| Gene Simmons | |
| Background information | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | |
| Also known as | "The Demon" |
| Born | August 25, 1949 Tirat HaCarmel, Israel |
| Genres | Heavy metal, hard rock, glam metal |
| Occupations | Musician, songwriter, producer, actor, entrepreneur |
| Instruments | Bass, vocals, Guitar, piano |
| Years active | 1963–present |
| Associated acts | Kiss, Wicked Lester |
Early life
1.Gene Simmons) was born at the Rambam Hospital in Haifa, Israel in 1949. The family emigrated to Jackson Heights, Queens in New York City when he was eight years old.2.His mother Flóra Klein was born in Jánd, Hungary.
3.Florence and her brother, Larry Klein, were the only members of the family to survive the Holocaust. His father, Feri Witz, also Hungarian-born, remained in Israel.
4.In the United States, Simmons changed his name to Eugene Klein adopting his mother's maiden name.
Music career
Simmons became involved with his first band, Lynx, then renamed The Missing Links, when he was a teenager. Eventually, he disbanded The Missing Links to form The Long Island Sounds, the name being a play on words relating to the estuary separating Long Island from Westchester County, New York, Connecticut and Rhode Island.Simmons formed the rock band Wicked Lester in the early 1970s with Stanley Harvey Eisen and recorded one album, which was never released. Kiss released its self-titled debut album in February 1974.In 1983, while Kiss' fame was waning, the members took off their trademark make-up and enjoyed a resurgence in popularity that continued into the 1990s. The band hosted their own fan conventions throughout 1995, and fan feedback about the original Kiss members reunion influenced the highly successful 1996–1997 Alive Worldwide reunion tour. In 1998, the band released Psycho Circus,. Since then, the original line-up has once again dissolved, with Tommy Thayer replacing Ace Frehley.
Film and television career
- My Dad the Rock Star, a cartoon by the Canadian animation company Nelvana, about the mild mannered son of a Gene Simmons-like rock star;
- Mr. Romance, a show created and hosted by Simmons on the Oxygen cable television channel;
- Rock School, a reality show in which Simmons tries to make a rock band out of a group of students of Christ's Hospital School in the first season, and in the second, a group of kids from a comprehensive school in Lowestoft;
- Gene Simmons Family Jewels reality show documenting the personal lives of Simmons, his girlfriend and his son and daughter.
Personal life
He became a science fiction fan and published several science fiction fanzines, among them Sirruish, Id, Cosmos (which eventually merged with Stilletto to become Cosmos-Stilletto and then Faun), Tinderbox, Sci-Fi Showcase, Mantis and Adventure. He also contributed to other fanzines, among them BeABohema.
In the late 1960s, he changed his name to Gene Simmons, after legendary rockabilly performer Jumpin' Gene Simmons' legal name after arriving from Israel is Gene Klein.
