Gene Simmons is a rock and roll legend, best known as the charismatic bassist and frontman of KISS. With a larger-than-life persona, theatrical concert style and signature face paint, Simmons and KISS revolutionized rock in the 1970s and 80s. Beyond his musical career, Gene Simmons has leveraged his stage personality into a career as an entrepreneur, appearing on reality television and launching a successful merchandising empire.
00:00:00.000And then one day, I can't remember who, said, hey, let's go downstairs to Woolworth and bought makeup and black lipstick and red lipstick and decided to put on makeup.
00:00:11.000If you ask people on the street, just a close-up of Teddy Roosevelt on the You know, Mount Rushmore.
00:00:32.000It just means that the imagery connected in ways No other band connected.
00:00:38.000Gene Simmons is a rock and roll legend, best known as the charismatic bassist and frontman of KISS. With a larger-than-life persona theatrical concert style and signature face paint, Simmons and KISS revolutionized rock in the 1970s and 80s with hits like I Was Made For Lovin' You and Rock and Roll All Night.
00:00:53.000Born in Haifa, Israel, Simmons immigrated to New York City with his mother as a young boy and was inspired to become a performer after seeing The Beatles appear on The Ed Sullivan Show.
00:01:00.000With a knack for marketing and a love of music, Simmons created his demon persona to make Kiss a massive success.
00:01:05.00044 albums later and at 100 million records sold, the band just finished their farewell tour in 2023.
00:01:10.000Beyond his musical career, Gene Simmons has leveraged his stage personality into a career as an entrepreneur, appearing on reality television and launching a successful merchandising empire.
00:01:19.000In today's episode, Gene tells the story of his family's persecution and immigration to the United States, how his upbringing shaped his personal philosophy, and his journey to becoming an iconic rock star.
00:01:27.000He also shares the reason for his deep American patriotism as well as a few hard-learned lessons about love.
00:01:33.000Gene Simmons' impact on American music and culture is undeniable.
00:01:36.000Don't miss the legendary Gene Simmons on this episode of the Sunday Special.
00:01:39.000Gene Simmons, thanks so much for stopping by.
00:01:54.000You're actually better looking than I thought you were.
00:01:57.000Wow, I didn't think that was even possible.
00:01:59.000Since, as everyone knows, I'm just like a godlike specimen.
00:02:03.000Well, as we both know, these are semantics, but I'm not anti-semantic.
00:02:10.000Okay, so I want to begin with sort of your recent foray into anti-woke politics.
00:02:16.000You've been speaking out pretty openly about the evils of wokeism and the extreme left.
00:02:23.000You sort of consider yourself a political centrist, is that right?
00:02:25.000Well, I think it's fair to say that I'm completely unqualified in the body politic, especially worldwide body politic, because our perceptions, perhaps yours, mine, and The rest of the populace is based on what we see, hear, and feel emotionally from social media.
00:02:47.000Having said that, why anybody would care what I have to say about anything other than the fact that I stick my tongue out for a living?
00:02:56.000By the way, I would have done that for you right away, but the floor is a little dirty.
00:03:01.000So I think it's fair to say that the powerful and attractive man you see before you Votes on issues rather than political parties or personalities.
00:03:16.000So, by the way, some of the things you've said I completely disagree with, and other things just make sense to me.
00:03:25.000And that's what I highly recommend to the rest of the populace of this third stone from the sun.
00:03:32.000Which is to say that life gives you a menu and you're lucky and blessed to be living in a free society.
00:03:41.000Pick and choose the items that make sense for you.
00:03:45.000You may not be changing lots of stuff, but at least you'll be voting your conscience.
00:04:44.000You've opened up a can of worms because you can tell I love the sound of my own voice, is that I respond to issues, mull them over, and sometimes I think it makes all the sense in the world to build a wall Around any sovereign state,
00:05:05.000and it's interesting to note, by the way, that not too long ago, the Pope, who I'm a big fan of, I think is good for humanity, and generally speaking, provides uplifting messages, said, and I'm almost quoting, that building a wall, especially between America and Mexico, is not humane.
00:06:56.000It's really about a Jewish guy who tried to survive in Roman times, but the literal translation of his name is the son of the family of Hur.
00:07:44.000So, I want to talk to you a little bit about the sort of heterodox politics that you described, because it used to be in the United States that that was sort of considered the norm, is that you could hold a wide variety of views, sometimes in conflict with one another, that heterodoxy was sort of the way of the world.
00:07:58.000That is the way that you approached political issues.
00:08:12.000Things that sort of happening in American politics today.
00:08:14.000If you look at the left side of the aisle, there's not a lot of ideological diversity.
00:08:17.000If you look to, for example, the Trump coalition, you have people who disagree on pretty much every issue that it's possible to disagree on.
00:08:25.000You have pro-choicers and pro-lifers inside the Trump coalition.
00:08:27.000You have people who are pro-big government and pro-small government.
00:08:30.000You have people who are interventionist and isolationist.
00:08:32.000All inside sort of the same coalition.
00:08:35.000And I wonder how much of that has to do, you think, with, say, Donald Trump.
00:08:39.000And how much do you think that has to do with the sort of increasingly censorious nature of the left?
00:08:45.000Well, in the full interest of full disclosure before the fact, I knew the gentlemen somewhat ran into each other and spent a little time arguing.
00:09:06.000I would say that the extreme left has taken over the left, and the extreme right has taken over the right.
00:09:14.000And the vast majority of us, which is why the polls got it wrong again, and they will continue to get it, because the big swath, that big middle, Don't really want to get into arguments and stuff.
00:09:28.000They just want to do what the founding fathers in America designed.
00:09:32.000When we used to have curtains and you voted, you vote your conscience and it's nobody's damn business who you're voting for.
00:09:41.000Nowadays, families get split down the middle when the kids vote one way and dad votes another way.
00:09:48.000But I think it's a wake-up call for everybody.
00:10:01.000Two, it bears noting that no matter how extreme somebody's views are in America to you, in the same way that American currency has two completely different parts that don't resemble each other, it's their America as well.
00:10:20.000So we can agree to disagree And I would prefer to have conversations that don't start off politically and find out what makes us, you know, Americans, which is, hey, you like burgers?
00:10:37.000And do you like, you know, find the stuff that you go to.
00:10:40.000When you have a camera that goes across a football field or a baseball field or any public thing, you'll find people of all kinds of denominations, races, political views, and all that stuff.
00:10:54.000Everybody's allowed to be in that game, or do you have to sign in and say, Are you a Republican?
00:11:53.000I think it bears noting, and most people don't know this, is that our current president, and I think it bears noting that before he became a political animal, because once you become a politician, your tail grows and your fangs come out and it's adversarial stuff.
00:12:21.000And if you take a look at when Barbara and the original cast of The View were on and Donald Trump came on, kissy kissy, hug hug, they loved him.
00:12:36.000So, I think people have a mistaken sense of what the body politic is all about.
00:12:43.000So, I would recommend everybody start off with, before, you can easily list what you don't like about somebody.
00:12:51.000I don't like what Trump said here, I don't like what, well, first of all, Use the word president, because if you don't like the person in office, at least respect the office he was elected to.
00:14:35.000It gives you that professional edge without the stuffiness.
00:14:37.000Gone are those days of floppy collars that make you look like you just rolled out of bed.
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00:14:44.000The four-way stretch fabric means you can freely and comfortably move throughout your day.
00:14:47.000It's office-approved, so you can look professional without feeling like you're trapped in a suit.
00:14:50.000And get this, it actually travels well, so whether you're commuting to work or jutting off for a business trip, you'll arrive looking crisp and feeling great.
00:15:58.000I had a roast where all kinds of comedians cut me a new one.
00:16:04.000And he was kind enough, you know, to send his five or ten jokes that made fun of me.
00:16:12.000Look, at the end of the day, if you didn't know somebody and they didn't talk about politics, you'd have no problem sitting down because you probably recognize The human part of that.
00:16:29.000And I would urge everybody to, when you first meet somebody, it's not a litmus test.
00:16:37.000Don't start talking about, do you want to transition?
00:17:22.000Can you tell me about how you ended up being a child growing up in Israel to being one of the great rock stars in the United States of all time?
00:18:56.000There was an outhouse, literally a hole outside the front door.
00:19:02.000We had a one-bedroom, I remember as a kid, and there was a big hole right above the, well, the living room was the bedroom, was the kitchen.
00:19:51.000Basically, he made bridges, fake teeth.
00:19:54.000I have to tell you, one of the first impressions when we landed with El Al Airlines.
00:20:02.000We got out, and I think it must have been close to winter, because there was a big billboard, and there was Santa Claus, who I'd never heard of before.
00:20:13.000I never heard of Jesus or Santa Claus, any of that.
00:20:17.000And he's sort of leaning back, holding a cigarette over here.
00:20:21.000And in the background, I'll never forget this, there were reindeer over there with the chariot or whatever they pull.
00:20:29.000And he's like that, smiling with the big beard.
00:20:31.000You know, all I knew was, oh, that's a rabbi.
00:20:39.000And then when we came to my Aunt Magda's house, the wife of my mother's brother, Larry, who, bless him, had his own bakery and made a small fortune.
00:20:57.000And I want to tell you that I saw my first television set at Aunt Magda's house.
00:21:06.000And it must have been at the right time in the afternoon.
00:21:09.000They turned it on, and I had a spoon in a schmucker's jar, and I was eating the jam because I'd never tasted anything like that in my life.
00:21:18.000And both my aunt and my mom were laughing, tears and everything.
00:23:25.000I always had a job delivering newspapers, working at a butcher store, and just, you know, always worked.
00:23:32.000Even when I was six years old in Israel, picking cactus fruit and selling it with Shlomo, my Moroccan friend, Solomon in English, To bring some prutah, you know, the shekels, the Israeli pennies of the time, and bought my first ice cream when I was a little kid, six and a half years old, and I still remember That taste, I'll never forget that as long as I live.
00:24:02.000Because nothing is as sweet as something you, you know, by the sweat of thy brow, it says in the good book.
00:24:10.000Nothing is as sweet and rewarding as something you worked for.
00:24:14.000You don't have to thank anybody, it's all yours.
00:24:17.000And then I put all the rest of the money on the table in front of my mother and she was amazed.
00:24:24.000I remember her hugging me and saying, that's my little man.
00:24:28.000And ever since then, I've been working for women.
00:24:30.000Without the money, I don't get much attention.
00:24:35.000So, I must have been 13 or something, and it was a Sunday night.
00:24:42.000And of course, Sunday, I went around getting everybody's money for delivering the newspapers and all that.
00:24:48.000And by the early evening, I was at home at my mother's apartment.
00:24:57.000And the Ed Sullivan show came up, and the Ed Sullivan show, for those of you that don't know what it was, was the biggest show on television.
00:25:05.000When the Beatles were on, literally 75 million people were watching this.
00:25:11.000At the time, half the population of the United States of America.
00:25:16.000The total population at that point, 64, 60-something, was about 160 million.
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00:29:39.000Get the help you need with Tax Network USA. So, how do you go from being a teenager just like, you know, a million other teenagers across the United States?
00:29:46.000You want to be in a band, you start playing.
00:29:48.000It's still a pretty long journey from there to, you know, the top of the heap in terms of rock music.
00:30:50.000I became the assistant to the director of the Puerto Rican Interagency Council, a government research and demonstration project.
00:30:58.000I was the only Jew there, but because it was a government research and demonstration project, there was a percentage of non-Puerto Ricans who had to be there, and I was the one, because I took typing classes in high school, pragmatism, because all the girls...
00:31:26.000And that gave me the ability to get hired by Kelly Girls, which became Kelly Services, that hired me out for lawyers, real estate companies, all that.
00:34:43.000And we continue on, you know, we're doing new stuff and everything.
00:34:48.000But during the course of Kiss's active years, every year we'd tour and stuff and kept breaking the rules by making toys and games and licensing and merchandising, where other bands were concerned about things like credibility.
00:35:42.000Just be lucky you didn't have to join a symphony orchestra where you'd have to pay your dues to learn about Tchaikovsky and Chopin and music.
00:35:52.000You know, just an idiot like me picks up a thing and like a caveman, you sort of fumble through it.
00:36:00.000And if you can't sing, then write a song called Wild Thing.
00:37:23.000So, I think the scientific version of it, the headlines are having the right thing At the right place and the right time.
00:37:34.000So, before the advent of sort of modern social thought, you know, those things, you, no matter how good looking you are with a kippah on your head, would have tried this a few decades ago.
00:37:54.000It's a more, except culture is a moving target as people get more I'm educated to the idea that not everybody looks like you, walks like you, or talks like you.
00:38:56.000And, you know, it seems to have a life of its own.
00:39:00.000And I remember in sixth grade, should I pause, pregnant pause, while you want to laugh?
00:39:07.000Okay, so I was always the tallest kid in class, and a clown, because I wanted attention, and they'd stick me in the back of the room.
00:39:17.000Of course, Stella and Irene, I remember their names, sixth or seventh grade, In the middle of the class, I'd get in trouble because they'd whisper, hey, Gene, do that funny thing you do when you stick your tongue out.
00:39:32.000And I thought it was like, oh, you know, like a funny face.
00:39:36.000So I'd stick it out and wiggle it and make it twirl around because, you know, it can do those things and yours can't.
00:39:43.000And they'd go, okay, Mr. Klein, get...
00:39:48.000My mother's maiden name, get over here, what were you doing?
00:40:28.000We were in a rat-infested loft, 10 East, 23rd Street, only 10 blocks from 33rd Street, Madison Square Garden.
00:40:39.000And then one day, I can't remember who, said, hey, let's go downstairs to Woolworth, which was a New York store, and bought makeup and black lipstick and red lipstick, and decided to put on makeup.
00:40:55.000And pretty much on that very first day, what became possibly the four most recognized faces on the planet More recognized than Mount Rushmore.
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00:43:16.000When you talk about doing all of this, and obviously so much of this is transgressive and designed to gain attention, but there's also the music.
00:43:25.000And the fact is that a lot of people now consider rock music to basically be a dead genre.
00:43:35.000Well, music changes because new generations come along.
00:43:43.000And when my mother and I first came to America, this was pre-Beatles in 1958. Sometimes I think it's 1858. The first music I heard was Chuck Berry, even though I couldn't speak English.
00:46:06.000As the Gallup polled number one band on the planet, three years in a row, 77, 78, 79, above the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, and the Bee Gees, there was something going on.
00:46:30.000There was once something called big band, It was, you know, they had the template which is lots of horns and that's what you did.
00:46:39.000And the Beatles came along and all of a sudden it was less about the temptations and four or five guys Moving together with steps with a big band in back of them, and it was just four or five guys in the front playing their own instruments, writing their own songs.
00:46:54.000So music will continue, and now we finally come to the end of days when you can be an EDM artist and make an awful lot of money, and the expertise goes in front of 50,000 people.
00:47:10.000The expertise goes something like this.
00:48:22.000I've got a modern, massive place Ben, I'm really rich.
00:48:28.000So I've got a huge place in Malibu, one of six houses, God bless America, and this thing is so computerized and so everything, I talk to it.
00:48:42.000Let me see if it goes, hey Josh, turn off all lights.
00:48:49.000Well, I'm in the back bedroom, so maybe you didn't hear.
00:48:52.000But there's literally, you just talk to it And, hey Josh, get me a hot fudge sundae in the background.
00:49:01.000Well, yeah, I have to say I did my musical education wrong.
00:49:04.000I'm the normal Jewish kid who took violin lessons from the age of five till the time I was maybe 17 years old and it got pretty good and then I realized that there ain't no money in classical music and I learned it at school talent shows that the guy who could play three chords was definitely going to do better with the girls than the guy who was playing Fritz Kreisler and Beethoven.
00:49:22.000So just lessons that you learn along the way for sure.
00:49:25.000It's worth noting That you don't even need three chords.
00:49:31.000Bo Diddley by Bo Diddley is one chord.
00:50:41.000But when you're making a political or observational point to somebody who doesn't like you, those of us who are slower, the pregnant pause, it doesn't respectfully impregnate my slow mind until after you're done.
00:52:26.000Not only do they create life, but once the man walks out, they've got to earn a living and be mother and father and protector and all that stuff.
00:52:35.000So the highest form of life on the planet is a single mother.