Gene Simmons helped make KISS what they are known for today. The bassist long had a knack for larger-than-life characters. An early love of comic books made sure of that. As he grew up, he became a character out of one of those books, transforming into “The Demon”. In honor of his birthday, let’s trek a course from Simmons’ journey from immigrant to rock legend.
From Chaim Witz to Gene Simmons
Simmons first caught the music bug after watching The Beatles take the world by storm. “If I go start a band, maybe the girls will scream at me,” he once said. But, long before he could chase that dream, Simmons was just about as far away from KISS as he could be.
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Born Chaim Witz in Haifa, Israel, Simmons was the son of a Hungarian Holocaust survivor. His mother, Flora, raised him alone after her marriage went south shortly after the bassist was born. The pair immigrated to the U.S. in 1958 and lived with family in New York. It was after they moved to the U.S. that Chaim became Gene and Witz became Simmons, for ease in transitioning into a new culture.
After transferring from a religious school to a public one, Simmons really started down a musical path. He started a fledgling band, The Missing Links, which gave him his first taste of stardom, albeit on a much smaller scale than what KISS would offer him.
KISS
Music wasn’t a straight-line path for Simmons. Even after he met Paul Stanley, it would be a while before the band took off. Simmons and Stanley met while playing in an outfit called Wicked Lester. While that band didn’t earn them name recognition, it was uber-important to the groundwork for Simmons and Stanley’s much more famous effort.
Though they turned some heads, it wasn’t enough to let Simmons do music full time. Instead, he earned perhaps the most diverse list of odd jobs of any rocker, including teaching, working as an assistant at Glamour, and more.
They finally gained traction when they reached out to Electric Lady Studios. With that studio time intact, they earned a short-lived record deal with Epic that eventually fell apart before a single album was released. Again, speaking to the band’s tenacity, they didn’t let the dissolution of that record deal get in their way. This redirection earned them Peter Criss and Paul “Ace” Frehley, rounding out KISS’s lineup.
Gene Simmons’ New Look
If you’ve ever looked at KISS and thought “What an amazing gimmick,” you have Simmons to thank. The bassist let his love of comic books influence the band’s iconic look. With their shocking stage presence intact, Simmons even gave himself a supervillain-esque name, “The Demon”. He rounded out that persona by “breathing fire” and various other shock rock stunts on stage.
KISS arrived right on time. The late 1970s and early 1980s would prove to be a formidable time for rock. The visuals were uber important, and KISS certainly delivered on that front. This, their anthemic musicality, and many other clever marketing schemes turned them into some of the biggest hard rockers ever.
By 1975, KISS had earned their first big single, “Rock And Roll All Nite,” and were an unstoppable force in rock music. It took them a while to achieve that success, but once they did, they never really slowed down.
Simmons remained a constant in KISS until their retirement in 2023. They experienced several lineup changes throughout their career, including the departures of Criss and Frehley at various points.
Legacy
KISS has a strong legacy. While some see KISS as marketing geniuses who aren’t as authentic as some of their hard rock peers, their success speaks for itself. It’s certainly true that KISS wasn’t afraid to appease fans with merch and other ploys, but the talent was there.
They had both style and substance, leaving a massive hole in rock when they decided to put down the eyeliner in 2023. Simmons remains a pivotal part of that legacy, representing a generation of rockers who no longer exist in the genre’s modern evolution.
(Photo by Hannah Foslien/Getty Images for The Children Matter)
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