The Man. The Legend.
Gene Simmons is actually one of the most intelligent men to ever spit blood and breathe fire before an audience of thousands of screaming fans. When rock stars of the 70's were ruining themselves with drugs and rock'n'roll excess, he was using his earnings to build his own business empire.
He came to America as an immigrant, and used his talents to rise to the top of the game. A role model, if you ask me.
From a life-long, unrepentant KISS fan
I will read up on him. He seems to be some sort of Alice Cooper.
Interesting, close to the same theme.
I am not a KISS fan, but I like Cooper.
IIRC, Simmons is a good friend of Ted Nugent, another rocker who didn't buy into the whole drug culture of the music world.
Since then I've switched to country music, but at the moment I'm listening to 'Detroit Rock City' - go Gene!
I believe I read somewhere that he was a 6th grade teacher at one point.
You have to love a band that has thier own Army.
I believe that Simmons personally owns the rights to the KISS name and makeup/costume trade marks, as well as the copyright to the KISS song catalog. He shrewdly bought them up for a pittance when they were out of fashion in the 80's and 90's. The rest of the guys pissed their earnings away on drugs and women.
Now that they are a popular concert act again, the other guys are mere employees of Simmons, who keeps the lion's share of their earnings and replaces them at will. I suppose the original guys regret the day they chose to put on makup and thereby became anonymous, interchangeable bit players in Simmons' private money-spinning machine.
-ccm