KISSing up to Gene Simmons: The demon discusses his relationships and his band

By John J. Moser/Lehigh Valley Music
For someone who has spent most of his 38-year musical career covered in a demon costume and Kabuki makeup, Gene Simmons is exposing his innermost self an awful lot these days.


Not only is Simmons, the bassist for the rock group KISS, starring in a reality TV show chronicling his struggling relationship with longtime live-in Shannon Tweed and his coming to terms of the death of his father, but KISS is working on what will be its second studio album in two years, after an 11-year recording hiatus.

And after completing a 2 1/2-year world tour just last year, KISS is back out on a summer jaunt that brings it to Mountain Laurel Performing Arts Center in Bushkill on July 13.

So why is rock’s God of Thunder suddenly putting himself so transparently out there in so many ways?

In a recent telephone interview from Prince George, Canada, on a stop in a tour that brings KISS to the Mountain Laurel Performing Arts Center in Bushkill on Wednesday, Simmons spoke about the suddenly open aspects of his life and the future of his band.

Here’s a transcript of the call:

LEHIGH VALLY MUSIC: I want to talk a lot about KISS, but I have to tell you I saw the episode of your reality TV show ‘Gene Simmons Family Jewels’ in which you visited your father’s grave, and I have to tell you it was really compelling. It was very emotional stuff and I wondered how you felt about it being on TV?

GENE SIMMONS: “It was actually good for me because, you know, guys aren’t introspective. You know, we get up, we’re hungry, we eat. You don’t really confront issues that are still with you. I mean, my father ran out on us when I was about 7 and I never looked back – never went back to Israel or anything. Just do the stuff you do, get up, eat, sleep, do all that stuff. But that doesn’t mean it’s not in there and it was good to confront that.”

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