Gene Simmons
Appearances
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
Yeah. I guess the LBGTXYPTSXYZ allodocious people are, in fact, accurate. Men can give birth. Yeah.
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
Gene Simmons' band, about a year ago, we sold Kiss to a company called Pop House for $100 billion.
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
Well, you sold all of it. The underlying rights and the songs.
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
And your likeness, too, as well, right? Not under the makeup. Oh. Oh.
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
No. It happened... You know, they call it a singularity in science. 52 years ago, something like that, where four knuckleheads off the streets of New York with... No experience, no resume, no qualification. And I remember even back then, we had this strange notion, let's put together the band we never saw on stage.
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
No, because, and chicks understand this, but they don't talk about it. You want to go to a club. It's okay if I call you a chick because it's very complex with you guys. I'm a woman, I'm a chick, I'm a girl. Don't call me a girl. We're just like assholes. We don't care. So you get a phone call. Come on down to the club. It's a lot of fun. Oh, good. What's everybody wearing?
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
Oh, they're all dressed in little black dresses. So what are you going to do? You're going to put on a red outfit because you want to stand out in the crowd. I don't ask, what are the guys wearing? You just show up. Yeah. Yeah. So you want to stand out in the crowd because we're visually stimulated. Ever since we roamed... the flat plains of Africa as Australopithecines.
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
Australopithecus africanus then changed to Australopithecus afarensis, which was found in what was then known as the Olduvai Gorge in Tanganyika by L.S. Leakey. I told you I was a teacher. Yeah, so we are visually stimulated. And all the stuff in the past, we still have. The tail and, you know, all that stuff.
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
Oh, so it happened one day. One of us, nobody knows who, said, let's go down to Woolworths, which was kind of a department store. And it was close to Halloween. And so all the fun bits, the whoopee cushions and the ice cubes with plastic ice cubes with flies in it. So you can...
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
I'm always fascinated by you guys, you know, because it's a different culture. You go out there without effects, without screens and things and all that stuff, and you're out there bare. So I'm going to turn the tables on you. At some point in your life, you overcame that thing of, I don't want to be judged, right? Oh. Right? Because everybody at a certain age, very young. And then you broke free.
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
do that and the frogs that made that so you can put it under the girls dresses because we like to hear them go like that and we went in that section and i remember all four of us for no reason at all bought stein's clown white i'd never heard of it seen it anything we just oh clown white put it on the white we didn't have an idea how do i look oh there we go and Makeup artist.
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
Nothing to do with us. We always put our own makeup on. But the fans kept doing that. Anyway, and you can see Lenny Kravitz when he was a kid. All kinds of people. He was thrown out of school for coming. for coming to school dressed in my face.
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
Nobody knew what they were doing. It's like kids playing in mud. Yeah, nobody can lay claim to it. It just happened. And we didn't have experience or anything, but somehow we knew we have to protect this. And so for the first time ever... In all of pop culture, actors, actresses, everything, we trademarked the designs of our faces. Wow, that's so smart.
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
So you could have face masks like our current president or any president, Johnny Carson, whoever, and they don't get a penny. You put my face mask on you, I take your firstborn.
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
The four of them. You read. I'm Jewish, so we're people of the book. You read a lot. And all the information, this is before it was here. Yeah. All the information of mankind. And I think it's fair to say mankind because we didn't allow you to do anything. It's true. Yes. So all the highways, everything created. This was invented in Israel by Motorola. Yeah, the technology. Really?
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
One of the top three patent invention trademarks on the planet. Star Wars technology, pills that you can swallow and you don't have to open up a body. It's exploratory. Yeah. Those clever Jews. By the way, you know, I finally figured out why all the chicks love Jesus.
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
No, you're funny. I don't think about it. Just life's kind of a joke and you have to have a sense of humor about it and then you die.
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
No, it's all Shannon. The heartbeat, the moral compass, our mothers.
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
You want to hear something crazy? Please. So... We start, it's kind of crazy.
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
So we started about, anyway, the first show, we came out, as it were, New Year's Eve, 1973, 74, the Academy of Music, New York City. Within one year and a half, within a year and a half, even before we were signed, we were headlining Anaheim Stadium.
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
On top of bands that had been around for 20 years and all that. A year and a half. Now, by the way, this is before cell phones, before MTV. You still had to put coins. I think at that point it was 10 cents and with a rotary thing. And you should see modern day kids trying to figure out what that is. I know. They're pressing and all that stuff.
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
No, no, there is such a thing. We didn't know what the word marketing meant. If you have the right thing, even though you think it's for that, and you're at the right place and the right time, your chances are much higher. So we happen to be this idea of putting on makeup with the things and looking different. Mm-hmm. Than what everybody else is.
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
And for no reason in the world, sticking my tongue out, I have no idea what I was doing. Except that in sixth or seventh grade, I used to do that because the chicks, you know, would make that sound that turkeys make when they're about to get their heads chopped off.
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
But I didn't know when I stuck my tongue out. You want me to put what? Where? I didn't know that.
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
And I had to be careful when I stuck my tongue out because not all the floors were clean. Did you get that one? Yes. Yes. Some were dirty. And... That was a great laugh. So... Nobody can lay claim to it. We just happen to find each other. And in retrospect, it's fair to say not every person is designed to run a marathon.
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
So the two original guys, Ace and Peter, were great in the beginning, but it didn't last long. You know, once... In the beginning, there was no drugs and alcohol, maybe outside the band. But once they got money and the money came in fast, we used to put in order forms in the albums. So you can put $5, $10, $20 before the post office became, you know, a crook haven.
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
And night and day, we would open these envelopes for T-shirts, belts. We had four envelopes. warehouses operating 24 hours a day in the valley in 1976, fulfilling orders. Nobody's ever done that before, during, or since. No. Well, during, we did. And in 1979, 20th Century Fox's... Top two licensing and merchandising things were Star Wars and Kiss.
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
We were going to do a Kiss Barbie. We had Kiss. You kissed dolls.
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
There have been more items. Here comes the joke. This is true. We have had kiss condoms, kiss caskets. We got you coming and we got you going. But it's true. Dimebag Darrell, the guitar player in Pantera, passed away on stage. Some idiot, a psycho, shot him on stage while they were doing a show. And his last will and testament was to be buried in a kiss casket. Wow. Yeah, we sent it to him. Yeah.
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
That's crazy. Are you going to be buried in a kiss casket? I don't think I'll know. But you know what I'd like to do is to have the biggest party in the world invite everybody just to have a party and forget about the problems of the world. And if you want to talk about me, celebrate my life, not my death. We're all going to have a turn.
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
So actually Jews, I think, have a better idea than Roman Catholics, which is... You have an open casket so everybody can really be miserable and see how awful it is. And in Judaism, you must cover the body immediately and bury it within 24 hours. But don't you sit shiver? You do. But you don't have a corpse looking at you.
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
No, you're not allowed. That's just for the family. Because if you're Bedouins and you come from the desert, anything is fair game for predators. So you had to bury it. Immediately. Yeah, because they could smell it and all that.
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
Except for that first time, apparently, where I blew you off. Well, that's better than I blew you. Actually, it might not be.
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
Well, that was probably not the place because all the chicks who were lifted and separated and pointed in my general direction probably were only interested in what room after the show.
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
It was rare. For real? Yeah. Well, they were not the highest form, but you can't have the stuff and the stuff. Shannon's got it. Yes, she does. Well...
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
So that's funny because she told me to fuck off right away.
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
Yeah, but there's a backstory that's very bizarre. Accidentally, I started living with Cher. And she... It's funny, at a certain age, the kids don't know the famous fleeting. And... So two years or whatever on, I had to move back to New York. We lived in Malibu at her place. And I had to go buy a Christmas present. I go, I don't know what to buy you. You have everything.
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
She said, go and call my best friend, Diana Ross. She'll tell you. She'll take you shopping. OK. Well, it didn't take long. And Diana gave me chocolate cake and then a second slice. And then we started a thing and they stopped being friends for a while. And then, you know, Kiss was touring and all that. And then I was shooting a film. I was a bad guy in a movie called Runaway.
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
That's ahead of its time. Those things are now pretty commonplace. They go ahead of the cars and they short circuit the cars they're chasing so that they stop going.
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
You're very kind. So during a weekend, I'd be bringing chicks up to Vancouver where we shot. And one of them said, you know, I miss October or something. There's going to be a Playboy party at the mansion called Midsummer Night's Dream. I go there and I get, I'm going to shortcut the story. I get introduced to Shannon and Tracy Tweed, who both appeared on Playboy.
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
And Shannon's been on, she was a Playmate of the Year at that time. And so I met them, and my silk pajamas, you could tell what religion I was in. You understand?
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
And otherwise, we would be the biggest, you know, because they cut half of it off. And that's why Jewish women cannot, cannot stay away from Jewish men. Anything with 20% off. So... That's interesting. So I am bewitched by this chick. She's six feet tall, blonde hair and all that stuff, but a farm girl.
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
She comes from a family of seven, and we're talking, talking, and she takes me by the hand and leads me into the main house. And just like in James Bond, you've got books and everything, and she presses a button, and it opens up, and we start going down the stairs. Underneath that, where there's like a pool table, only room for two or three people.
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
Normally, I would have mounted that before you spelled out my name. But I was fascinated by Shannon. You know, who are they? Where you come from? And all we did was talk. I didn't even kiss her or hold her hand or anything. Oh, really? That's really interesting. You know, we're just finding out about each other. She comes over and gives me her phone number. And I said, I'm gonna call you tomorrow.
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
And so I went back to the Beverly Hills Hotel and I always stay in single rooms, no suites, none of that stuff. It's interesting, if you're not Jewish, it's frugal. But if you're Jewish, yeah, cheap. But I never threw the money around, I still don't. And I'm sitting, the next day, early in the morning,
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
You know, the single rooms, the bed is here and the door is right there and the bathroom is right there. And you see this photo coming under the thing because previous to that, I kept calling the phone number. Hello. Hi, it's Gene Simmons. It's Shannon. No, it's not here. Oh, come on. She told me to call her. This is a phone number, you know, 9445. And let's put her on. She said to call her.
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
No, I don't know what you're talking about. And he hung up the phone. And I kept calling a few times. I go, holy fuck, what the hell? Couldn't figure it out. And I'm watching TV in front of me, and I see the photo being stuck under the table. What happened to your meeting, by the way?
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
So the photo comes underneath, and it's her Playmate of the Year photo. And on the back, it's clearly handwritten, well... I'm used to gentlemen, and a gentleman, if he gets a phone number of a woman who puts it, at least calls her. And I'm thinking to myself, what's she talking about? I called her a few times, never got through. And on the bottom, the last number was different.
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
It was four instead of five. I go, what the fuck? So I finally called her on the phone. You know, the phone number was four. Yeah. And she completely ignores everything and goes, yeah, whatever. So what are you going to do? You're going to come over or what? Yeah. In those days, I didn't drive. I had a guy who drove me around. I was 34. I didn't know how to drive. But if you...
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
And it's not even a joke. You were a New York kid. Yeah, what do you do in New York? You hop a cab or go to Subway. So I go back to New York, and I arrange for Shannon to be flown to New York to be with me. I lived on Fifth Avenue, and Diana lived one of her places a few blocks on Fifth Avenue, also a few blocks away. And I find out that...
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
Shannon is related in a familiar way by Diana, with Diana. In other words, Shannon is her sister-in-law because unbeknownst to me, Diana's brother, Chico, was secretly married to Shannon's sister, Tracy. What? What are the chances?
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
I like a lot of new bands, but it saddens my heart. They will never have the chance that we did because there's no music industry. The fans killed it. They allowed... the industry to die, the thing that they love the most. So you can download and file share and do all that stuff for nothing. So new bands don't have a chance, except Nick and Sophie are both very successful.
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
Sophie's written songs for Train and Rick Ross, you know, rock band, everything. And yeah, she has billboards. Here, put up Sophie Simmons billboards. It's around the world. She's a big deal. See up on top? You went too fast. One back. There you go. Yeah. Wow. See Amortage? That's currently the number one record in Asia. Sophie wrote that. Amazing.
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
Never asked my opinion. Nothing. It's very pop, sort of Rihanna kind of thing. She's beautiful. Like Chaperone. Never asked my opinion. She writes every day. She releases songs, produces, manages, does the whole thing. And Nick. has got his own band called Sim Fera, S-Y-M-F-E-R-A. And their music is on Ozark and Prodigal Son and everything. And I have nothing to do with it. There we go.
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
And you should, just for a second, put up Evan Stanley. Is that Paul Stanley's son? Yes. All of a sudden, they're making a record together. Evan Stanley and Nick Simmons. Oh, really? Yeah.
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
Well, sure. They came out on the road. Can you play just a heartbeat of Sounds of Silence?
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
Yeah, play that. I want to hear that. Evan went to Nick's house and just whipped out an acoustic guitar. They were always pals. They have their own music. And you'll hear it. It's unbelievable. Hello, Dr. Smiles.
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
Wow. There's such a thing called chemistry, and you don't know what that means until you hear it.
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
It beat Cleopatra on channel seven, ABC with Elizabeth Taylor. Wow. Yeah.
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
Oh, not even. Hundreds and hundreds of one penny. Yeah. And the big secret is licensing and merchandising. is a financial source that other bands didn't have. Yeah. You can't get a Bruce Springsteen comic book or a Radiohead anything.
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
Neil Bogart... got a record deal, distribution deal with Warner Brothers. So he wanted to, he had Kama Sutra records and... Yummy, yummy, yummy, I got love in my tummy. 1910 Fruit Gum Company, Gladys Knight, The Pips, and Curtis Mayfield, you know, not rock. And he wanted to start a new company and eventually settled on Casablanca, after he wanted to call it Emerald City.
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
And he asked me what I thought of it. And I'm going, sounds like a disco... Label, I don't like that. So he started Casablanca Records. A kiss is just a kiss. A sigh is just a, you know, Casablanca. So he signed us. We didn't write hit singles. We didn't look like anybody and everything. And we started to make noise. But he made all his money as the king of disco.
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
Donna Summer and the Village People and Parliament Funkadelic and just all these bands, which he started the EP called Love to love you, baby. The Donna Summer song. He said this one disc jockey locked himself away for 24 hours and played that song over and over again. So he called Giorgio Moroder in Germany. Producer says, I need to make this song longer because people are making love to it.
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
And so he made it longer, and they put out the first EP, a slightly smaller version of an album with just that one song with an extended middle, you know, like that. Yeah. And the girls also went like that. See, that was a joke.
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
Different time. And now there's... Look, I've done this before to a few people. So from 1988, I beg your pardon, from 1958 until 1988 is 30 years. During that time, you had Elvis, The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, you name it. In disco, you had Donna Summer. With the heavy bands, you had Metallica, ACDC, maybe us, Aerosmith, on and on and on and on.
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
Motown, Bowie, Prince, you name it, they all came out in that 30-year period. From 1988 until today, it's almost 40 years, where's the Beatles? Where's anything? And it bears noting that in 1988, Napster is where it started. And people never got... The analogy is... If you're a supermarket and you're selling, let's say, fruits and vegetables, you have this much and it costs five bucks.
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
So that five bucks pays for the rent and the people that work there. It also pays for the trucks that bring the produce there. It also pays for the farmer and the people that work there and everything. Now imagine somebody can walk into the supermarket
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
Six in the morning? Probably. That was not me. You're not thinking of Gene Simmons. You're thinking of Richard Simmons.
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
put a penny down and walk out with the same amount of fruits and vegetables, how long would the farmer stay in business, the trucking company, and the supermarket? And that's what's happened to the record business because the fans aren't willing to pay for the music. And that's the saddest part because there's certainly as much talent today as there was back then, but there is no structure.
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
Oh, Steely Dan. By the way, Jackson, who I know, not on that level. Nowhere close.
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
Chicks. No, the Eagles, yes, one of the top bands. selling bands of all time. Yeah, for sure.
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
So the pop music stuff is exploding. Nobody's as good, as big as Taylor. I'm a Swifty. Would you mind bringing up Taylor Swift? 100 million albums worldwide. Button pushing guy? Can you bring up Taylor Swift, Keith Urban, Kiss, and play the video, please? What? Wait. You can forward about 10, 15 seconds.
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
This is where Taylor and the whole band come out dressed as Kiss.
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
And it's going to get beyond anything we ever imagined, because Pop House, which bought the underlying rights, is spending... Just a lot of money and doing something that nobody's ever experienced before. I don't mean see. So imagine a caveman and you can speak the same language and you're telling the caveman what you're about to experience. Don't think you're going crazy.
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
It's not religious, but put these virtual reality glasses on and And all of a sudden, reality, as you know, it disappears. The ground is different. You're in space or you're in the mouth of a dinosaur or you're in a fire pit. And no matter where you look, you're in a different reality. Yeah. Now imagine that with no glasses. And imagine you can smell it and feel the heat.
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
Where is this going to happen? Within two years. Is this the Avatar show? Yes.
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
Oh, they won't know what hit them. It's beyond. And we've been trying to do this. We played at Dodger Stadium 2000. And it was the first 3D concert. Not all of it. You've got your glasses and at certain points you put them on. So if I spit fire, you'd see the fire coming out into the audience. But it was far too expensive to do it all. And nobody wanted to wear glasses for the whole show.
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
And it cost a fortune. We didn't make a dime on that show. But technology has changed so fast that future concerts are going to be unlike anything anybody's ever imagined. We're already almost there. There's this fear in Las Vegas that, And what you're seeing is unbelievable, except you don't lose yourself. If you look down, you see the hangnail that you had that morning.
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
And you see the next, you know, the chick. I should grab her number before I go. And then when you look up, you see all that. Virtual glasses are closer to that because this world disappears. Wow. But you don't feel the heat if there's a fire.
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
We could be in a wall. We could be in the underworld. We could be, yeah.
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# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
No glasses. No glasses. I remember seeing a minority report. Did you ever see that Tom Cruise movie?
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# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
And he goes like this. And then he's got like a computer thing and he's moving things. I saw a real one that the Air Force was using in doubt. I know some friends in the military. Yeah. It exists. Really? Yeah. There's nothing in front of you. And they're moving things. Well, I mean, what the fuck is the cloud? Right?
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
There's a million things of information. Where is it? It's in the cloud. Where?
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
And right, I've got, there's a person in Africa, in Namibia, I think. an investment guy. Was it Nabil? I don't know. But not too long ago, I got a phone call, crystal clear on my cell, like he's next door to you. Crazy.
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
Oh, what's happening now, as you know, Elon believes that, and I believe him, that AI is going to surpass humankind knowledge and also have a sense of self-awareness. self-aware in five years.
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
But it's happening so fast that algorithm, military, I mean, right now you're watching a few wars, but especially the Ukraine war, where it's all drones.
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# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
He's a member of the tribe, yeah. Hey, what was this broadcast on? FX. FX. The X show on FX.
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# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
Now apply drones to tanks, apply drones to anything, and you're playing video games.
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# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
Rescheduling some of the shows up and down. The economy is really bad. People are hurting, losing their jobs. But yeah, there's going to be, oh, maybe 15 up and down the East Coast and everything. And then stopping for a while because I've got a film company, Simmons Hamilton. Our first film is an action adventure called Deepwater with Sir Ben Kingsley and Aaron Eckhart. Whoa.
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
Rennie Harlan is directing, who did one of the Die Hard films. Then a second movie called The Canyon with Mel Gibson and Bella Thorne. So a few of these movies coming up. And the restaurant chain, you know about that? No, I don't. Rock and Brews, as in B-R-E-W. There's two at LAX and across America.
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
I didn't know it was yours. Is that in the Delta Terminal? Number one. Yeah, there's one.
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
Oh, no, no, no. I mean, as my brand, I own the money bag logo. Can you go to money bag? I think I saw that on a hat one time. Vodka. Yeah. Money bag vodka. So you see on the top left. So I'm literally the only one. That's your bottle of vodka? That's brilliant. That's an old one, but the one on the right or the one upper left. See, I literally own the logo.
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
And so if you buy, you see that you had some booze over there. There you go. There's a bottle.
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
Okay. Now, that's terrific. Now, you know what I can do that you can't do anything about? I can take the shape of that bottle and take off the other stuff. Well, you did smart. You did something special with the actual bottle. But the shape of the bottle is not trademarked.
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
No. The shape of my bottle is around the world. So if you did whatever you want to call it, if you go near that trademark, I own you.
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
200 plus. If you put up... I literally, I know this is going to sound crazy. I own the pound sign or the English pound.
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# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
I own that trademark as approved by the... As long as it's in the bag... I own the euro. I'm the only one on earth that owns the euro, the E sign. Yeah. As long as it's in the bag. I own the rupee.
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
We looked into it and the legal ramifications, the exposure, it's too litigious. Everybody sues everybody.
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
It's like getting into food. One person swallows the wrong way. I mean, you go to McDonald's, a woman's coffee is too hot and then she sues you. Of course, she can't tell that it's hot because there's smoke coming up or just that you're holding it. But she did win some money.
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
But I saw a photo of her. It's probably the only hot thing she's had down there for a while. You know.
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
Gene, I could talk to you forever. As a matter of fact, there she was. Go back one, please. I'm going to get sued. There she is. Nah. You want to do something crazy? Please. Can I call Nick? Please. The question is what to call him. Big guy. I like this one. She laughs at the stupidest ones I have.
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
Hey, Nick. Hello. All right, Nick. Somebody wants to talk to you. You want to hold on?
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# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
You know that my son's like a man's man kind of guy. He's become a cat person. He worships his cat.
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
It'll be funny to see the YMH They tore me a new asshole.
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
They told me, you know you're the worst guest on YMH when the guy who comes the next week is a guy who drinks his own piss and he's a better guest than you.
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
One of the YMH guys. They had come on there, like the bald guy who does weird sex videos and he came on short lists and whatever. And they're like, that guy was better than Nick. So, you know, he's really bad.
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
hey buddy you can come on my podcast and i'll interrupt you all day long anytime all right let's do it i'm gonna set it up i'm gonna set it up only it'll be uh it's funny to have the uh hey you've seen the main event now see uh some kid who's kind of related to him that'll be fine we can team up we'll have you as a guest pair one time
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
Yeah, because your castle is oh so poor that you're modern. There's room. There's room, he says. I'm allergic to cats, though. Okay, he's kicking me out. It was good to talk to me. They do. Right now, they didn't plan it because life happens to you while you're busy making your plans. No, these are my plans. Life doesn't care. So they were buds, Evan and Nick. And what you saw just happened.
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
He's got a camera set up. And he started some Hello, Doc. You know that song? And what you heard is there's no recording or anything. It's just what they sound like. And now they've written songs and they're busy recording their first record with the producer of the year who produced... I don't know, Green Day and all kinds of stuff. Yeah. That's crazy. That's amazing.
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
And now record companies are vying for it. And they did not plan any of this. This is kind of like Crosby, Sills, and Nash meets Simon and Garfunkel kind of stuff. Yeah. And Nick's stuff is more like Radiohead meets Pink Floyd. And Sophie is pop.
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
And I'm done. What are you? Worship Satan now? No. Wait a minute. You've only been...
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
Hug? They're settling on, you know, Evan and Nick Simmons.
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
Always do what I say. We'll get along better. Sit down, Leanne. He told you all this stuff?
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
A guy that tells his chick all this stuff. Wow. That's almost gay.
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
So before you got serious, how do you like this interview? So before you got serious, you knew that he's only been up to bat six times?
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
Can I just tell you one of the big secrets? What do I know? You don't go in there with the stuff that makes you happy. First, you've got to make her happy. And if you're not sure what, because every single one of them is like a different combination on a lock. We have one. That's it. She likes the A. I don't like the C. So you go through the alphabet. With your mouth schmeckle.
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
Which I've never heard before, a mouth schmeckle. So neither of you, right? So you try the A, and then when you find, I like the C. Okay, then you keep doing the C until she goes to hell. And then she doesn't care. And then you can jump on it. And then, you know what the perfect date is? Oh, I'm done. Get out. You see that?
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
These are semantics, but I'm not anti-semantic. So they have sex up here. Yeah. We have sex there. It doesn't. What does it mean? Do I have my mother's hips? Why won't she call me? We don't care. Which is why in jail, if you close your eyes, it doesn't count. But they have to. What sign are you and all this? Oh, shit. Yeah. He has a good sense of humor. OK, I'll give him some.
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
Who cares? Now that we're done, I'd like to. How was I?
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
I had some good teachers. I have to say, one of my first experiences, I was a newspaper delivery boy. I was 13. Just a knucklehead. It was dead of winter.
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
He didn't want to do his newspaper route, so I took over his route, and I was delivering in the snow and everything just to make 30 bucks a week, which was a lot of money back then when the people had two sticks together with the fire and everything. And once a week, I'd have to go and collect the money, you know, 25 cents, 15, 50 cents, and all that. And the Sunday edition was a dollar newspaper.
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
It was, like, really thick. And it was Christmas time, and it was a few days before Christmas. I'll shorten it because you have a meeting to go to.
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
Yeah, that's right. Yeah. I don't know. I'm going to hell anyway. Tell me about the... Yeah, so one of the first times... I go to collect, and I had one of those stupid hats with the earmuffs, you know, you put it all, but if you do it up there, it pushes your ears out like, you know, airplane wings or whatever. So your ears are like that, like a knucklehead.
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
And I go to collect it from Mrs. You know what? I was about to blur her name because I always remember. And she was an unhappily married, very young, hot as a pistol woman. And she was home alone. I don't know where the guy was or anything, but it's Friday night after school. And I'm going to collect $3.75. I'll never forget it for the full week's newspapers. And I walk up, hi, it's Gene Klein.
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
I was Gene Klein then. Collecting blah, blah, blah. She said, come on in. So I walk in the door and you just smell the pheromones and she comes out in a nightgown. A see-through. And I'm going, ooga, ooga. You know, see the headlights and and you see it all happening. And she's You know, makeup, everything, she's all alone in her house.
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
It must have been drinking, I guess, because she was very free with her words and her voobah. And she kind of slinkered over, snake-like. And I was always big for my age, so I didn't look 13. I must have looked 16. It's funny, I was always invited to the sweet 16 parties. And since I didn't drink, I'd wait for all the guys to get bonkers and just... Mount the girls that were left.
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
It doesn't matter. And so she said, I'll get right over. And then she came in and she said, here, you must be tired. Lie down on the couch. And I didn't know what was going on. I was just sort of, and then she unzippered my pants and sat on me. Gave you some education. You know, I didn't know what was going on. But I figured it out pretty fast. Yeah, and I dared not go back.
Bertcast
# 671 - Gene Simmons KISS and Tells
I gave up my buddy's newspaper route because, you know, who knows? The guy might be there. One of my first. Really? That's a great one. And then a very brutal experience with a guy named Jim. No, that was not true. Not true.
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
And 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. If you ask people on the street, just a close-up of Teddy Roosevelt on the You know, Mount Rushmore. Who's that? I have no idea. But as soon as you show those faces, they go, oh, yeah, Kiss. Even if you hate the band.
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
People are allowed to live and decide for themselves what makes sense for themselves. And if you like being around them, that's fine. But hi, nice to see you. I'm Gene. Are you a supporter of Donald Trump? Well, you're not going to get very far.
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
You just figured out the secret. Ego, ego, ego. You just fed the beast. Good job, Ben. Good job. Well, I had nothing to do with it. My father, unfortunately, left us. And yours truly. I'm an only child for my mother, who has always been my hero, my moral compass. Without her, I would have veered right into darkness. So by the time I was seven...
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
My mother found herself having to get up at the crack of dawn and working six days a week from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m. at night. And Israel, in those early days, we didn't have an infrastructure. You'd go once a week down to the place where the government officials are, and they'd give you a newspaper that's cut out, and you'd get a slab of butter. And I remember this.
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
With the print falling off onto the food, you'd get bread cut. A slab of meat and so on, that was supposed to, you know, some other stuff, fruits, vegetables, that was supposed to last you for a week. There were no paved roads or anything. I never saw a television set, never heard of it. We didn't have a radio. There was an outhouse, literally a hole outside the front door.
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
It's my pleasure. You're actually better looking than I thought you were.
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
We had a one-bedroom house. I remember as a kid, and there was a big hole right above the, well, the living room was the bedroom, was the kitchen. The kitchen was over there. It was just a sink. There was no refrigerator. There was an icebox. Once a week, you'd get ice, and that was it. I know it sounds like another century, but most new countries start that way.
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
And when we, my mother had two brothers who escaped Nazi Germany, all that, before World War II, and succeeded. My uncle George, my mother's brother, became a periodontist. It's a big word. Basically, he made bridges, fake teeth. I have to tell you, one of the first impressions when we landed with El Al Airlines,
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
We 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. I'd never heard of Jesus or Santa Claus, any of that. And he's sort of leaning back, holding a cigarette over here. And in the background, I'll never forget this, there were reindeer over there with the with a chariot or whatever they pull.
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
And he's like that, smiling with a big beard. All I knew was, oh, that's a rabbi. That rabbi is smoking a cigarette. And I didn't know that. And 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. And my waistline is proof of that.
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
Well, as we both know, these are semantics, but I'm not anti-semantic.
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
And I want to tell you that I saw my first television set at Aunt Magda's house. And it must have been at the right time in the afternoon. They 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. And both my aunt and my mom were laughing, tears and everything. I never saw a refrigerator.
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
I know this all sounds like, hey, I never saw a fridge. I said, in a Hungarian, because my Aunt Magda spoke Hungarian, not Hebrew. Mios! Mios! you know, like, I want a little bit of that. Can I taste it? And she said, of course. And she gave me a spoon expecting me to just take a little bit. And I put a little bit in my mouth and I thought she said, sure, you can have that.
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
So, you know, I started eating that and they turned on the television and I put down the jar because what I saw was a guy flying through the air with a cape. I'll never forget that. And I, no matter how good this was, I What is that? Look up in the sky. It's a bird. It's a plane. This amazing land where you had movies and images and people flying through the air and big buildings. I was afraid.
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
I swear to you, I was afraid to cross the street at my Aunt Magda's house because there were cars going by. I was scared to death. Anyway, I could go on forever.
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
First, my mother, to keep me off the streets, put me in yeshiva. I was a Lubavitch. Well, what can I say? It kept me off the streets, but then I discovered girls. And it's been... the bane of my existence ever since. On the other hand, you could take a look at it biblically. All the chasing, the skirt, is really biblical if you think of it. It said, spread thy seed.
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
And that's what I've been doing. I was just doing the Lord's work. That's what it says. See what I did there? And so I'm minding my own business. I always had a job delivering newspapers, working at a butcher store, and just, you know, always worked. Even when I was six years old in Israel, picking cactus fruit and selling it with Shlomo, my Moroccan friend, Solomon in English,
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
to bring some pruta, 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. Because nothing is as sweet as something you, you know, by the sweat of thy brow, it says in the good book.
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
Well, 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. Having 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?
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
Nothing is as sweet and rewarding as something you worked for. You don't have to thank anybody. It's all yours. And then I put all the rest of the money on the table in front of my mother. And she was amazed. I remember her hugging me and saying, that's my little man. And ever since then, I've been working for women. Without the money, I don't get much attention.
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
So I must have been 13 or something, and it was a Sunday night. And of course, Sunday, I went around getting everybody's money for delivering the newspapers and all that. And by the early evening, I was at home at my mother's apartment. And 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.
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
When the Beatles were on, literally 75 million people were watching this. At the time, half the population of the United States of America. The total population at that point, 64, 60 something, was about 160 million. So, Again, I put my, I remember what I had. I had faschirt, which is Hungarian hamburger, and peas, which I hated.
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
And I remember putting, my mother always treated me like a king, so I had like a a little stand with legs on it so I could stand in front of the TV, sit in front of the TV and watch it. And I'm watching the Ed Sullivan show. And, you know, they're singing and stuff. And I, I never saw or heard anything like that.
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
They looked very feminine, little guys with cutesy haircuts and, you know, hair above their ears. I've got some hair left as well. And I, that sound, that high-pitched sound of girls in the audience screaming like turkeys about to be let, you know, to get their heads cut off. I'd never heard anything like that in my life. What the hell is that? And the cameras kept panning to their faces.
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
You know, they looked like they were having a conniption. Outside of New York City, you think it's a connish. No, it's not. They were like having seizures. I never saw anything like that. And then I figured, that's probably not a bad job to have. And then right after that, by about 14, I joined a band. I couldn't play an instrument then. And I started to talk like that, you know.
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
Yeah, you know, I started to put on an accent, and I got the response. You know, the girls were saying, oh, you're not from here. No, not from here. And they go, oh, and all of a sudden you get more attention. Basically, Ben, dress British, think Yiddish. See what I did there? And the Beatles changed my life because I didn't realize it. I didn't know how to verbalize it.
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
early on, but they made it okay to be different. They spoke with an accent, and so did I. Tuk like this, you know, like Israelis with clipped vowels. And they looked different, and I sure didn't look like I came from Sweden. They made it okay to be different. Not only okay, they were the top of the pile. And so I...
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
taught myself how to play guitar initially, and then pragmatism rules, big word like gymnasium, I picked up a bass guitar because, a cheap Japanese version, because I realized everybody wanted to be a guitar player or drummer. Nobody wanted to be a bass player, but every band had a bass player. So increase your chances of being in a band, play bass.
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
Sure enough, everybody wanted me to be in their band because I could sing. It's a matter of opinion. And thump away at the bass guitar, and it's made me a pretty good living since then. I was thinking of buying Rhode Island, as a matter of fact.
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
By the way, I would have done that for you right away, but the floor is a little dirty. So 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. So, by the way, some of the things you've said I completely disagree with, and other things just make sense to me.
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
Well, initially, what I noticed about being in a band was in the patois of the street, there were a lot of chicks. I mean, if I announced or held a sign, I'm studying to be a dentist, they're just not going to care. Later on, they do, once they realize you're making good living, and that's what it's about. And so the payoff was immediate.
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
You get more popular, you get more girls and all that, because That's our primordial, you know, the urge to merge. That's what we... Well, I'm giving you a lot of stuff here. You're going to be able to use this in political discussions. And so... At the same time, I was working.
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
I became the assistant to the director of the Puerto Rican Interagency Council, a government research and demonstration project. I 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...
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
We're taking the typing classes. So I signed up. I also signed up for another class where only girls took it. Greg and Pittman. It was called Shorthand. I signed up. And 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. In fact, I became...
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
the assistant to the director of the research and demonstration project. And then I became the man Friday to the editor of Vogue magazine. Again, on a floor where there are only girls, bottles and everything else. Then it was terrible. I got to tell you, it was just torture. Couldn't wait to get out of there. And at the same time, decided to get serious about putting a band together.
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
and happened to accidentally meet another member of the tribe. That's failed language for the rest of the world, may not know what that means. And Stanley Eisen became Paul Stanley, and we put a band together. And the idea was, even though we weren't able to verbalize it, let's put together the band we never saw on stage, almost the way girls, really have it in their DNA.
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
There's a club and she calls ahead because she wants to know what's going on. And she gets the word, uh-oh, just beware, all the girls are wearing short black minis. So she thinks and goes, I think I'm going to put on a red short miniskirt.
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
many so that you stand out shakespeare figured it out the whole world's a stage and you know figure it out how to get people to look at you once you get the attention it's what you do with it and kiss was formed way before you were born in uh 19 at the end of 1972 By New Year's Eve 1973, we played our first show. We didn't have a record contract. The first record came out in February 1974.
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
Within a year and a half before MTV, before voicemail, before digital, before anything, no cell phones, Rock was not heard on radio or anything. We were headlining Anaheim Stadium in California. It just exploded. In those days, magazines and imagery was the way it impacted stuff in the same way that TikTok is the modern version of stuff. You know, like, how do you become Mr. Beast? Well, go on.
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
You know who that is? I do. Yep. Yeah. Or how do you become Ben Shapiro? Well, do this stuff. And that's the modern version of it. So KISS exploded. And that's been I know it's difficult to believe that was about 53 years ago. But for 50 years and we finally sold our IP and all that in December a year ago to an amazing company called Pop House. And they paid a pretty shekel, Ben.
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
And that's what I highly recommend to the rest of the populace of this third stone from the sun. which is to say that life gives you a menu and you're lucky and blessed to be living in a free society, pick and choose the items that make sense for you. You're not in, you may not be changing lots of stuff, but at least you'll be voting your conscience. So am I essential?
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
And we continue on. You know, we're doing new stuff and everything. But during the course of Kiss's active years, every year we 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. that never entered into our minds. That's for losers.
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
Credibility, you never even went to music school to learn how to to learn the basics of music. You can't read or write music. Lennon, McCartney, Hendrix, the Stone, they can't read or write music. You just kind of make it up. You're completely unqualified to do that, but you're concerned about credibility. Get out of here. You know, it's noise.
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
You're lucky enough if you can make some money and the chicks chase you, and then you die. That's all there is. What does it mean? Where is this going? Do I have my mother's hips? Shut up. Just 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.
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
You know, just an idiot like me picks up a thing, and like a caveman, you sort of fumble through it. And if you can't sing, then write a song called Wild Thing. It goes like this. Wild Thing, you make my heart sing. You make everything. You know, you don't have to sing well. Ask any rapper. Going to 7-Eleven, going to go to heaven and stuff. You know, you're not talking about musical mindsets.
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
But you can be enormously popular and wealthy. Just scientists call it a singularity, having the right thing. And the right thing can be as idiotic as Gangnam Style. which was billions and billions of downloads, not the Beatles. No, not Beethoven. No, it's this guy with the Gangnam style, you know, who came from Korea, could barely speak English, but it caught on. You know, became a thing. And,
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
And there was also one about the shark. And the shark said, or is it the fox? I think the fox said.
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
Of course. Yes, and my kids. Yep. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah, because you didn't memorize that yourself. No, no, no.
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
Either as if I was a rich man. So it's, I think the scientific version of it, the headlines are having the right thing. at the right place and the right time. So before the advent of sort of modern social thought, you know, there's things you, no matter how good looking you are with a kippah on your head would have tried this a few decades ago, wouldn't be as easy.
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
It's a more, except culture is a moving target as people get more, um, educated to the idea that not everybody looks like you, walks like you, or talks like you. You have an advantage. Yeah.
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
I think part of everything that we do is part of the puzzle of our DNA and our experiences early on. And I happen to have been born with a prodigious oral appendage. Ben, you wouldn't believe it. It's a hideous looking thing. Yeah. And I mean, I would do it now except the floor is dirty. I would show it to you. And, you know, it seems to have a life of its own.
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
I don't like labels because they limit who and what you are. A free spirit generally is, very liberal in terms of humanism. Generally speaking, love thy neighbor as thyself. Most of the time, I don't treat Nazis the same way as I would perhaps you. you know, love thy neighbor, you know, don't, what's that phrase, do unto others what they would unto you.
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
And I remember in sixth grade, should I pause, pregnant pause while you want to laugh? Okay. 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. Of course, Stella and Irene, I remember their names, sixth or seventh grade,
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
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. And I thought it was like, oh, you know, like a funny face. So 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. And they'd go, okay, Mr. Klein, get
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
my mother's maiden name, get over here, what were you doing? I was just sticking it out. Show the class what you were doing. I'd stick it out and they would all laugh. And so again, Singularity, the four original members of KISS, John, Paul, George, oh no, that was another band. Myself, Paul, Ace, and Peter, we were lucky enough to find each other in the beginning.
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
And not everything lasts forever. Not everybody's designed to run a marathon. It's just life. But in the beginning, all for one, one for all, we had written some songs, pretty good. We found the right guys. We were in a rat-infested loft, 10 East 23rd Street, only 10 blocks from 33rd Street, Madison Square Garden.
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
And 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, bought some mirrors. And pretty much on that very first day, what became possibly the four most recognized faces on the planet, more recognized than Mount Rushmore. Yeah, that's a marketing truism.
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
If you ask people on the street, just a close-up of Teddy Roosevelt on Mount Rushmore, and say, who's that? They have no idea. Well, who's on Mount Rushmore? Elvis? No. But as soon as you show those faces, they go, oh yeah, Kiss. Even if you hate the band. And I'm talking Africa, Southeast Asia, anywhere you go. It doesn't mean it's the best band.
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
It just means that the imagery connected in ways no other band connected. You don't know what everybody in Farner looks like. You just don't. And they had hit records and all that stuff. So there was a decided difference in who and what KISS was, which enabled us to have literally thousands and thousands of licensed and merchandise products.
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
Well, music changes because new generations come along. And 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. Chuck Berry, Little Richard. As a matter of fact, ironically and strangely, I did the eulogy for Chuck Berry's open casket when he passed away.
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
In other words, don't do the stuff you think will hurt. Well, that also generally applies. A sadomasochist might slap you in the face and I'm going, what are you doing that for? He goes, well, I'm a sadomasochist. I like that. I thought you'd like it too. So we can apply, everything's just general. There's always an exception to it. So the short answer, although
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
The Berry family asked me to do that. It's on YouTube. And... Again, when the Beatles came along, it was a seismic shift. So before the Beatles, there was a sound. Before Chuck Berry and everything. My darling. Music used to be that way. It was called doo-wop. Doo-wop because it was New York-based. Wop was a derogatory term for Italians. The passports, W-O-P, without papers, a WAP.
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
And even Little Richard, a WAP, Babaloo WAP, a WAP, Bamboo, Tutti Frutti, you know, all that. So music kept changing based on the way the ears were tuned, what people heard. And soon as Elvis started doing black music, it changed white music. It was doing, in those days, it was called race music. You couldn't hear that stuff on radio.
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
And I'm talking Africa, Southeast Asia, anywhere you go. It doesn't mean it's the best band. It just means that the imagery connected in ways. no other band connected.
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
Elvis opened the doors for black music that was shamefully not allowed to be played on regular radio. So as you go through the different eras, there was the big band era, the so-and-so era, populations and tastes change. And even through rock and roll came in, based on Chuck Berry, and they stopped doing that, and it became riffs. You know, the Zeppelin thing.
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
That moved it a little to bigger sound, less complex, bigger riffs. And so we're a product of all those English bands, actually. But even during our reign, As the Gallup pulled 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. It was called grunge.
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
It came out of Seattle, and it was a different form of music. Then there was new romance, new wave alternative. Music keeps changing. There 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. And the Beatles came along and all of a sudden it was less about the temptations and four or five guys
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
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. So 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. The expertise goes something like this.
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
The finger presses up, boom, bop, boom, bop, boom, bop, boom, bop. You see 50,000 people jumping up and down because of this computerized, pre-recorded stuff with lights and everything. But all the guy's doing is, what's up, you know, jumping up and down with them. And by the way, I fully support that. Life is short, and if music in any way, shape, or form makes the experience of living beautiful,
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
you'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.
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
at this planet for another day, I'm all for it. It doesn't have to make sense for me or be my taste. I never understood rap. That's just, in my day, it was talking. You know, it is just talking. And culturally, I don't understand and don't care. But... There is music for everybody, including the guy who picks up his finger. Oh, see this finger? He's about to press it. Here we go.
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
Boom, pop, boom, pop, boom, pop, boom, pop. And by the way, with the future, which is right around the corner, you won't have to do the thing. You'll just say, go. I've got a modern, massive place here. Ben, I'm really rich. So 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.
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
Let me see if it goes, hey, Josh, turn off all lights. Well, I'm in the back bedroom, so maybe it didn't hear. But there's literally, you just talk to it. And, hey, Josh, get me a hot fudge sundae and a back rub. And all of a sudden...
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
It's worth noting that that you don't even need three chords. Bo Diddley by Bo Diddley is one chord. It never veers away. There's no bridge. There's no nothing. And Funky Broadway... Never veers away from that one chord.
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
Oh, come on. You got to give me a little bit. How did it go?
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
Have you ever heard somebody make the observation that you're like the Flash Barry Allen. You probably should have been doing commercials because you talk so fast. Oh, man.
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
But 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.
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
And 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. It's not good, it's not nice, and all that stuff.
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
Well, I have to be completely upfront. I was raised by my mother and I've always worshipped the ground that women, especially single mothers, walk on. because there's so much pressure. Not only do they create life, but once the man walks out, they've gotta earn a living and be mother and father and protector and all that stuff. So the highest form of life on the planet is a single mother.
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
You and I just work here. We can't create life. So my mother has always been my moral compass But I was aware that I was the male of the species. And I never wanted to get married. I mean, I always had the appetite. Some of us have a larger appetite, some not. But we're attracted, the heterosexuals among us, which is predominantly the life form on the planet.
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
Predominantly, the vast majority are heterosexuals. There might be 10% or so, but, you know, males going after females. biological. And I think it's worth noting that I didn't figure this out until much later in life. I didn't want to turn into my father. I didn't want to start something. Now I can verbalize it, but then it was just a feeling. And the feeling was, well, let me put it this way.
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
I lived under the did everything so she was able to lay down the laws. Don't do this, don't lie, don't this. And of course, without that, I would have been in darkness. So you can't wait because you think you're so important and know everything to get out from under your mother's roof. And no sooner do you leave your mom's house than you meet a girl.
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
And if you decide to move in with her, same questions. Where are you going? Where have you been? And I'm going, when do I get to be free and who wants to know? Well, I don't want you to see another girl. Why not? So there were all those new rules. You ever live with your mom? There are these rules. And then there were new rules.
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
So I was too busy and too selfish and arrogant, but it made business sense. You can't have it all. How many hours in the daytime? Totally devote all the man hours to myself. because sometimes, what's more important, your band or me? Well, actually the band, because you're not going to pay my rent, and first I got to make money, and then I can afford you.
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
Except for the fact that the Vatican has a massive wall around itself. So, I believe good fences make good neighbors. And you're talking to an immigrant, a legal immigrant. I know I don't look Swiss. I was born in Israel. And in a lot of ways, I... Consider myself American. You know, this idea of Jewish American or Israeli American or African American. So, you know, get used to it.
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
These are not romantic notions, but pragmatism has always been the key. And so I never wanted kids. I never wanted to get married. And But along the way, I was attracted to women, Cher and Diana Ross, you know, no greater, classier women. The best, I'm the luckiest guy to have ever known them, much less living with them. But I actually, and it always comes back to you.
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
It's not about self-aggrandizement or anything. It's just about the realization, do you know yourself? Who are you? And I'm finally comfortable in my own self to realize that my father was one person. I don't have to be my father. I can be my own ethical, moral, loving father, husband, all that. I never imagined that I'd be that I could be like that.
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
You're American if you love it. And I should probably stop. Otherwise, it's going to be the Gene Simmons show, not the Ben. By the way, you know what? You know, I speak Hebrew, Hungarian, German, English, a few other languages. You know what your name means, don't you? In Hebrew?
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
Well, full name is Benjamin. Literal translation is son of Jamin, which would be the family of Jamin. Shortened means Ben. Most people don't know that Ben. And by the way, our Semitic brethren use a similar word, Bin. Like Bin Laden is the same thing. It's the son of the family of Laden. So when people watch Ben-Hur, You're 12, right? So you're not familiar with that movie? Never heard of it?
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
Yeah. It'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 her.
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
I notice you're speaking semi-American Sfaradit. Exactly. Instead of Ashkenazi.
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
Well, always do what your wife says. You know why men die younger than their wives? Because they want to. Don't tell your wife that.
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
Well, in the full interest of full disclosure before the fact, I knew the gentlemen somewhat, ran into each other and spent a little time talking, with Mr. Trump, and in some ways I'm a big fan, in other ways I have a problem.
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
I would say that the extreme left has taken over the left, and the extreme right has taken over the right, and 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.
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
They just want to do what the founding fathers in America designed when we used to have curtains and you voted. You vote your conscience and it's nobody's damn business who you're voting for. Nowadays, families get split down the middle when the kids vote one way and dad votes another way. But I think it's a wake-up call for everybody. It's twofold. One is... Have a sense of humor.
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
You know, just laugh a little bit. You're not going to die tomorrow. It's going to be okay. Two, 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, certainly as well as yours. So we can agree to disagree.
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
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? I love them. And you like, you know, find the stuff that you go to.
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
When 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. Everybody's allowed to be in that game. Or do you have to sign in and say, Are you a Republican? Are you a Trumpian? Are you a thisian? Are you a thatian? Mostly it's Armenians that have the I-A-N.
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
Or north or south, depends. It could be a Y-A-N. I'm here with life lessons. So I would recommend some of my best friends are toe the line Republicans. the cult of personality, basically, from step one to step 10, whatever our current president says they fall in line with. And I'm kind of in the middle. I'm Gladys president. My crypto holdings in the millions are doing very well. Thank you.
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
Dow Jones industrials are way up. And I think that has a lot to do with perception. And so far, It's been very good. I 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.
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
That's what it's all about. He was actually a big supporter of Democrats. And Bill and Hillary Clinton went to his wedding and they were pals. And 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, even whoopee. I knew Whoopi a little bit.
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
So I think people have a mistaken sense of what the body politic is all about. So I would recommend everybody start off with, before, you can easily list what you don't like about somebody. I 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.
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
He is President Trump. If you don't like it, next time vote for somebody else. That's democracy. So find good things to say about Trump. other people. He's not a Nazi. My mother was a concentration camp survivor of Nazi Germany. The rest of our family wiped out. I know what a Nazi is. He's not a Nazi.
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
It may not align with your version of what it is to be liberal and stuff, but maybe I don't either. And trust me, I'm not a Nazi. His children, well, none of them smoke, drink, get high, any of that stuff. Neither do I. I've never been high, never been drunk, never smoked cigarettes. That's a pretty good indication.
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
If you come to Hollywood, the most liberal, most progressive folks have really messed up kids. Some. Rehab, shmehab, on and on and on. The permissive society, wokeism, and all that. So I think it's a fair statement to say that yours truly is, I take up a lot of space in the middle. And then in the menu of life, I choose the things that make sense for me.
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
Well, he had a kind of a take-no-prisoners attitude. I know the guy who created the show, Mark Burnett, who early on, I'm sure, realized it's difficult to get a tiger in a cage and, okay, now behave. Now you're in the middle of a cage. He's a tiger. Those are the stripes on the animal. So he basically said what he wanted to say. And he was kind enough.
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
I had a roast where all kinds of comedians cut me a new one, and he was kind enough to send his five or ten jokes that made fun of me. Look, 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 somebody the human part of that.
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons
And I would urge everybody to, when you first meet somebody, it's not a litmus test. Don't start talking about, do you want to transition? Or don't start the conversation. Wait, it'll come up. Don't worry. Don't talk politics, religion, There's always going to be something you're going to object to, and you're not going to win the argument.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
Coming up next on The Jordan Harbinger Show. If you have a hit single and you just sing in the microphone, they're paying more money for a ticket than they do for the album. It makes fans. Michael Jackson, without all that dancing and the backwards and the stuff, not the same artist.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
So if I was, quote, African-American and I lived in Harlem, I'd never think about being black because almost all my friends and almost everybody around me is black. And I don't want to talk for other white people, but there are varying degrees of who your mother was, who your grandmother was. You can be mixed or not mixed or all that stuff.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
At the end of the day, you try to go through the stop signs and the different lanes of life, and then you die. So there's not much going on except trying to figure out how to be comfortable in your skin, whether anybody else gets it or not. So I've always been delusional about myself. Yeah.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
How about this? I know Mike Tyson a little bit. We've spent time over the years. And to hear Mike talk, if you just turn off the visuals and the history, you would never imagine that that voice was the most dangerous person on two legs that ever stepped into the ring. That's true. Mindset and will dominates. In fact, if you're about to die in the hospital, doctors try to talk you.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
There's such a thing as will to survive, will to live. And you can be self-destruct in your mind and release toxins. And you hurry up the clock where you die. What do they die from? A broken heart. What the fuck does that mean? Yeah, I don't know. No, actually, your body releases negative toxins which kill you from the inside. So Tyson, well, he was always too short to be a heavyweight.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
He didn't have a long reach because he was short. He never had the girth or the strength early on. He used to get picked on. I don't want to go into how he survived. He'll tell you that himself. And he doesn't have the lowest voice. And there was an impediment, you know, all that kith and all that.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
He decided at whatever point in his life that he's going to be the champion of champions of all time. And the rest is just hard work. I mean, that's the hardest part. But without lighting the fire, the spark, you're never going to get the forest fire. So it's mindset. Mindset is everything. You're about to walk a tightrope. You know what that is, right?
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
Yeah. I don't know if it's 50%, but there's a chance you're going to fall off. Yeah. Now, you can think about it in two ways. One is thinking to yourself, well, there's a tightrope and there's nothing holding, there's no net. You know, there's a pretty decent chance I'm going to fall, and I don't know if I'll get to the other side and all that stuff. Or you can do what champions do, delusionally.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
There's no way I'm not going to get double negative, which means absolutely I'm going to get to the other side. What do boxers do? in the dressing rooms. I'm going to kill that guy when I get in there. What does a coach do when he gets into the dressing room and sees all these guys with towels? Oh, nice dick. No, that's another kind of coach. What does he do? He immediately starts yelling at them.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
Who are you going to kill? Who are you going to do? You know, you get, it's called mindset. Yeah. And that's
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
I had an advantage. Yeah. I didn't have to compete with anybody. It was just my mother and I. And even if you're dealt unfair cards- You can still get up in the morning and work at jobs you hate. Sure. I worked the night shift at Williamson & Williamson, a legal firm in New York City, going at 8.30 at night, come out 12 hours later.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
I could type really fast because I took typing and dictaphone in high school because the rest of the class were all girls.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
Did I pronounce that correctly? I think you nailed it. What's up? Yeah, nailed it. Despite the fact that it's a T at the end and not an S, but I still pronounce it S. Yeah. That's incorrect, isn't it?
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
I want to tell you the actual. You want to hear something crazy? Yeah.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
You tried a vernacular? That's a Dracula, right? Yeah, you start saying what's up in a big corporate event, see how far that gets you. I think you could get away with it.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
Oh, I could get away with it, but only because of the fame and the money. Somebody who's looking for job security, not going to work.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
I guess the doctor pulled me out by the wrong appendage. Yeah, maybe.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
Yeah, it was. That checks the box. See what I did there? We actually went and visited there because there's a dildo post office. She hates it when I mention this. And we ate at the dildo cafe. Overlooking Placentia Bay. No. Look it up on Google and Schmoogle. And there's Captain Dildo. It's a fascia, in other words, a two-dimensional thing of a guy with a beard, just like you'd expect.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
Well, as girls will tell you, they don't like to discuss it with other guys, but they'll talk to themselves about it. It's the movement. Mine is blessed with having the ability to have a spin and dry cycle and whip up a good goddamn froth. But by and large, the mystery of women is that no two are alike. I mean, men are as simple as ABC. Not even. You don't even get to see.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
There's one movement you can make with your hand. Done. I figured out all men. No, soft, fast, too slow, too fast. And also to unlock the honeypot. The best you can hope for is to start spelling the alphabet. A, B, C. Oh, she likes the C. Okay, there's it. Every girl's different.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
Well, it's worth noting that the two original guys who did partake... We're in and out of the band three times and then eventually out of the band. You can't be an Olympic athlete or a football player in something and be high. It doesn't work.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
Now, conceptually, I could almost understand the idea of using crack or whatever the hell people call it, if it makes your schmeckle bigger or if you get richer or better looking or live longer or, you know, whatever those things are. None of that happens. In fact, it costs money. And if you drink enough, your schmeckle won't work. There's guaranteed you're not going to say anything bright enough
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
to the chick you're with. She's judging you, remember, trying to figure out if you're worth her time. You may throw up on her shoes that she just bought for the date, and if she lets you get close to her, Your equipment's not going to work if you drink enough. Oh, by the way, the next day you'll have a headache and you'll be, what the hell? What's that? Yeah, it's a terrible sales pitch.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
So when I was 13, I'd be invited to sweet 16 parties because I was always taller and all that stuff. And, you know, they'd have spin the bottle and all that stuff and rub two sticks together and start a fire, see what I just did there. Kids didn't have no idea what spin the bottle is. That was a big thrill.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
And see, you're not allowed to laugh at that because now you're a cis.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
It's fine. I don't care. I don't give a fuck either. And then what happened was... I would wait until the end of the night when the guys were drunk and passed out and like a vulture swoop in and take any chick. Because they were all drunk and passed out on the floor.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
I had Dick Donner, who had just started working on Superman, and Christopher Reeve, who was Superman, I think. And they both came up to my place. And we were talking about movies and stars and things. He had taken me over to Margot Kidder's house, you know, Lois Lane in L.A. when I was there. We were hanging out. And all I remember doing was playing my cartoon collection at Looney Tunes.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
to Donner and Christopher Reeve. And I remember Christopher saying, what is this stuff? And Donner was saying, no, no, no, this is cinematic. Look at the edit of that stuff and the subtlety of Bugs Bunny cross-dressing with lipstick. I mean, it was deep, almost Shakespearean.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
And the kids were watching it and thought that it was funny and stuff, but wink, wink, nudge, nudge, it was kind of grown-up material.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
And he's holding like a blackboard. And people write, it's about six feet tall, people write sayings. Stay where you're at and I'll come where you're to. By, you know, all kinds of new feet things. I had a dildo burger. Mm-hmm. I'm not making it up.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
Less Disney and more Fritz Freeling and Chuck Jones and Warner Brothers.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
That's a good point. There's never a Jewish parade. We need respect. Don't try to kill us. We're fine.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
Yeah. And there's more. Stay tuned, kids. Get grandma in here. I probably know her. So there's Placentia Bay. There's Come By Chance next town. And there's Spread Eagle, which is the town next to that. Really? There used to be a Spread Eagle coin. before Newfoundland joined Canada because they refused to join. They were very rebellious and stuff.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
Jews have never been accepted. And by the way, Asians have a problem in Western culture too. But I've never seen an Asian parade. Have you? I don't think so. Ever. Because they're too inclined to succeed in life and move on. And just despite what people say, go and make money. Money. James Brown said it better than anybody else. Black power is green power.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
Specifically, the wings that I designed for myself was a cross between Lon Chaney Sr. and London After Midnight, which is a movie that people haven't seen in decades, but I've seen photos of it, so the print has been lost. And Black Bolt from a comic group called The Inhumans. And by the way, I had the rights... to make a motion picture out of that.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
Marvel gave me the rights before the superhero cycle, and I couldn't get Universal interested enough. But eventually there was a Black Bolt series. I also had Ghost Rider.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
And everybody thought, well, what do you mean? It's a burning skull that's before the superhero cycle. So specifically, a cross between... London After Midnight, the movie, Lon Chaney Sr., who played a vampire, and Black Boat. And facially, the makeup came from the shadows on Lon Chaney Sr. 's face as Mary Philbin.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
His love interest in the opera he's playing, organ, she rips the mask off his face. And when he turns around, there's shadows on his face. And in my mind, I saw that image.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
One of the first covers of any magazines I got was in a magazine called One Dollar out of Toronto. We were playing there. And on the cover, it said something like the devil's disciple or something. You know, I was supposed to be evil. I don't even get high. I like cookies and girls.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
Or a mephism. Yeah. See what I did there? I did. You got dad jokes. Semantics, but I'm not anti-semantic. You better take your pen out and write things down.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
Millennials, a pen is a writing utensil which you hold in your hand. This is a fake one. There's no button to put it. It doesn't go on social media. There's paper, too, which comes from trees.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
Anybody who thinks, well, I'm not part of you, nobody cares who and what you think you are. There's only one contest. It's like all the different top 40 things in Billboard magazine. Top 40 alternative charts, top 40 reggae, top 40 Jewish folk songs, top 40. It's all nonsense. There is only one top 40. You're all in competition with everybody else. It doesn't matter what genre you're in.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
Yeah, if that. No, that means nothing. Those are all delusional, self-serving numbers. There's only one rule. We're all on the same planet. We better figure out how to get along with each other. Maybe a little more seriously, maybe all our jobs... invariably, big word like gymnasium, is to leave the world a little bit better, just a little bit better than when we came into it.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
I didn't think they joined until, oh, something like 1950. Before then, they had their own militia, their own currency. Yes. They're like the Texas of Canada. Well, different culture. They had displaced Irish with a touch of French and everything. By the way, if you go there and you want to be ingrained in it, you've got to kiss the screech. I'm not making any of this up.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
That's smart, obviously. That's really clever. Well, you're only going to get the respect you demand. You know, you have to assume that people don't have an imagination. Right. Sinatra had the same thing happen. His manager at the time went out and got high school girls and paid them 50 bucks or something to be in the front and do all that stuff.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
And they were called Bobby Soxers, Sinatra fans, because they were in school, had those Catholic skirts. They were called that. It's not a religious thing. That was just like an Italian t-shirt. That's what it was called. And those short skirts and the socks went way up the leg. Bobby Soxers. And then nobody else did that in rock because it was not credible. I don't care about credible.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
I just care about winning. You're not supposed to do licensing and merchandising. Who said that? Can I please meet that loser? He was probably still living in his mother's basement.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
Well, I think whether it's the least or the most, Just give me a chance. Again, because the vast majority in the world never even get the chance. So claw, do the best you can just to get up to bat. You may strike out, but if you never swing the bat, guaranteed you'll strike out. You won't even get a chance. All I want's a chance.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
Yeah. But there are people, young people especially, who's just starting in a band, who think it's called music. It was never called that. It was always called music business. That's what it's called. And if you believe in truth in advertising, business is cool. Andy Warhol, who I knew, of course, millennials have no idea what I'm talking about. What's the new generation called?
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
Yes, I'm part of the YXYZ. Shut the fuck up. So Andy Warhol said business is art and making money is the highest art. I hope I'm getting that right. It's pretty much right because almost everybody can do art. Not everybody can make money legally.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
Well, what's creative and who determines that? I let the fans determine that. There is only... Who cares? When a painting is really good, it's actually called priceless. You can't put a figure on it. Money is the judges holding up a number to tell you how well you did in your thing. That's all money is. The higher the number... supposedly, the better you're doing. The market, yeah, it's hard.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
It's a dead fish, and you've got to kiss this thing and do other godly things to it. That has to do with where the sun don't shine.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
It doesn't really lie, does it? It's what it is. What people say, how do you pay rent with that? You're the best that ever was.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
It is tough not to. I don't understand why that's a negative.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
You work hard by the sweat of thy brow. Our people gave that book to everybody in the world. It's called the Bible, even the New Testament. It's all Jews. And it says in the good book, by the sweat of thy brow. Anything that you earn by the sweat of your brow has value. When you make money without exertion, the value loses what they call gravitas. It just doesn't impact you the same.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
Yeah, it does feel good to earn as opposed to just to get, eh? Yeah, because then you don't have to say thank you to anybody.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
Without them, I'd be asking the next person in line if they'd like some fries with that. And by the way, that's an honorable profession.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
It was one of the life lessons. Kiss was on one of the first real rock concert TV shows, early 1974. Dick Clark had already been a mainstay in television. He had a show called American Bandstand. Yeah, I remember that. A young teen show every day after school. People would hurry three, four o'clock in the afternoon, and they'd watch. Written by Barry Manilow, as a matter of fact.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
And they'd listen to new music, and everybody would come on there. Madonna and Schmadonna and everybody else. And then kids would listen to new songs. How do you like that song? I give it a 95 because I can dance to it. I like the beat. You know, they don't know what they like. But that was, you know, like kid stuff. And then in concert was exactly that.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
You'd have the groups of the day playing live like a concert, and we were given a slot. First record came out, and we were so thankful for them because we didn't look or sound or walk or talk like the other bands. Melissa Manchester, Kool and the Gang, I don't remember who else was on the bill, and Kiss.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
Yeah, because you always do what she says.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
I'll tell you very quickly, in the afternoon we had to do a run-through so the cameras would know who's singing. I see. who's going to be where, what are you going to do so they can cover you because it's television. Was it live? Live. Yeah, okay. And that was also, and you can't do that nowadays.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
No, you can say a potty word and the advertisers get upset. So we did a song called Firehouse, actually that Paul wrote, and then I'm supposed to spit fire and I'm talking to the cameraman right here I'm holding my hand up in the air. I'm going to be spitting fire. The guy goes, what do you mean spitting fire? I'm going, no, for real.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
Actually, there's a fire guy watching and it's going to be like this and it's going to be eight or 10 feet. He goes, okay. So the show starts and we start doing it and the cameras are all trying to pick up all the shots. And I start walking towards the camera. And if you ever see that, I start to, the camera guy jumped off the camera and the camera went up.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
Well, he was afraid. He was, I don't know what he was afraid of.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
Open flame and a flammable. And I've caught fire a number of times.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
I don't want to tell people. Don't try it. There are so many videos on YouTube with kids who are trying to do that who went up in flames.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
Well, in the beginning, we protected, you know, Superman, Clark Kent. Right. Yeah, that's funny.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
Superman didn't want to talk about Clark Kent. Right. And likewise, we kept our faces hidden, our actual faces. You know, it's like beautiful women with makeup and all that stuff. They don't want you to see them in a potato sack without their makeup on.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
In the days when $25,000 was a lot of money, there was a $25,000 reward on our heads without makeup, yeah.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
No, not really. They were snippets, but no. To give you an idea of what $25,000 was, right before KISS happened, I worked on 47th Street in the jewelry district. Minimum wage was $1.25 an hour. It skyrocketed to $1.75 an hour. $100 a week was a good wage. People were making $5,000 a year or something like that? That's right. And a Volkswagen, you could get for $1,500. Wow. Brand new.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
That's mind-blowing, actually. When I was a kid earlier, 1959 possibly- I bought a movie ticket for 29 cents and I saw two movies and three cartoons. That's crazy.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
Well, a year or two ago, I think a dozen X was a buck 50. Now it's four bucks. Yeah. Unless you shop in LA and then it's seven dollars.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
All were female, so don't get excited.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
No. I was afraid of marriage, monogamy, and children. I didn't want to turn out like my father. Tell us about your father. Well, my father ran out on us. See, even that doesn't get close to it. My father ran out on me. I was seven years old. I never had a father figure at home. I remember my father was, you know, in the army, Israel was always being attacked one way or the other.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
So I remember, I don't know, five or six, there's a machine, a Russian with a Kalashnikov, I think is what it's called. And as funny as it may sound, he had a uniform and on weekends, They'd have to go to the front line. I mean, here you are in Beverly Hills. You know, Pasadena is half hour away. That would be another country that would want to kill you.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
I don't... Want to pour cold water in your face. But anyone who says you don't need the money is a loser. Your ears actually hear you say those things. And then you prevent your mind from literally it's been proven over and over again that the words you say will affect you either good or bad. I didn't say you didn't want the money. I said you didn't need the money.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
And in those days, 35,000 rockets came into Haifa or in that area where I lived. And on the weekends, my father would put on his uniform, take his thing, and hitchhike. They didn't have military trucks. They still hitchhike in Israel now. Well, Israel didn't have an air force or a navy or anything, but just people with guns. And they still beat five Arab countries. We went every time.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
And it's generational. Nothing's going to change there until there are new generations who aren't dominated by religion. You have to remember World War II as a student of history. And my mother was 14 when she was in the concentration camps of Nazi Germany. During World War II, Germans and Japanese, the entire culture, the entire people, bought the evil hook, line, and sinker. They were Nazi.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
They loved it. And even after two atom bombs were dropped on Japan, they didn't make new terrorists or anything. The next generation said, you know, we were wrong. We got to move on. And they stopped worshiping the emperor as God. The culture has to change from within. When guys sitting, self-appointed religious people become less important, happened with Christianity too.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
The Pope used to be a big deal and he would say, crusades for them. After a while, they ran out of grownups and they had a children's crusade. Insane. None of them made it to Israel. They were all raped or killed before because they ran out of grownups.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
I didn't think I had an appetite. And one second, you're nobody and girls make you go through an obstacle course. What's your name? What sign are you in? Not on the first date, first base, second base, third base, you know, all that stuff. But you're both sexual. You both want the same thing. But then there are the cultural mores. Girls, women, females have different rules. Self-imposed a lot.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
And some guys think that. And guys have no rules. It's like two different sides of the same coin. You're both human beings, but may as well speak another language. So, you know, it's tough for a guy. I don't mean to get a girlfriend, but just to satiate himself, as they say.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
Going from there, and overnight, on the very first show, we played South Edmonton University, and there were girls back in the hotel. We were nobody. This is Canada.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
Yeah, there were girls back at the hotel just because you're in a band. It doesn't happen to plumbers or dentists. and different rules. They didn't even care if you remembered their name. You see, they're bored with their humdrum small-town family life. These strangers, it's like the circus comes to town. It's exciting. You know, it's different. Yeah, and there was a lot of that for many decades.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
No, no, everybody needs the money. And I'll explain to you why. Warren Buffett, the richest guys in the world, and they are all guys who earned it anyway, get up every day and they go to work to do one thing, make more money. You are the gerbil on the merry-go-round, but you're alive. You're supposed to move or you're dead if you don't have a reason.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
Many model portfolios from the floor up to here, something like that. And then when I came clean, Shannon and I burned them together.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
She always saw it in the media and stuff like that. But at some point, you got to grow up. I don't think women understand that just because there's a guy who's 25 or 30 years old and he's 6'2 and weighs, I don't know, 190, 200 pounds. That's a man. He's got a low voice. No, he's not. She's smiling blankly. So you're a 14-year-old horny kid, and if she turns her back, you'll climb on her mother.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
You're inconsolable. You just have an appetite. I mean, it's nice if someone, hello, nice to see you. It's better to treat everybody nicely, but I don't believe for a second that men become mature enough Until their 60s. 60s? Oh, yeah. Really? Well, look at the divorce rates.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
Why do divorce rates happen? Why are they so high? Because the guys fuck around. Why do they do that? Because even though they're grown men, they desire the other women.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
Is that what you're thinking? Never thought in any of those terms, nor would I hardly ever use the word pathological. In all other ways, I thought I was responsible. I show up on time. I treat people nicely. I make money. I buy my mother houses. You know, I take care of everything. No drugs, no booze. I don't even smoke cigarettes. And I like girls. Socially acceptable vice.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
I didn't care what was or what was not socially acceptable because in my delusion, it didn't matter to me what people thought of me. It still doesn't. And in this woke world, that's a problem.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
Well, I've got my judge and jury over there, my media maven.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
Oh, she shakes her head every once in a while, or her legs start. No, no, no, don't do that. We did KTLA this morning.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
And I started to make a comment. I don't remember what about.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
Look, we can't give birth despite what some people may think. That's called being on crack. So we can't give birth. We don't have menstrual cycle. What else do we do except work? It's the only, oh, she's shaking her head. See, shouldn't talk about that. No, we do have menstrual cycles. No, we don't. So the only thing we can do is, you know, the cart, the horse that pulls the cart.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
It comes from the Hebrew word shatam, which is the choice question. Not an embodiment of evil. Christians made it with the horns and the tail.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
Yeah. Jews created the idea, but as a choice. Just like the cartoons, you have a little horned guy on one shoulder and an angel on the other shoulder. You have the choice of evil deeds. Satan is a choice, not a two-legged horn.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
Well, what happened to do not judge lest ye be judged? Let those among you who is without sin cast the first stone.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
Bitch, I know where you live. Well, because there's a holier-than-thou sickness mentally, because a little bit of information emboldens us. makes somebody think, I'm better than you are, holier than thou. I know stuff you don't. And they often use it as a battering ram to elevate their own inadequacies. So who died and made you God? Since when did you become my judge and jury?
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
I thought there was a personal relationship between myself and God.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
There was a guy dressed up like what he thought Jesus looked like because there was a historical Jesus. There was a human being. And we know that because Josephus Flavius, the Hebrew scribe for the Romans, was a Jew. Hebrew because it came from Hebron. See, Heb, Hebron. Never put that together. Yeah, and Jew because they're Judean. Yeah, from Judea. Geographical location, yeah.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
And if you're not pulling the cart, what's your excuse for living? What are you supposed to do?
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
They have to run because they're not qualified to have that discussion. They're talking with mental midgets. They know a little bit more than God. See that? God will predict. So I asked one of these guys who was dressed in what he thought Jesus looked like, straight hair. He looked like he's from Norway and blue eyes and all that. I'm going, bitch, I don't want to tell you this, but
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
The real human being, Rabbi Yesu ben Yosef, is in the Vatican in Josephus Flavius' handwriting. Oh, I forgot. Most people think his last name was Christ. No. Mom and Dad were not Mr. and Mrs. Christ. Joseph Christ and Mary Christ. No. That's a title that comes Christo in Latin, which means Messiah or King. That makes sense. That's why he's called the Christ. Nobody says the Simmons.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
Like the president. It's a title. Or the Christ child or Christ Jesus, like King James. Get it? No, his last name is son of Joseph. But you don't get taught that because it mixes you up. Wait a minute. I thought he was the son of God. But his last name is the son of Joseph. Yeah. How about that?
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
Would he have had a Hebrew name like Ben Yosef or whatever? Yes. Even Arabs. Bin Laden. Bin is son. The British Isles. McDonald. The Mac is a son.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
Well, it was a different culture. I don't think Led Zeppelin ever had a hit single. In fact, hit single, there was radio airplay. And you could get high on the charts, but never singles. And then there were actual sales. So here's a trick question. We all know the Beach Boys had a ton of stuff, ton of songs, 20, 30 songs. that everybody knew. Help me, Rhonda. Good vibrato. Lots of them.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
It's a trick question. Who has actual gold singles? More of them. Gold singles. Beach Boys or Kiss? A gold single sells more than a million copies. Beach Boys or Kiss has more... I have no idea. The Beach Boys, maybe? Who knows? Tied. Tied? Beach Boys only have two gold singles. Kiss has two gold singles. But they were played a lot more...
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
What easy? Doing nothing is easy, but you also don't make money. It's harder. It's harder for me to do nothing.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
during daytime radio because mom is at home, dad is at working. None of that loud guitar stuff. More harmonies.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
Yes, because we were Anglophiles. So our favorite bands... or English bands, Zeppelin and so on. Of course, the favorite of them all is The Beatles, but that's an exception. Nobody could write songs like them before, during, or since. McCartney is the most successful songwriter of all time. You know what a cover is, where other artists do your covers? Yesterday alone,
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
was covered by 1,000 plus other artists. Just that song. And they also did Live and Let Die, just a ton of stuff. But you can't shine the boots of the Beatles. It's a different league. But Led Zeppelin never played the singles game. ACDC didn't care. They were an album band. So it's a different culture. Yeah. It's a good strategy though, right?
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
Yeah. in your estimation, for your life, of having enough money where you don't need more? Not really, and that's the problem. Why is that a problem?
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
But by the time Metallica came in, the culture was set. When we were first starting, you still had a lot of pressure to get a song on the radio, get a song on the radio. I see. And then it opened up. Maiden and Metallica and a lot of those.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
A lot of new bands became very famous very fast and then died very famous. And I don't mean to pick on them. They're fine, I'm sure. There's a band called Wang Chung.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
They had dance hall days and And they had hits. You can't name anybody in the band, and nobody ever wore a Wang Chung T-shirt. I'm sure they're terrific and all that. So there were lots and lots of bands who had number one songs and then disappear. Because you've got to deliver on stage.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
If you have a hit single and you just sing in the microphone, they're paying more money for a ticket than they do for the album.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
Michael Jackson, without all that dancing and the backwards and the stuff, not the same artist.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
But you're mixing apples with pears. What has nothing to do with it? Yeah, the more you work, the less time you get with your kids. Yeah, but they're too young to give a fuck. I don't know. When they get older. I'm not sure. We have two kids.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
Not in music. Innovators are Elon Musk. Tell me about that. NASA, with all the hundreds of billions of dollars, couldn't figure out how to reuse a rocket. So every time they launched something, they had to throw it away. Elon Musk reused it. Can land take off, land take off. Electric cars outsold all the car companies, changed it overnight. Car companies didn't want to do it. Unions.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
See what I did there? He doesn't care. It always takes one visionary, a futurist who doesn't care, just wants to do what they want to do. Alexander Graham Bell, Edison, even Ford at the beginning, who created this kind of assembly line thing, which didn't exist before Futurists don't look at what is. They do what they want to do. So Elon's got the boring company. He's going to have robot taxis.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
It's just all this stuff. It's not waiting to ask anybody what they think. He will be the first legal trillionaire.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
And this is not advice. I'm not a financial advisor. You have to say that full disclosure. I'm not a lawyer. I'm a lawyer, but I'm not your lawyer. It depends what kind of lawyer and which state. But probably the two safest for me are Bitcoin and Ethereum. And the rest you have to play.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
I've got 13 or 14 different cryptos that I play with.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
And the first five years or so is a blank. Hey, remember that time when Santa Claus got... Nope. Yeah, that trip to Disney is not for you. And again, in the old days, dad, almost without exception, would get up at the crack of dawn and go out and work. There's no such thing as, I've got to spend more time with the children. No, your job is to go out there and provide for the family.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
never really understood it because from her, you know, they were lucky. All of Europe, not just Jewish households, but right after the Great Depression, 1929 and on, people couldn't even have an egg. There are photos of Germans with wheelbarrows full of Deutschmarks trying to get enough money together, just stacks of money to get a few eggs. People have no idea the great generation.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
There are 100 million people that died in World War II. Even white people. I'm not even talking about black Asia or anything, just white Europeans. 100 million died. Starvation, war, killings, and all this stuff. It was insane. People who lived through that have a completely different point of view about life and the value of things.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
My mother, in the translation in Hungarian, every day above ground is a good day, is worth taking note of. Kind of corny. What do you have to complain about living here in Beverly Hills? What exactly? Riots? War? What? Yeah, I know. Some hooded teenagers break into 7-Elevens and all this kind of stuff. I know. I can't tell you how I would react because she's shaking her head.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
Let's just say there were different rules for the police when I was growing up. There was less crime.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
Once drugs became culture, we went to hell and back.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
Yeah. But that's during the drug world. When I was growing up and I went to school, you couldn't even, you weren't allowed to have liquor, booze, beer. Out in the open. You'd have to have it in a brown paper bag. That's still the case. Oh, is it still?
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
Well, they take baths in it over there.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
But never heard of a drug addict. Nobody smoked that we knew of. It was looked down on.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
Well, if we landed in New York, and it was a shock to me because we're- We, your mother and yourself? My mother and myself landed in New York. I never saw tall buildings or every street was covered in concrete or asphalt. Every street in the small town and the bottom of Mount Carmel, like the biblical Carmel, that's where I was born.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
Talking about the soon-to-be trillionaire, believe it or not, Elon Musk, he will be the first trillionaire legally, not Putin or anybody else. Yeah, right. And he's got 12 kids and who knows how many... Terrible relationships with a few of them, too. Well... Unfortunately. So is life. I'm not here to judge or anything. Just make the observation that you can be a nice person or a horrible person.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
just like, you know, with the grapes and like those stories in the Bible. Yeah, it's a real place, and I was right at the foot of those mountains. I used to go up there and get cactus fruit. There was no infrastructure, just dirt on the road. I'd never heard of television. Literally. Never heard of it. We didn't have radio.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
There was a hole in the ground outside, and you wiped with rags that my mother used to wash.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
I don't know about that. No, I just wanted to say that. Okay. And two Jews talking. How are you? How am I? How should I be? Who wants to know? Why are you asking? Good Lord. Accurate. Accurate. And when we first came to America, I was in shock. People were big. The buildings were big. Everybody had cars. The sandwiches were massive.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
In Israel, you got a newspaper, used newspaper, and they'd give you a slab of meat and a little thing, a little butter. There was no brands. That was your food for the week. And cornbread, big honking pieces of stuff. There were no stuff, barely any canned goods. And the land of plenty, you bet. I remember my Aunt Magda was married to my mother's brother, who'd done well.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
Both her brothers were very successful. And she, Aunt Magda, I was looking at the refrigerator because I didn't know what it was. We didn't have one. Yeah, we never had a refrigerator. Just a white kind of a thing with a handle. So I spoke Hungarian as well so much. She didn't speak Hebrew. Aunt Magda walked over and she opened the thing and I... Couldn't believe it. This box was filled with food.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
There was fruit and, you know, eggs and stuff, all this food. And I remember looking on the side To my right, I must have been eight. Actually, I was eight before I was nine. See what I just did there? There was another joke. I looked over there, and there was this kind of reddish thing, and I was attracted by the color. And I opened up the top, and my Aunt Magda gave me a spoon. It was jam.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
My Aunt Magda might have been schmuckers. And she gave me a spoon. I guess she meant for me to taste it. Sure. I'd never had jam. Tell me you ate that whole jar. I punished. I tasted it, and I went, oh, my God, it's crack. And emptied out that thing, and I couldn't stop eating. I never tasted anything like that. I bet. And both my mother and Aunt Magda were crying so hard they were in tears.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
And I had no idea with mouthfuls of jam what they were laughing at. That's so funny. What a story.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
It must have been a trip for your mom to come to America, too, though. From her perspective, yes. And I remember I had never heard of television. We went to my Uncle George's house, and in those days, television screens were smaller, about the size of your head. Well, mine. Yours is a little smaller. It's a little more compact. And you'd have six-foot-long furniture.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
On both sides, you'd have liquor and stuff, sort of like a large cabinet, six feet long. And in the middle would be the television set with a smaller screen. And I remember walking in, and it must have been the news hour because there was a close-up of the guy's head, and I thought there was a guy in the box. I couldn't imagine that. No, it was being broadcast in the air.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
It is incredible when you think about it. I didn't understand what that was. I'd never seen a television set. And then when I understood all television stuff, one of the first things I saw, again, that blew my mind is some guy with a towel or something around his back, and he's flying through the air without an airplane. It's unbelievable. Created by Jews, of course. Didn't know that. Makes sense.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
All superheroes. All the comic book companies were invented by Jews. Bob Kane, Batman, Bob Cohen, Jack Kirby, Stan Lee, all those characters, Jews. It's the Moses myth of Moses, whose family were being killed. Krypton was blowing up, so they sent Kel-al, like El-al, those are Hebrew names, being sent down to the space ark. If you ever saw the imagery,
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
So let's say you're an asshole multi-billionaire who never gave a dime to charity. But that person who built... palaces for himself and bought schooners and other useless objects for the rest of us, still had to hire people because he's not going to build his own boat or mansion.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
He's leaning back with a little blanket on, just like Moses. He gets adopted by the Goyim, the non-Jew, Gentiles, in this case Egyptians, and raised, and he became great. We do come full circle, don't we? Superman is the Moses mythos created by two Jews from Cleveland, Ohio. Jews of Cleveland. But they don't talk about that. The Hulk, the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, Jews.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
It's this hiding your public persona and having a secret identity. You know, the classic assimilationists. Dress British, think Yiddish. Including the movie industry. Every single, without exception, movie studio was created, invented, and designed by Jews to make non-Jewish movies. for the simple reason that there were very few Jews. You want to make money, you got to go to the market.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
So a lot of movies with crosses and Christ and whatever you want, just buy tickets. Warner Brothers, those are not their names. You couldn't pronounce their names. It's probably like Livschitz Brothers or something like that. Yeah. So they changed all their names.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
This guy Fox, 20th century Fox, he was an Eastern European Jew in New York buying fur coats, foxes, from Canada, shipping them down and sewing them on already made winter coats. So they became Fox fur coats and people couldn't pronounce his name. So he changed his name to fucks.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
No, this is the American success story because as proud as I am of the historical and biblical Israel and all that, you cannot rise to this level anywhere else. We fly through the air, the computer, you're on TV, movies. It was all invented here, including the phone, by different people from different nationalities. That is the That's the wonder of this place. But we need much stronger laws.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
You got to get the scum off the street. Put me in charge. I'll fix it. Gene Simmons for president, 2020.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
I recorded Bartender in a hotel room of a nudist resort. You're ass naked, looking out your window with a cup of coffee. There's people by the pool. Just everything's happening all at this one hotel. And you're just like, this is nice. This is nice. The hardest thing about being number one is staying number one. That stuck with me so much that I didn't even care
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
He hired people, and even though he's an asshole, he gave them jobs which enabled them to feed their families and put a roof over their head. Even the asshole that never contributed to charity is more important than you would ever imagine. They're job creators and all that. Job creator, but is that the highest? It sounded like I was finished, but I wasn't.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
when I became number one, because I felt like I needed to work harder to stay there, and everything else was a distraction. Broke was Wells Fargo sending me emails saying, your account has reached $0. Oh, wow. Like, broke was me asking my manager, can he buy food for my kids? And this is from, like, upwards of $90 million. Wow. And then gone to pure $0. I mean, because I was young.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
43 cars. All the gas goes bad in all of them. The Ferraris don't crank up if they're not driven every day. The Bugatti is stuck in between two Chevys. It took me nine years to lose all that money, and it took me two years to get it back. I could be a lot richer.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
I could be going to space in a giant dick, or I could be stuffing my nose and my ears with toilet paper to make sure roaches don't get in it. I think I'm fine where I am. This seems okay. Oh, man.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
Well, you're either you live in the planet with other people and capitalism doesn't work if other people aren't working alongside. You know, if I make all the money in the world and I put it in a box and put it under the bed, nothing happens. In fact, inflation kicks in by less and less for the amount of money you have. It is only like running water. The fact that it runs keeps it fresh.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
Capitalism is based on the idea of Let's say I don't like you and I'm not going to lend you a dime and all that stuff. You're still providing a service and you're charging for that, whatever it is that you do. No. If you're going to be an asshole, it's still better to be a rich, miserable asshole and not to be flippant because I'm not. I really do. I give to charity and philanthropy.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
Last year it was about two and a half million. But a poor person never gave me a job. That's kind of a stunning, horrible thing to say. It is, yeah, but I follow. But it's the rich people that cause economies to flourish. That 1%. They create jobs. They build skyscrapers. The city doesn't have enough money. They do bonds. They work in banks.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
And they loan money to people who don't have enough money. What if you could get richer without spending all your time working?
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
Is that what you think you would do if you weren't working all the time?
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
Well, you're mixing other people with me.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
It's the love of labor. It's the idea that, again, not having the ability or facility to give birth, I don't have a purpose in life other than producing, making money. Even if I give all the money away or buy my mother the hip operation she needs or— Your mom's still around? No. She lived to be 94. The idea, though, applies to everybody. Without money, you can't do anything.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
Love is the most powerful force on the planet is a lie. Money is the most powerful force on the planet, maybe the only one, because if you're living on a Kalahari desert and you're the, that's in Africa, if you're a loving mother and you have a child in your arms and you would give your life for your child, there's a caravan going by. If you don't have money, you're fucked.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
your loving child will die in your arms. Even if you're a terrible mother, but you have money, you will both survive. It's a horrible life lesson, but not if you look at money as the air that you breathe. It's neither good nor bad, or like water. You need water or you'll perish, but you can drown in water. Fire is really important.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
It warms the food, kills the bacteria, and all this kind of stuff. But you can lie to Forrest Farr. And if you think you've got enough money, anybody out there listening, I'll give my personal bank information because I want you to wire me any dollar you don't need. Because I always want more. You could do a lot with Gene Simmons' personal banking information, folks. Oh, no, just gifting is good.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
You don't need a bank. Just send it to me. It'll make me happier. I would challenge you on that, but we only have so much time. Please try. You win the lottery.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
But the more money you make, the more flexibility you have with free time. I have so much. The less money you have, the less of a choice you have.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
I don't want to get into that because I'm sure there are other elements in that relationship. I'm sure there are. Never just about that. No. I'm not getting into the muck and mire between you and your dad.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
You know, they ebb and flow because... One entity might have a year window or a two-year window and so on. Nobody has an exclusive forever, but everything. You want me to do the joke, which I've done many times? Sure. We have made everything from Kiss condoms. We've made Kiss caskets. We'll get you coming and we'll get you going. I said it before, but it's still funny.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
No. When I was a kid living with my mother in Israel because my father ran out on us or went off on his own, take your pick, when I was about seven and my poor mother had to go out and work six days a week. and do what in some racial ethnic groups, 70 to 75% of all households, married or single, are these brave, hardworking, single mothers because guys are assholes. Some guys are, that's for sure.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
Predominantly, they leave. They just, one day they get up and they leave. They abandon the kids and the mother, and she's supposed to raise the child, make sure it gets to school on time, all that stuff, watch over them, and go out and make money. The real superheroes of the planet are women. Yeah, I can get behind that. Guys just work. Women give life.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
We were always, relatively speaking, dirt poor. But I never... felt poor nor ever thought about poor. Listen to the language. How did you do on the test poorly? How is that? That's poor. How is that wine? Well, that's rich. The language tells you the value of the words. Think of it this way. We have a double standard. If you work hard and dig ditches, you know that Sunset Boulevard we drove down?
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
Somebody had to pave that pour the asphalt and all the rest of that stuff. They do that every day, vacation time if they can get it, but they get up every day and work at a job they don't like, in some cases hate, in summer, in snow, and everything else. And they hate it just for the money so that they can feed their family and survive. That's the salt of the earth.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
But if you're an actor or a painter or a rock star, you know, whatever you are, and you make a lot of money, you're disparaged. And that's a nice way of saying, ah, that guy's an asshole. Well, there's no credibility there. I guess a lot of people do call me an asshole. It's usually for other reasons.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
It's relative, depending on who's looking at you. I see. So when, as opposed to if, aliens land on the planet, they won't understand the differences. If you're in America, whatever racial group, and you come from the South... How y'all doing? What are you doing over there? You kind of go, snicker, snicker. Listen to how they talk. They're from the south. I'm from the, ah, those northern bastards.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1092: Gene Simmons | KISS and Make-Up
Then there's East Coast versus West Coast. And then you look at middle America. Well, nothing happens there. And they look at you. Everybody's got differences. Then there's old age, young kids. You're an amoeba. You don't know anything. Then there's black, white, Hispanic, all the differences. Even Cain and Abel didn't get along very well. So your definition of yourself is based on to whom.
The School of Greatness
Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
Oh, hell no. I know that I'm not the best looking guy in the world or the smartest or anything, but I will walk into any room and I will walk out with your girlfriend. There's no doubt in my mind.
The School of Greatness
Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
I've been careful, so I win.
The School of Greatness
Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
Well, more specifically, how to be Disney without the overhead. But it's not as difficult as people think it is because unlike other countries, all information is available for free online. to anyone who wants to put in the time and it was called it's the house of god otherwise known as the library don't forget that second r in the middle it's not library it's library
The School of Greatness
Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
And I used to go to the library every day after yeshiva. I was studying to be a rabbi, but then I discovered girls. So I was in school, yeshiva, which means the sitting, the whole day. And afterwards I'd go to the library, which was only a few blocks down. And I'm the only guy I've ever met or talked to who's actually read the Encyclopedia Britannica, cover to cover.
The School of Greatness
Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
I am the corniest, most boring guy at a party.
The School of Greatness
Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
Even during college, I went to the State University upstate New York, took out my own bank loan, paid for it myself and all that. So afternoons, I'd be the lifeguard at the Pines Hotel up in the Catskill Mountains, otherwise called the Jewish Mountains, literally. Because every weekend you'd have Jerry Lewis there and like all these guys, Milton Berle.
The School of Greatness
Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
And so I worked right after I'd finished classes and I'd go make some more money. And on the weekends, the Wicked, not Wicked Lester, but what was it called? Bullfrog beer. That was the college band, and we played covers and some of my original songs, which by then I learned how to write my own songs. Not very good. Two of them or so wound up being Kiss songs.
The School of Greatness
Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
work until late at night, six days out of the week. There was no such thing as five days, two days off. And in Israel, it's the Sabbath, Saturday that you take off. Sunday, you go right back to work. from 6 a.m. until 7, 7.30 p.m. And so both of my mother's brothers became successful in America.
The School of Greatness
Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
And during one weekend, I'd make more money with the band having fun with the chicks and the attention and all that than I would the whole week working. It started to make more financial sense Yes, I had more fun. And then I graduated in 1972 from the City University at Richmond College and started teaching sixth grade in Spanish Harlem.
The School of Greatness
Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
Segway to being the assistant to the editor of Vogue magazine, assistant to the director of the Puerto Rican Interagency Council, a government-funded research and demonstration project, where I saved $23,000 by the time I was 23 years of age. I lived at home. Makes more sense. You want to meet in Chicago? Go to the Holiday Inn. Otherwise... Save your money. Yeah. Save your money.
The School of Greatness
Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
lived at home when I didn't need to spend money. But of course I contributed a little bit. And we, I met another guy too. who shared the love of English music, which is really American music, anglicized. We were anglophiles, the Beatles and the Stones and Zeppelin and all that, and made our own pastiche, our own thing, like they did their own thing of American music. And by 1973,
The School of Greatness
Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
We got signed to Casablanca Records, a new record label.
The School of Greatness
Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
23.
The School of Greatness
Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
22.
The School of Greatness
Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
Yes, it was.
The School of Greatness
Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
We played clubs from nothing to everything. Really? Yes. We played New Year's Eve, Fourth on the Bill, at the Academy of Music in New York City, 1973-74. And two months after that, the first album came out. We were fourth on the bill. KISS, Teenage Lust, which was a local band, Iggy Pop, and Blue Oyster Cult. And on the first, by the third song, I'm Spitting Fire. We were full makeup.
The School of Greatness
Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
My hair catches fire. And we're on the covers of all the magazines and everything. New band from Hellfire. And you know, all this kind of stuff. I was just glad to be alive.
The School of Greatness
Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
but within a year and a half of coming out before mtv before cell phones we had still rotary calls superman was still going into that booth and changing of course people can't see him taking off his pants because he's in a phone booth while all this was happening within a year and a half were headlining Anaheim Stadium in Los Angeles. Wow. Yeah, just that overnight thing.
The School of Greatness
Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
We had no hit singles, nothing. Really? Yes, it became what the Germans called Zeitgeist, the water cooler conversation. The way you spread your brand in those days were rock magazines, circus and raves and all these colorful magazines that had posters. And we were always on the cover because the rest of the band is just boring. Yeah, they're not visual.
The School of Greatness
Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
So our brand and people, you know, the fans, we started selling out multiple days in arenas before we even had a gold record.
The School of Greatness
Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
You're giving us too much credit. We didn't know anything.
The School of Greatness
Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
But that's what happened. You were just rock and roll gypsies. Right. You were glad you didn't have to do nine to five.
The School of Greatness
Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
And be in the same cubicle, doing the same thing.
The School of Greatness
Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
None of that. Scientists either call it a singularity or an anomaly. We were rehearsing doing these songs that Paul Stanley and I wrote. Stanley Eisen. Eisenberger. Eisenberger. And I started writing and then Ace Fraley contributed a song or two. And as we heard, you know, this kind of sounds pretty good. And we had Peter Criss on drums and everybody could sing, everybody could play.
The School of Greatness
Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
Yes, right before World War II. My mother and my father went to Israel in 1949, and both brothers had already started working in America. And the stories I could tell you about my Uncle George,
The School of Greatness
Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
And then instead of doing a market analysis or anything, I recall clearly, because I never got hired drunk, one of us, and I can't tell you who, said, let's go down to Woolworths, which was like a department store. And it was around Halloween, I believe, and they had a lot of gimmicky things like plastic ice cubes with fake flies in the middle that you could stick in your girlfriend's strings.
The School of Greatness
Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
Or whoopee cushions. You know what a whoopee cushion is? Yeah, yeah. Sit on it and make it part. Yeah, yeah. And we went down there and said, let's buy clown makeup. And we literally, almost like our hands were being directed, bought Steins, clown white, Steins, clown black, black stick.
The School of Greatness
Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
Paul bought red lipstick, a few other things, and we went up to the rat-infested loft where we rehearsed and found ourselves hypnotically looking in the mirror and putting on makeup without anybody telling anybody what to do or what to think or do. It just... happened. It sounds suspicious. And then when we looked around the room, we were fascinated by, wow, that kind of... That kind of school.
The School of Greatness
Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
One of the most influential rock bands of all time.
The School of Greatness
Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
Different. Yeah, different kind of cool. So much so that, and because I'm kind of a make a list, check it twice, find out I'm that kind of a guy, worked in offices all my life, there was no manager. So I was calling local gigs and clubs to try to get us. And then booked ourselves in for, I don't know, $35 a night to Coventry. And there was nobody there. We had my girlfriend, somebody else.
The School of Greatness
Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
There was like five people. But for us, we were at Madison Square Garden. And then the second show was at the Daisy in Amityville, where they had Jaws and all that, and the Amityville Horror and all that in Long Island. And shortly thereafter, we got signed. We barely played any shows.
The School of Greatness
Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
until the day he passed he loved wonder bread in those days for twenty-nine cents you could buy a whole loaf he would buy a whole loaf with water and sit in a park bench in central park and to him it was like eating cake from kings he would just eat the bread and drink water because you didn't have it in Europe.
The School of Greatness
Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
Breaking so much so that within two years of that we're breaking the Beatles record in Japan and playing Five days I think at the largest arena Budokan and before bands were playing stadiums were doing multiple days in Australia in stadiums 1980 1980 Where do you think you'd be if you guys didn't put makeup on that first day?
The School of Greatness
Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
You mean if I wasn't in a band, or would KISS have done as well without the makeup?
The School of Greatness
Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
Like... If I'd have to say... Not as big.
The School of Greatness
Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
You could ask the Beatles, what would you have gotten as far with the same songs and everything if you didn't have the matching haircuts?
The School of Greatness
Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
It's always... Pieces of the puzzle that somehow fit that make the whole bigger than the sum of its parts, which are fancy words that says all of it helps.
The School of Greatness
Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
And if you take like a house of cards, if you take any one of those, it's just one card, maybe all of it comes down. Interesting. It's so interesting to think about. I get paid a lot of money for this kind of stuff.
The School of Greatness
Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
I was always aware that character was not the right thing. It's persona. Persona not alter ego or alter egos and by the way I know people get so upset when I keep bringing up the juice stuff But the idea of the alter ego was created by them also, okay all the superheroes Superman yes Batman the Hulk fantastic that were all created by Jews Who dress British think Yiddish?
The School of Greatness
Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
the idea of the weak man and and the secret super-man. Der Ubermensch And all created by disenfranchised people who never felt powerful. So the superhero was created by those guys who were never lifting weights, couldn't dribble a basketball, but they owned the teams.
The School of Greatness
Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
No, it happened very quickly, and you react to market. The smart people react to the market. And immediately, we didn't think about it, but fans started to make homegrown T-shirts. Oh, they want T-shirts. Let's make T-shirts. And they wanted... We were aware that if you were a... I don't know, a Joe Cocker fan or somebody, you didn't necessarily want to look like Joe Cocker.
The School of Greatness
Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
The fact that he could eat an entire loaf of bread by himself and nobody would kill him to get a slice of bread was beyond anything. Because Europe never really recovered from the 1929 stock market crash. People were killing each other all the time. And in concentration camps, if you had a loaf of bread, they'd kill you for that. It's a different world.
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Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
and chose a fantastic artist. It was music. And somehow we didn't plan it. We want to be unique and all that's true, but we didn't quite understand the cultural significance of the idea that you may not be able to be in Kiss, but you can feel like it,
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Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
How many more tennis rackets did we sell because people bought those and put on Kiss makeup and pretended when they were 13 that they were in a band? Because just as soon as you, and I'll show you photos of, Lenny Kravitz, when he was 13, like all down on these people going, what did I do? He was kicked out of school for at 13 coming to school dressed like that. That's interesting.
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Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
But you wouldn't be kicked out of school for coming to school dressed like George Harrison. Right, right. Yeah. But that's not cool. No, it is cool, but it doesn't. There's nothing negative I can say about the Beatles, but market research. Market research is a strange thing. It makes assessments based on the way things actually are. So Mount Rushmore, you've heard of it.
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Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
Could you tell me who the four faces are? I've been there. Yeah, you've been there and you still don't know. Washington, yeah. It bears noting that market research says The four Kiss faces are more well-known on the entire planet than Mount Rushmore. That's great.
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Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
You can go to Africa, and as soon as they see one of the four faces, they say, it's Kiss.
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Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
If you show them one of Mount Rushmore's faces, they wouldn't know what it was. Yeah, yeah. That's astonishing, isn't it?
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Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
I was a regular, normal guy with regular appetites and nothing out of the ordinary, and never veered towards self-destructive behavior, never.
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Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
the band elevated itself to another level because sometimes of course an idea will come from left field and they go why don't you yeah you know you're right we should be doing that so no matter who you are
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Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
Especially in light of the fact that times change, tastes change, and different generations come into it. Cool is a moving target. So I give ourselves kudos... to be able to be flexible and move around and do that stuff as hair metal bands came in, thrash came in, new romance came, like all through all the different things. So we started co-branding.
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Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
Like Hello Kitty is one of the largest brands on the planet for young girls, for little girls. So Kiss Hello Kitty had about 1,500 co-licenses, everything from training bras to tissue paper to potato chips, you name it. And then we co-branded with Family Guy and Archie. We had Kiss Archie Comics and Astro Boy from Japan.
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Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
In America, the land of plenty, even during World War II, people ate. We grew wheat.
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Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
Hello Kitty would probably be the biggest. Because there were endless... And then they changed CEOs. Actually, the CEO flew in to LA. We had dinner. And he and I are sitting next to each other. We're talking about the future. OK, we're going to ramp up this. It's clearly working and everything. And he said, as soon as I get back to Japan on Monday, it was the weekend coming up.
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Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
I'm going to draw papers and we're going to do some big, big, big stuff. And then he passed away. And the new CEO just didn't see it. Oh, that's a bummer.
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Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
All of it. Music less because entire generations of fans don't pay for music. They download and voucher. Both of our kids, Nick and Sophie, are massive on Spotify and Schmodify and all the other childlike things. Words. Yahoo! Google. And Sophie, for instance, is managers, co-writes. She's co-writing a song right now with the writer who wrote, Do you believe in love? You know, for Cher.
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Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
What a small world. Yeah, it's just...
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Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
It's a small world after all. As a matter of fact, I recorded When You Wish Upon a Star for my solo record because of how Emotionally, Jiminy Cricket affected my life. I thought when that little insect in the movie goes, Gene, when you wish upon. I thought he was singing to me. I was 12. Wow. I went out there like in a religious epiphany.
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Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
I can do great things because Jiminy, your dreams come true. i can do it and that's why i like if you're not a bad guy that's why i like guys like you because sometimes some someplace in wisconsin there's somebody who can who's who possibly might do great things and the only thing holding himself back is himself and if you can just light that little fire in the belly that you know that
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Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
Rock! Don't ever take from anybody. Just roll up your sleeves and go to work. Wow. What do all great champions do? They psych themselves up. I'm going to win it. I am the champion. I am the greatest. I heard Muhammad Ali doing that. I never heard a human being talk like that publicly. Like, who is this guy? Actually, he was stating fact.
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Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
That puts the light on. They'll do amazing things.
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Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
No.
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Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
I couldn't afford it.
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Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
But I'm delusional. I'm aware of it. I know that I'm not the best looking guy in the world or the smartest or anything, but I will walk into any room and I will walk out with your girlfriend.
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Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
there's no doubt in my mind and part and parcel of that has to do with a mindset that's really important that i was only able to recognize many years later you're a type of tightrope walker and various ideas and ideals can come into your mind before you walk that tightrope you might say A lot of people have tried to walk this tightrope.
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Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
When my mother came to America, she had to work, you know, the whole time. And I was, I remember going into my Uncle Larry's house and they had their own house with a basement and stuff. I mean, I just couldn't, and you'd look out the door and there were paved streets and cars going everywhere and people were fat. And I never saw a refrigerator.
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Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
There's a decent chance that, like, oh, and you're hearing and thinking what you're saying. So all the negativity is contributing to the chances of you failing. And what do all great champions do? They psych themselves up. I'm going to get out there and I'm going to do this. And who's listening? You're listening. I'm going to win it. I am the champion. I am the greatest.
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Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
I heard Muhammad Ali doing that. Cassius Clay at that point. I still think it's a cooler name. I never heard a human being talk like that publicly. I am the greatest. I'll sting like a butterfly. Like, who is this guy? Actually, he was stating fact. It's our problem that we thought, well, you're not supposed to say that. Why not?
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Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
Why not set greatness in front of you and then work towards achieving it? Yeah, that's true. So I've spent time with Mike Tyson, and I hope he considers me a friend. I consider him a friend. And when you listen to Mike's story, there's no logical reason in the world why he would become the most dangerous man who's ever been in the ring. Yes, I know four men and everybody else. He's too short.
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Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
His arms aren't long. He hates it when people do that thing. All the negatives you can imagine, except his unwavering belief in himself and the will to win. The will. Doctors still talk about people who are in a deathbed, and they can't explain why a week later they walk up and walk out the hospital, live another 10 years, except for the will to win. to win.
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Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
And there are other people who drop dead when they just give up.
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Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
No. The plane doors open. Go. What do you got to lose? In America, you cannot fail. You can't fail. If you lose all your money, you declare Chapter 7 or Chapter 11, and you can start all over again. And when that first chick said, would you like to go out with me? She says, no. Too many fish in the sea. There's tall, one's short, one's fat, one's thick, two. Just keep swaying that bat.
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Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
You'll hit it. No means nothing.
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Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
Well, what choice have you got?
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Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
Well, it's safer. People are lemmings because it's safer in numbers. You don't want to be that one person who says, but that's what leaders are. The leaders are the ones. Most people have a problem getting up on stage and speaking their mind because you will be judged. People don't like to be judged. Get over it. It doesn't matter. Not everybody likes Jesus either.
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Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
Well, they're not qualified to have an opinion on yours truly. I'm qualified. I know where I've been, what I'm doing, what my dreams are, what I'm willing to work at. Anybody's other opinion is an opinion at first glance.
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Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
We had a box, and if you had a piece of ice, you'd stuck it in there so you can have milk. By the way, not branded. They'd give you a sheet of newspaper and your week's piece of meat and your week's butter. It was a new country. There was nothing. There were no stores. People can't fathom that. I remember all that. And I remember just everything was new. You know, you have branding cups and
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Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
you don't it sounds like but why do you think so many of the world precisely i could give a right but why do so many people care about it's safer it's safer to be in a group and you know when it's time to put frankenstein on fire when the guy didn't do anything you know there's a mob you know mob mentality you don't even have to say anything you can just let the mob carry you
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Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
It's tough to be, but those are the leaders of the world. And they don't have to be the most qualified, by the way. Some of the people I see on television using Christ's, you know, they talk, there are hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars. Some of them are not very bright people, but they have this presence
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Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
If you take a look at the most powerful people in history, good and bad, they weren't super tall. They were usually pretty short guys.
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Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
Some illogical belief in themselves.
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Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
Whether it's Caesar or Hitler or Napoleon, they have no right to have this, you know, and Some of them were real bad guys. Small people with, but on the inside, giants. Giant bad guys and giant good guys.
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Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
are above and beyond anything that anybody's seen in music over 200 years easily, not since the Renaissance, which is how you say it, not the Renaissance. You have to understand they only existed seven years And they came from a place that was a pool filled with liver, liver pool, where nothing ever happened, high unemployment rate, no experience, no resume.
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Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
know nothing and yet uh i wanna hold your hand um what she loves you yeah yeah yeah and that last chord that minor ninth is as sophisticated a chord if you know about music yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah That thing is almost like a jazz chord, unheard of in rock music. And okay, look, I'm going to give you something you'll be able to understand. Satisfaction is one of the great songs.
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Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
It takes about 40 minutes, 40 seconds to get to the first thing. I can't get no satisfaction. Yeah. Yeah. or anything. Sunshine of your love. I did it backwards. It's a It takes about 50 seconds to get I've been waiting so long and all that. On and on and on. The Beatles. I just wrote a new song. What is it called? It's called Help. How does it go? It goes like this. Help! I need somebody, help!
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Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
Not even an introduction, nothing. Got another one for you. What is it called? It's called Yesterday. How does it go? It goes like this. Yesterday, God... Got another one. It's called Michelle. How's it go? Got another one for you. It's called Hey Jude. Not only does it begin with Hey Jude, the word Hey... It's before the music. Before the music. Hey Jude. And then the chords come in.
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Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
Those are what's called perfect songs. Not only that, but... The title of the song is the first word of the song. It's the most memorable song. And it's the last word in the song. Yesterday. The last song. Because I believe in yesterday. Who writes songs like that? It's undeniable they're writing them. McCartney, especially, by far is the most successful songwriter in all of recorded history.
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Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
And canned food, I never saw canned food until I got our first, until we got our first care package from the UN. And we opened up the box and there was a, I get choked up when I, and there was a can of peaches. And I never saw a can, I know people are going to think, well, he's exaggerating. No, I never saw a can of food. There were no supermarkets or grocery stores, nothing. You lived in hills.
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Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
There have been over a thousand different artists who've recorded just yesterday. Did you get to spend some time with them? With Ringo. What was that like? Well, there are two stories. In the Cher days, she used to have these disco roller skating parties where all the celebrities would go. And I didn't care. I mean, I appreciate you're lucky to be a celebrity. But oh, my God, it's Ursula Andress.
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Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
I didn't care. I don't mean to be dismissive. It's just, oh, there's that person from that commercial TV show. And I'm sitting, because I didn't, you know, Jews on roller skates is hilarious. So I didn't. I just sat on the sidelines watching them, sat on top of the bowling, anyway, on the side with my legs going like this.
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Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
And as everybody's roller skating, and then I saw two teenagers coming towards me. So I got up, because one of them's wearing a Kiss T-shirt with rhinestones. They're about 15. And they came up, and one's got a, I'm a big fave, you know, speak with an English accent. Oh, it's okay, sure. Doing an autograph. And then I look up, and in back of them, Ringo Starr starts coming towards them.
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Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
And I'm, you know.
The School of Greatness
Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
But the Beatles, I couldn't shine their shoes. So Ringo comes up, puts his hand, puts his arms around them, and he says, I hope me boys aren't thinking. Ringo's sons are asking me for an autograph. Wow. I had to slap their little putz faces and say, how dare you talk to me? Your father's a Beatle. It happened again. We were playing.
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Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
Oh, one other time, we were having a party up in the Hollywood Hills, and Ringo had a L.A. manager at that time, a guy named Eric Gardner. And Shannon, my wifey and I, and I was eating salads. I hate salads. And I'm eating salads, and Ringo's coming up to say hello. And he sent me a birthday. He said, oh, happy birthday, Gene. If you can't tell me, you can't say how much that means to me.
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Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
And I'm eating. So I give her the thing. And he comes up to me. And I'm much bigger than he is. So I didn't know what to do. So I picked him up. And his feet are dank. Ringo's about 5'6", 5'7", I don't know, or maybe 5'. I'm 6'2". So I picked him up, you know, because I wanted to hold him. I don't know what else to do. I didn't want to shake his hand. And I'm smiling.
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Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
I didn't even remember what I'm talking. And he said, would you put me down? So I put him down, and he walked off. All right. And I'm smiling, looking at Shannon. She goes, you got Godzilla-sized.
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Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
Like a big thing sticking out. And I'm like, his face is right here. And... Yeah, just get over yourself, no matter who you are. If you're the Pope, I know you got to poop just like I do. I don't have that hierarchy thing. So I've met everybody from His Holiness to Dalai Lama to Presidents Clinton and Bush and everything. And they've achieved greatness in their field, but we all fart.
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Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
If you become famous, not always, but by and large, makes a good living. The rest is how you can handle it or not. Because there are, I would say, lots of famous people, rappers, a lot of rappers, who surround themselves with yes men and yes women. a posse so that, and I admire rap, don't misunderstand, so that when you go someplace, you have that cushion of support.
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Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
It says publicly, I am somebody.
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Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
Whereas if you didn't have the fame, they wouldn't hang out. They're parasites and vampires. They're only around you because you have money and fame and they get free booze and free chicks and free all that stuff. They're using you. You're using them also to say, look, I'm somebody.
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Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
And I remember taking the can, and they were a full-color picture of peaches dripping with the stuff. And I remember at about seven years of age looking at it, and my mother grabbed that out of my hand, and she took a big rock. There's no such thing as can openers. And she put it on the ground and banged into it and then peeled back the metal.
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Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
So why do rappers, a lot of rappers, some sports guys, why do they go to clubs with a group to advertise that they're somebody? I won't play that game. I drive here myself. I wipe my own ass.
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Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
I'm just happy I can earn a living, a good living.
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Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
And the rest doesn't mean anything.
The School of Greatness
Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
As an athlete yourself, if you've broken the... If you're the fastest human being on two legs... And after all the cameras are out and the chicks are gone and the awards are gone and the money people, you're just there by yourself. Do you wake up at the crack of dawn the next day and try to break your own record?
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Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
Of course. That's what made you a champion in the first place. So I'm going to be 76. I'm 75 now. I don't know about you, but the race is closer to being over than the beginning. I don't know about you, but when it looks like the race line, the finish line is coming, I run faster. Don't you? Yeah. To finish. Finish strong. Yeah. What are you going to do?
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Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
Just or sit back and watch somebody else's ball game as they go by? No. No. That's if you appreciate life. If you love life, man, oh man, I'm glad every day I can have a hot fut Sunday and a good back rub, a lap dance every once in a while. And then you die. That's all.
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Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
Where should we go follow you? GeneSimmons.com. Okay. You can do Instagram, but my kids take care of that. I never go on there. Okay. 30 seconds of somebody watching, 30 seconds of somebody showing how they can pick their nose and...
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Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
You will never reach greatness. You shouldn't think of it that way. The hunt is always what it should be about, not the kill. Once you kill something or once you finish the, you know, it's fine, but it's fleeting. But when your blood's pumping, your heart's pumping, it's always about the hunt. That's what life is about.
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Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
And I'd like to think the very last breath I take is going to be like, been there, done that. In fact, I know what it's going to say on my tombstone. thank you and good night. Because I would imagine to lots of tombstones, I wish I could have, would have, should have, could have, and all that stuff. No regrets.
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Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
Kissed a few girls, had a great family, made a good living, provided jobs for people, gave to charity and stuff. I was good for this planet. I made the planet just a wee bit better than it was before I was here. In fact,
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Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
Wouldn't it be great if all of humanity, and there's about 8 billion of us before we drop dead, if we could make the world just this much better times 8 billion, imagine the profound difference it would make. You don't have to give everything away, just little bits.
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Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
So the sharp stuff was going there, and she gave it into my hands, and my little hands grabbed it, and I looked and saw the yellow peaches inside, and my mother said, you know, in Hungarian, because I spoke Hungarian, Hebrew, Turkish, Spanish, and those stuff. And I remember tasting it, and I Sorry, I'm getting a little verklempt here. Never tasted anything. I still taste it.
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Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
Never tasted anything so sweet or anything. And I wanted to show my mother. And she was like, we were just amazed at this thing. And the fact that this, and it also had a Bugs Bunny book. colored with these going down the road and all that. I never heard of Bugs Bunny and a sweater that was all torn. My mother put it on me and it was all too big, but it was colorful and all that.
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Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
And my mother would read me the same Bugs Bunny book every night, but she had to make up the words in Hungarian because she couldn't speak Hebrew and the words were in English. So she'd make it up and I'd just look at the pictures and I'd go to sleep with that.
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Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
And as a matter of fact, Mel Blanc, a Jew who did all the voices for all the warrants, who did all the voices, Daffy Duck and Mel Blanc, all that, Elmer Fudd told him the story. And he said, that's one of the reasons why I wanted to do these voices for the children whose lives had changed. And
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Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
Which is why, as soon as I got some money, I made sure that I took a bunch of money and sent it to kids in need. Originally through the Christian Child Fund, and then became the Child Fund, and to this day support 1,400 kids in Africa who, if they don't go to school... won't get close, and won't get fed. That means you'll starve, because there's nothing there. Zambia.
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Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
It's our problem that we thought, well, you're not supposed to say that. Why not? Why not set greatness in front of you and then work towards achieving it?
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Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
You come to school, you get fed and stuff, so it teaches you at school. So I got lost, and what was the question?
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Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
I was in the kitchen with my Aunt Magda, who herself survived the camps and had some problems. And she married my Uncle Larry, who was my mother's brother. And we go into the kitchen, because there was always another room. There were bedrooms. It was like a palace. You can't believe it. And there's this big white box or something and a metal thing. And my Aunt Magda opened it.
The School of Greatness
Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
And I was a little kid. I never saw anything like it. And it's just food. There's wrappers and food and cheese and things. And on the side, I'll never forget it. My Aunt Magda, I was attracted to the red because it was a jar of red. I later remembered it was Schmuckers. With a name like that, it's got to be good. It was Schmuckers Jelly. Out of Ohio.
The School of Greatness
Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
And my mother said to me in Hungarian, you know, have some. And my Aunt Magda opened the can. I'd never seen that before. You don't understand. In Israel, they'd give you a slab of whatever, butter, never jelly. And that would be it for the week. You'd have to make it. There was no refrigeration or anything. So...
The School of Greatness
Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
My Aunt Magda gave me a spoon, and in broken Hebrew, she must have said, taste it, because she was fascinated that I wasn't quite sure what it was. I'm only halting because if you weren't here, I'd start bawling. And I thought she said, eat it, because she gave me a spoon. So I started like a Christmas goose.
The School of Greatness
Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
I just started my mouth full of jam with the jam falling off, just eating it because I never tasted anything like that the entire jar. And both my mother and my Aunt Magda were laughing so much, they were in tears. And I didn't know what was going on. I just said, this is the best thing I ever had. And then I was afraid of crossing. I still have the marbles.
The School of Greatness
Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
If you become famous.
The School of Greatness
Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
I was afraid of crossing the street because cars were going by. I didn't understand it. So I walked around the block, and I saw other houses next to each other. I said, this is like, where are all these houses? Everybody's rich. Yeah, everybody's rich. And I went to the other side of the street, and then I had to come back and went a little further, then eventually went around.
The School of Greatness
Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
I thought if I went around, I'd get lost. I didn't know that came around to this. I know it sounds stupid.
The School of Greatness
Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
And on the other side, eventually, I saw some guys walking playing marbles on the grass, which would be, I don't know if you have a marble or something. And they're throwing it like this. It's not what we did in Israel. You stood up on two legs, and you went like that, and you get really good, because you can aim it on the ground if you do the marbles like that.
The School of Greatness
Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
You know, the ground would make the marble another thing. And what are you, stupid? Can't you speak English? I don't know. God, it's an idiot. i play i play they go yeah here they gave me a marble or two i won all their marbles they didn't laugh for long Yeah. I still have all the marbles I want, about 80 of them. Really? In an old Dutch master's cigar box.
The School of Greatness
Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
To remind me, don't ever take shit from anybody. Just roll up your sleeves and go to work.
The School of Greatness
Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
I've never been scared, not after my mother survived Nazi Germany, but I've always felt like an outsider. I still don't feel like an outsider. Maybe that's okay. Maybe I want to be like everybody else. I want to be an ordinary guy. No, I don't want to be an ordinary guy. I want to be an extraordinary guy. I want to excel at anything that I try to do, and I'm willing to work harder than you do.
The School of Greatness
Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
And the only thing that prevented me from getting into sports and everything else is because the pragmatism in me tells me that you've got a short life. When you enter sports or things like that, if you get an ankle, you're done. But I can be a banker or a lawyer or a teacher, I think, forever. It made more sense, and therefore more dollars.
The School of Greatness
Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
Yes, if you're lucky, because every kid in every poor neighborhood wants to be the baseball player or the football player and stuff like that, because 50 million, Carmelo Anthony made it. And for a while, I worked with Carmelo. They make all this money.
The School of Greatness
Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
You don't see the tens of thousands and millions of carcasses on the side of the road that wanted to put all their eggs in one basket and achieve nothing. You only see the tip of the iceberg. Yeah, the winners. Oh, that means anybody can do it. That's a fallacy.
The School of Greatness
Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
I didn't put the two and two equals four thing together. I was more an observer on life because in America, there were so many attention deficit disorders, so many different things going by. There was sports and television and radio and all that stuff going by. And so I worked. And when I was about 13, I came home. Yes, I worked on Sundays and Sunday nights.
The School of Greatness
Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
I'm pretty sure it was the Ed Sullivan Show, unlike any show that's ever been on TV. At that time, in 1963, 64, population of America was 170 million people, about that. Now it's double that. It's 330 million. And the Ed Sullivan Show was so big, they had pooping elephants and comedians and puppet guys and, you know, one rock band for the kids.
The School of Greatness
Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
My father had gone, so the provider was no longer there because my mother stayed at home while he worked. So once my father left, my mother was forced to go out there while I went to school. So when I'd come home from school at three, four, whatever it is in the afternoon, I was alone at six, seven years of age and would cry myself to sleep because my mother would
The School of Greatness
Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
And I remember coming home from work and my mother got one of those TV dinners. People have no idea what that is. But you buy them frozen because poor mom had to go work. She couldn't. And it was like this kind of like old shoes crunched into like burgers, peas and some mashed potatoes. And you pour the gravy and that was it. And I didn't know anything. I liked it. So I was eating it.
The School of Greatness
Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
And ladies and gentlemen, the Beatles. And I'm going, what is that? And by the way, I've met the biggest stars in the world, especially musicians. They all point to that pivotal moment. Scientists call it a singularity.
The School of Greatness
Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
All of a sudden, these feminine-looking guys with hair over their ears, because in those days, even shorter than your hair, you'd see the meat between the ear and the hairline above it, or like crew cuts. Yeah. and these guys talk like that here i work my fingers to the bone old like old what is that and they're small compared to ed sullivan and everything
The School of Greatness
Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
you know, kind of feminine in a way because Americans were bigger and fatter and stuff. And these guys were all, you know, like bone thin and spoke strangely. I didn't understand. I was watching and I thought, gee, they look weird. And I remember my mother coming in and saying, gee, I think they look weird. And bango, at that moment I said, no, they're cool because my mother thinks they're weird.
The School of Greatness
Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
You want your own thing. You don't want to do Lawrence Welk. You never heard of Lawrence Welk? Oh, my God. Kill me now. Oh, man. Lawrence Welk was on every Sunday, and it was mom and dad music. Okay.
The School of Greatness
Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
Boy. And now we're going to do the polka.
The School of Greatness
Gene Simmons Opens Up: Coming To America With Nothing, The Mindset That Built An Empire & The Man Behind The Makeup
Right.