at the time.
After turning down several other theatrical roles, Simmons made his feature film debut in the 1984 Michael Crichton thriller Runaway, starring Tom Selleck, Cynthia Rhodes and Kirstie Alley. In 1985, he appeared on the TV series Miami Vice in an episode titled "The Prodigal Son", the season premiere of the show's second season. In 1986, Simmons, along with Ozzy Osbourne, spoofed "Satanic panic" in the heavy metal-themed horror film Trick or Treat, starring Tony Fields. In 1987, he appeared in the Gary Sherman action film Wanted: Dead or Alive, starring Rutger Hauer.
Simmons created and executive produced the animated series My Dad the Rock Star with Canadian company Nelvana, which aired on Nickelodeon. In 2004, he appeared in the TV series Third Watch, playing a mob drug kingpin in the episodes "Higher Calling" and "Monsters".
In 2005, he created the six-episode comedy/reality series Mr. Romance, which aired on Oxygen. That same year, he created another reality show, Rock School, in which he taught rock music to prep school students at Christ's Hospital School in Great Britain. The following year, he created and starred in the reality show Gene Simmons Family Jewels, chronicling life with his family, including wife Shannon Tweed and their two children, Nick and Sophie. The show aired for seven seasons on the A&E network.
In 2010, Simmons appeared as a psychic working at the Mystic Journey Bookstore in Venice, California on the American hidden camera prank TV series I Get That a Lot. In 2014, he guest-starred as himself in season 14, episode 17, of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.
In March 2015, Simmons founded the film production company Erebus Pictures and announced as the first project the horror-thriller film Armed Response. That same year, he and Kiss appeared in the animated film Scooby-Doo! and Kiss: Rock and Roll Mystery, in which the band supplied their voices and contributed a new song.
In 2022, Simmons became a judge of the talent competition show Yoshiki Superstar Project X, airing on Hulu Japan and produced by Japanese musician and composer Yoshiki. On September 14, 2023, Simmons was one of the guest speakers chosen to introduce Yoshiki at his imprint ceremony at the TCL Chinese Theatre.
In May 2023, Gary Hamilton of Arclight Films announced the creation of a new production company in partnership with Simmons, called Simmons/Hamilton Productions. The company aims to produce 25 films over five years, focusing on action, thriller, and franchise titles. The first title is Deep Water, directed by Finnish filmmaker Renny Harlin, produced by Simmons, Hamilton, Ying Ye, and Rob Van Norden.
In October 2024, Simmons appeared as a guest judge for "Hair Metal Night" on Dancing with the Stars.
Other projects
In 1988, Simmons formed his own record label, Simmons Records, distributed by RCA Records. Their first acquisition was House of Lords, and they went on to release albums by Kobra and the Lotus, Silent Rage and Gypsy Rose, as well as Simmons's own solo releases.Simmons has produced several albums, including WOW by Wendy O. Williams, The Right to Rock and The Final Frontier by Keel, Nasty Nasty by Black 'n Blue and the 1987 self-titled album by Ezo. In 1989, Simmons managed the recording side of Liza Minnelli's entry into mainstream pop. In 1990, he was executive producer of the self-titled album by Doro.
In 2002, Simmons launched Gene Simmons' Tongue, a men's lifestyle magazine. The magazine lasted five issues before being discontinued.
From 2006 to 2008, Simmons served in a marketing and publicity role with the Indy Racing League.
In 2012, Simmons served as the headliner for the Rock 'N' Roll All Stars tour, a high-profile rock supergroup project that brought together an all-star lineup of musicians for a series of stadium performances across South America. The official announcement of the tour and its lineup took place on March 1, 2012, during a press conference held at the historic Roxy Theatre in Hollywood, California. The event was hosted by promoter Gabe Reed and attended by Simmons himself. The tour was chronicled in the final episodes of Gene Simmons Family Jewels.
In August 2013, Simmons, Paul Stanley and manager Doc McGhee became a part of the ownership group that created the Los Angeles Kiss Arena Football League team, which played their home games at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California. The team ceased operations in 2016.
In 2017, Simmons launched "The Vault", a compilation of all of his major works, selling for $2,000.
In 2018, Simmons was named "Chief Evangelist Officer" of the Canadian cannabis company Invictus MD Strategies. He also holds a large investment stake in the company.