Gene Simmons
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Gene Simmons | |
|---|---|
| Image:Gene Simmons.jpg | |
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Chaim Witz |
| Born | August 25 1949 |
| Origin | Haifa, Israel |
| Genre(s) | Hard rock. Heavy metal |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, Singer, Songwriter and Actor |
| Instrument(s) | Bass, Guitar, Vocals, Piano and Drums |
| Years active | 1970—present |
| Associated acts | Kiss Wicked Lester |
| Website | Official Gene Simmons Website |
Gene Simmons (born Chaim Witz on August 25, 1949) is an Israeli-born American hard rock bass guitarist and vocalist. He is best known as "The Demon", his blood-spitting, fire-breathing, and tongue-wagging persona in the hard rock band Kiss, an act which he co-founded in the early 1970s.
Contents |
[edit] Biography
Simmons was born in Israel, and at the age of eight he immigrated to New York City, United States[1], with his mother Florence Klein—a Jewish Hungarian immigrant and the only member of her family to survive the Holocaust. His father, Feri Witz, had abandoned his family years earlier. When Simmons was young, (as he has discussed on Gene Simmons Family Jewels, a reality-based television program on the American cable network A&E), his mother's long absences while working two jobs in order to make ends meet left emotional scars which left him with a strong desire for wealth. After arriving in the U.S., he took the name Eugene Klein (later Gene Klein, Klein being his mother's maiden name). In the late-1960s, he changed his name again, to Gene Simmons.
Simmons became involved with his first band, Lynx, then renamed The Missing Links, when he was a teenager. Eventually 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. Simmons then attended Sullivan County Community College in Loch Sheldrake, New York. He then joined a new band Bullfrog Beer, and 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 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 sought out other musicians and eventually joined up with drummer George Peter John Criscuola and lead guitarist Paul Daniel Frehley — who would become Peter Criss and Ace Frehley, respectively.
When Simmons and Stanley attempted to fire their old band members, they 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 Criscuola, who was playing clubs in Brooklyn at the time; they joined and started out as a trio. Paul 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 and has continued to perform, with Stanley as lead performer on stage and Simmons being the driving force behind the extensive Kiss merchandising franchise. Since its 1974 debut, Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons have remained consistent in the band as Kiss underwent numerous line-up changes.
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 reunited influenced the highly successful 1996-1997 Alive Worldwide reunion tour. In 1998, the band released Psycho Circus, its 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.
Simmons currently lives in Beverly Hills, California with longtime partner and former Playboy Playmate Shannon Tweed (they are not married). They have two children: a son, Nicholas (born 22 January 1989), and a daughter, Sophie (born 7 July 1992). They appear with him on their reality show Gene Simmons Family Jewels on A&E.
[edit] Film and television
Simmons has been the creative force behind such television projects such 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 and Latin America,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.
- 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 (to which Peter proudly proclaims "My wife did Kiss!") 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) and his highly sexual persona.
- Simmons also appeared in the Penelope Spheeris' 1988 rockumentary The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years. [1]
- Simmons has made guest appearances on TV shows such as Miami Vice, Mind of Mencia, Third Watch, American Idol, and others.
- Simmons co-starred as evil electronics genius Dr.Charles Luther in the 1984 movie Runaway opposite Tom Selleck, Cynthia Rhodes and Kirstie Alley.
- Simmons had a small part in the 1986 horror film Trick or Treat, where he played a radio DJ named Nuke. Ozzy Osbourne also appeared in the film as a televangelist decrying the evils of heavy metal music.
- Simmons played the part of a villainous drag queen named Velvet Von Ragner in the 1986 film "Never Too Young To Die"
- Simmons also co-starred as the Islamic terrorist Malak Al Rahim in the 1987 Rutger Hauer movie Wanted: Dead or Alive.
- Simmons also co-starred with other bandmates in the 1978 TV movie Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park.
- Simmons is a candidate on The Celebrity Apprentice, with Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation being the charity he is playing for.
[edit] Music industry production
- KEEL - the 1980s albums The Right To Rock and The Final Frontier by the hard rock band fronted by Ron Keel
- 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.
- Black N Blue - He produced their albums Nasty Nasty (1986) and In Heat (1988) featuring future Kiss guitarist Tommy Thayer.
- 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.
- Silent Rage - produced Don't Touch Me There (1989) cd with Paul Sabu; released on Simmons' own Simmons Records.
- House of Lords - Executive producer of their 1990 cd Sahara; their self-titled debut and Sahara were released on Simmons Records.
- Doro Pesch - In her album called Doro in 1991.
[edit] Guest appearances
- In 2007, Gene Simmons appeared alongside other celebrities and regular people in the music video for Rockstar by Nickelback.
[edit] Controversy
- A February 4, 2002 interview on the NPR radio show Fresh Air with Terry Gross, Gene 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 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] A part of the interview was re-broadcast on Fresh Air on Aug 31, 2007. [3].
- In a later Fresh Air interview, satirist Al 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 responds by calling for another match and when Franken indicates that since his racquetball partner has arrived, he can't play Simmons again, Simmons responds by making loud "bock, bock, bock" chicken sounds. Franken then offers to play Simmons with $500 at stake, at which Simmons walks away.[4][5] Franken tells Terry not to blame herself for her experience with Simmons, and that Simmons' behavior at the racquetball 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 literally had fewer rights than dogs. He described Muslims 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. He later said on his website that he was specifically talking about extremist muslims.[6]
- 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. This allegation was not unusual, as Gene Simmons defines his very identity by the degree of his flagrant promiscuity. Ward insisted that she had been involved in an "exclusive monogamous relationship" with Simmons since before Kiss was formed.[7] The suit was settled as of June 29, 2006.[8]
[edit] Solo albums
- Gene Simmons (1978)
- Sex Money Kiss (audiobook CD, 2003)
- Asshole (2004)
- Speaking in Tongues (spoken word CD, 2004)
- Gene Simmons "Monster" Box Set (expected 2007)
- Naji (TBA)
[edit] DVD
- Speaking In Tongues]] 2004
- Gene Simmons Family Jewels DVD box set 2006
- My Dad the Rock Star
[edit] References
- ^ http://www.genesimmons.com/bio2.html
- ^ See here for an MP3 recording of the Simmons interview.
- ^ http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14081542
- ^ http://www.alfrankenweb.com/gross.html
- ^ http://blogcritics.org/archives/2003/10/08/173218.php
- ^ http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/05/14/1084289868279.html
- ^ http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1131640457086
- ^ http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,201436,00.html
[edit] Further reading
- Kiss and Make-Up, Gene Simmons (ISBN 0-609-81002-2)
- Sex Money Kiss, Gene Simmons (ISBN 1-893224-86-4)
- Kiss: The Early Years, Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley (ISBN 0-609-81028-6)
[edit] External links
- GeneSimmons.com, Simmons' official website
- Gene Simmons at the Internet Movie Database
- 2007 Gene Simmons Interview with AllHipHop.com
- Almost Human
- Interview with Gene Simmons
- Audio - February 4, 2002 interview by Terry Gross with Gene Simmons on Fresh Air: Part 1 • Part 2 • Part 3 • Part 4
- Simmons Interview on The Hour with George Stroumboulopoulos
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Categories: 1949 births | Living people | American bloggers | Kiss members | Naturalized citizens of the United States | Participants in American reality television series | American actor-singers | American heavy metal bass guitarists | Israeli musicians | Israeli-Americans | Israeli Jews | American Jews | Jewish American musicians | American singers | Jewish musicians | American heavy metal singers | Science fiction fans
