Gene Simmons biography
Gene Simmons history
Gene Simmons facts
Gene Simmons video clips
Gene Simmons photos
Gene Simmons story
Gene Simmons discography
Gene Simmons photographs
Gene Simmons bio
Gene Simmons info
Gene Simmons curious
Gene Simmons images
Gene Simmons quotes
Gene Simmons films
Gene Simmons filmography

[h3]Gene Simmons was born in Israel under the birth name of Chaim Witz. His parents were of Hungarian-Jewish origin, and his mother was the only member of her family to survive the Holocaust. [/h3]

In 1957, when he was 9 years old, his mother emigrated to New York City after his father, Feri Witz abandoned the family in Israel. She also changed her son’s name to Gene Klein, in order to make it sound more American.

Gene didn’t speak much English when he arrived in the United States, and sought to expand his vocabulary by watching television and reading comics, such as Superman and the heroic marvel comics. He even once published his own comic fanzine. Gene later developed a fascination for horror and science fiction, and claims that Lon Chaney Sr. is one of his favourite actors.

During Gene’s schoolboy days in the 1960s, [urlnew=http://www.thebiographychannel.co.uk/biography_home/1515:0/The_Beatles.htm]Beatlemania[/urlnew] was sweeping the globe and the newfound superstardom of the Fab Four inspired young Gene’s first dreams of becoming a rock star.

In 1967, Gene’s mother presented him with his first guitar, and he promptly set about acquiring the musical skills that would help him realise his dreams.

The first garage band that Simmons played with as a teenager was called Lynx - later renamed as The Missing Links. As time went by, he disbanded The Missing Links and formed a new group called The Long Island Sounds when he was a high school student.

After leaving high school, Simmons enrolled at Sullivan County Community College, and gained a Bachelor’s Degree in Education. By night, he kept his dreams of rock and roll fame alive by playing in a new group called Bulldog Bheer, who succeeded in making a demo called “Leeta”.

Interestingly, “Leeta” was eventually released on the KISS box set in demo form. Around this time, Gene also played in the folk duo, Coffee.

>>>

After graduating, Gene had a variety of “day jobs”. He worked in a school in Spanish Harlem for a while, and even did a stint as personal assistant to the editor of Vogue. All these jobs, however, were really just “marking time” until fate took a hand, and he met Paul Stanley. The two musicians initially formed a band called Wicked Lester and recorded one album, which was never released.

After a few unsuccessful attempts, Simmons became dissatisfied with Wicked Lester’s sound and image. He and Stanley quit Wicked Lester and began looking around for some new musicians to play with. Eventually they teamed up with drummer Peter Criscuola and leader guitarist Paul Frehley (later dubbed Peter Criss and Ace Frehley, respectively) - and so the band which would later become known as the rock legend Kiss finally came together in 1973.

It was around this time that Gene changed his name once again, from Gene Klein to Gene Simmons…

One of the unique trademarks of Kiss is their dramatic stage make-up, which - in Gene’s case at least - was clearly inspired by his lifelong interest in horror comics and cartoons.

Gene soon created an on-stage persona which he nicknamed “The Demon” - and took to the stage wearing stylised armour and spiky platform boots, with his face vividly painted like a clown in striking black and white patterns, which have at times been likened to Japanese Kabuki stage make-up.

He continued the “horror” theme by incorporating copious amounts of fake blood into his stage act - and would also heighten the drama by breathing real fire!

Determined to capitalise on their newfound success, Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley bombarded the leading media and television producers of the day with invitations to their shows, and soon succeeded in persuading top Madison Avenue producer Bill Aucoin to become their manager.

Aucoin landed a deal with the newly created label Casablanca Records soon after signing the band, and their debut album, “Kiss” was released in February 1974. Two further albums followed in rapid succession, and reinforced the band’s success with their growing army of new fans.

As Gene Simmons might put it, “the rest is KISSstory”….Since that first album was released in 1974, the band have sold over 80 million records, and played over 2,000 shows.

>>>

Astonishingly, the band have continued to perform to the present day, with Gene Simmons as lead singer and bass guitarist on stage, as well as being the driving force behind the phenomenal Kiss merchandising empire behind the scenes.

The survival of the band is due in no small part to Simmons’s impressive business acumen, and shrewd sense of trends and timing. The key to the reason why Kiss remained so active throughout the 80s and 90 lies simply in their ability to generate renewed public interest and attention whenever their record sales started to fall.

In 1983, for instance, Simmons hit upon the clever ploy of having the band re-invent themselves by removing their make-up and revealing their true faces for the first time - just as they appear on the cover of the album of that same year “Lick It Up”. This gave the band a whole new lease of life. In due course, they re-applied their stage make-up several years later in 1996 - which helped Kiss to sell their dramatic rock’n’roll stage image to a whole new generation of fans!

It’s worth noting that the band have continued to wear their make-up on stage until the present day, and it’s become one of their classic trademarks - along with Gene Simmons’ own axe-shaped guitar, which he personally invented.

This skill at maintaining public interest has made Kiss America’s Number One record award winning group of all time - a position that they show no sign of yielding at the present time.

Simmons also recorded an album as a solo performer, called simply “Gene Simmons” in 1978 - but this has done nothing to undermine the success of Kiss - indeed, quite the opposite, thanks to Simmons’ colourful, charismatic stage persona.

Having firmly established Kiss as a global rock phenomenon, Gene Simmons then turned his attention to other areas of the media and performing arts. Ever keen to take on new challenges, he got bitten by the acting bug, and from the late 1970s onwards, he began to appear regularly on both film and television.

He made his feature film debut as his alter ego (The Demon from KISS) in the 1978 television movie, KISS Meets the Phantom of The Park. The film was lambasted by the critics, but the Kiss fans loved it - and it grossed substantial box office revenues all over the world.

>>>

The next time Simmons appeared in front of the film cameras in 1983, he played an evil techno-junkie psychopath (without make-up this time!) doing battle with Tom Selleck in the thriller “Runaway”. Since the 1980s, Simmons has continued to appear in numerous roles in Bo-movie thrillers, such as “”Wanted, Dead or Alive” (1987) and “Red Surf” (1990). He is in continuing demand with casting directors, no doubt thanks to his ability to glare and conjure up an appearance that’s truly scary!

Gene Simmons is no stranger to the small screen either, and has appeared in many minor guest roles in various TV crime shows, including “Millennium”, “Miami Vice” and “Third Watch”.

In addition to his recording career and acting work, Gene Simmons has also branched out into other aspects of the entertainment industry. In the late 1970s, he attempted to promotion an early version of the band Van Halen, but this proved to be unsuccessful. Although Gene did produce the demo disc that finally secured Van Halen their breakthrough recording contract, with Warner Brothers Records. Around the same time, Simmons also attempted to start his own record label, $immons Records - which, again proved unsuccessful at the time - although he’s recently tried to resurrect this venture, and it remains to be seen whether he’ll be successful this time around.

Simmons has made other ventures into managing other artists, including singer and former girlfriend Liza Minnelli, and also produced for Wendy O. Williams, another former girlfriend. In 1988, he produced EZO, the first and self-titled album for EZO, a Japanese band who had become famous in Japan under the name “Flatbacker”. Simmons continued to work as producer during the 1990s too, and produced an album for the artist Doro Pesch, called “Doro”.

In addition to his multi-media career, Gene Simmons is also renowned for being one of the most colourful, outspoken and controversial personalities in show business today. He is well known for his tough stance on drug-taking, for which he has zero tolerance. Gene claims that he himself has never smoked or taken drugs, and he is a strict teetotaller. He has also made it a condition for anyone joining his record label, $immons records that they do not take drugs either - the legal implication of this clause being that if any of his artists were arrested for using drugs, they could also be sued by him for breach of contract!

>>>

Working in conjunction with his long-time business partner Rich Abramson, under the name of Simmons Abramson Marketing, they have secured Pepsi Cola and Coca Cola commercials featuring Kiss. In addition, Kiss Coca Cola put Gene’s face on their drinks bottles in France. He is impressively adept at public relations, with the result that there are now Kiss Holiday Inn commercials, Kiss Cannon cameras on sale in Japan, Kiss Visa cards, and even a U.S. postage stamp bearing Gene Simmons’ face! KISS has been described as the “juggernaut of merchandising”, with over 2,500 licenses granted throughout the world.

Gene Simmons’ sex life has always been of great interest to the media, however, for he is legendary for his womanising lifestyle, and claims to have slept with over 4,600 women! As well as Liza Minnelli and Wendy O. Williams, his past girlfriends have included Cher, actress Liv Ullman, Diana Ross, Jessica Hahn and radio host Robin Quivers. In 2005, he was sued by a former lover, Georgann Walsh Ward, who alleged that she had been “defamed” in the VH1 documentary, “When KISS Ruled the World”, where she claimed she had been portrayed as an “unchaste woman” and portrayed as a band groupie, rather than a committed girlfriend of Gene Simmons.

Simmons is reputed to be opposed to the concept of marriage, but has a son (Nicholas, born in 1989) and a daughter (Sophie, born in 1992) by his long-time girlfriend, model and actress Shannon Tweed, with whom he lives in Beverly Hills.

It’s hard to predict where Gene Simmons will focus his prodigious energies next, but most recently, he’s been working hard in the fields of TV acting and production. In 2005, he made a reality show called “Rock School”, where he treated a group of English schoolchildren trained in classical music to his own rock’n’roll “boot camp”, with fascinating results. In the second follow-up series, Simmons carried out the same exercise with a group of kids from a tough comprehensive school.

He was also executive producer of a Nickelodeon cartoon series, My Dad The Rock Star, and created the TV show, Mr Romance for the Oxygen cable television channel. Gene’s latest reality TV venture is called “Gene Simmons Family Jewels”, which is somewhat reminiscent of “The Osbournes”: in this series, TV cameras follow Simmons and his family around, to document their everyday life. He has also appeared in three episodes of “Family Guy”, playing himself!

During the 00s, Gene Simmons has continued to be phenomenally active as a businessman and media personality. He created his own line of clothing, called “Dragonfly”, and has also turned his attention to writing and publishing, as well as promoting his second solo album, “Asshole“, his first solo venture in over a quarter of a century. He started his own publishing company, Simmons Books, which published his LA Times best-seller, “Sex. Money, KISS”, and Simmons Audio Visual, which released his “Speaking in Tongues” Lecture Tour of Australia. He has also published his own magazine, “Gene Simmons Tongue”.

Last but not least, he was inducted into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame on October 15th 2006 - a suitable accolade for such a multi-talented and prodigiously productive performer!
Gene Simmons biography



- Gene Simmons has a degree in Education, and before forming Kiss, he was an elementary school teacher.


- Is the designer of the axe-shaped bass guitar.

- He speaks five languages, including Hebrew and Japanese.

- Has never drunk alcohol, used drugs or smoked tobacco.

- His tongue has been measured at over seven inches long.

- He is one of the top fire-breathers in the world, and can breathe flames of 15feet.

- Launched his own fashion label, “Dragonfly” in 2002.

- Published his own magazine, “Gene Simmons’ Tongue”.

- There is a Kiss tribute band in Seattle called “Gene’s Addiction”

- He claims to have slept with over 4,600 women.

- He once considered becoming a rabbi.

- There is actually a Gene Simmons US postage stamp!

- Coca Cola put Gene’s face on their bottles in France!

- Kiss has been America’s Number One gold record award winning group of all time (RAA).

Gene Simmons biography



1978 Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park

1984 Miami Vice (TV episode)

1984 Runaway

1988 The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years

1986 Never Too Young To Die

1986 Trick Or Treat

1987 Wanted: Dead Or Alive

1990 Red Surf

1999 Detroit Rock City

2000 Wish You Were Dead

2002 The New Guy

2004 Be Cool

2004 Rock School (TV series)

2004 My Dad The Rock Star (Cartoon)

2005 Gene Simmons Family Jewels

Gene Simmons biography



1973 Kiss

1974 Hotter Than Hell

1975 Dressed To Kill

1975 Alive!

1976 Rock and Roll Over

1977 Alive II

1978 Kiss: Double Platinum

1978 Best of Solo

1978 Gene Simmons

1979 Dynasty

1980 Unmasked

1981 Music From The Elder

1982 Killers

1982 Creatures Of The Night

1983 Lick It Up

1984 Animalize

1985 Asylum

1987 Crazy Nights

1987 Smashes Thrashes and Hits

1989 Hot in The Shade

1992 Revenge

1993 Alive III

1995 MTV Unplugged

1995 Kiss My Ass

1996 You Wanted The Best You Got The Best

1997 Carnival of Souls

1997 Greatest Kiss

1998 Psycho Circus

2001 Kiss: The Box Set

2002 The Very Best Of Kiss

2003 Kiss Symphony: Alive IV

2003: C20th Masters: Millennium Collection, Volume 1

2004 C20th Masters: Millennium Collection, Volume 2

2004 Kiss: Rock The Nation

2005 Kiss Gold

2006 Kissology (DVD)

Hollywood Justice: Sean Penn Sat 30th Aug - 1:30PM

Tina Turner: One Last Time Live In Concert Sat 30th Aug - 9:00PM

Diana Sat 30th Aug - 6:00PM