“Y ou can work real hard or just Entrepreneur, musician, Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, “Demon,” wealth manager, investor, provocateur, husband, father. The Kiss co-founder, 75, is many things to many people. To some he’s a pioneering showman, to others a cartoonish stage clown. Some, a baiting chauvinist, others a savvy music-industry businessman. Simmons would likely cop to all the above. Whatever he is, the Israeli-born only son of a Hungarian Holocaust survivor who escaped poverty in the dirt streets of Haifa, he became all by himself. fantasize,” was the ultimatum Kiss gave in 1991’s “God Gave Rock ‘N’ Roll to You II.” Gene Simmons, turns out, chose both. Simmons, of course, is best known as the bassist in Kiss, the top-selling 1970s shock-rock juggernaut, as famous for their face makeup, party ethos and combustible live shows as for their music. “We only had a couple of hits,” Simmons
a concert ticket, the performer should put on a show worthy of it, Simmons believes. And that ethos was realized not only in Kiss’s music, but through its theatrical live shows—comic- book-inspired costumes, elaborate staging, dazzling lights and wild pyrotechnics. Simmons’ “The Demon” character was known for spitting blood and breathing fire. “Things would levitate!” Simmons proudly stresses. A decade before MTV, it was the beginning of rock growing beyond more than just music—it was becoming
visual, it was becoming conceptual. It was becoming entrepreneurial. And Gene Simmons was taking notes.
The Demon in the North Bay Kiss officially retired from touring at the end of 2023. While the members—Simmons, plus co-founder Paul Stanley, Eric Singer and Tommy Thayer—will no longer be taking the stage as Kiss, the band is planned to live on as avatars in fully digitized shows slated to premiere in 2027, what Simmons refers to as “the future of Kiss.” The Kiss brand
conceded to NorthBay biz in a recent interview. “It’s been the brand” that’s lasted in people’s minds all these years. Simmons was set to bring his personal brand to the North Bay this month— the Gene Simmons band, specifically. He and his post-Kiss group were slated to play Graton Resort & Casino in Rohnert Park on April 5, before Simmons suddenly and without explanation canceled the band’s April tour dates. But prior to that, Simmons spoke with NorthBay biz about his philosophies on business, work and the power of knowledge. He canceled the Graton show a few days later. We hope it wasn’t anything we said.
was sold a year ago to Swedish company Pophouse Entertainment for a reported $300 million, a deal that included all songs and intellectual property. While his “Demon” character may be behind him, Simmons is hardly slowing down. He’s part- owner (with Stanley) of the Rock & Brews restaurant chain, recently started a film-production company, helped launch Cool Springs Life Equity Strategy—a financial advisory group geared toward high-net-worth clients—and even owned an Arena Football League team until the LA Kiss folded following the 2016 season. At the moment he's most active with his Gene Simmons Band which, after canceling its April shows, will now launch its spring
Kiss, performing in 2019 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Inset, the band’s seminal album ‘Destroyer’ from 1976, featuring original members Paul Stanley, Peter Criss, Ace Frehley and Gene Simmons.
Creating a brand For the record, Kiss’s “only a couple of hits” includes such now-classic-rock staples as “Detroit Rock City,” “Beth,” “Deuce,” “Black Diamond” and “Rock and Roll All Nite,” among others—all christened in a three-year golden age of the band that influenced such later acts as Metallica, the Replacements, Nirvana, Guns & Roses, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Lady Gaga, to name a few. And, as Simmons readily admits, Kiss’s musical impact on the industry was fleeting compared to its legacy as a brand. A business brand. “When [Kiss] started, we decided we wanted to put together the band we never saw onstage,” says Simmons. “[In most concerts back then] you’d have a guy with an acoustic guitar staring at his shoes thinking he was doing you a favor playing for you because you’d bought a ticket.” When people make a choice to put their limited cash toward
tour in May. “We play some Kiss, some cool covers and [promise] some other surprises,” he says of the tour, hinting that audience members may find themselves up on stage playing with the band at some point. For a price north of $12,000, a fan (and a plus-one) can be a “roadie for a day,” hanging out with band throughout the day of the concert. While Simmons has yet to perform in the North Bay, he did venture north of the Golden Gate in the 1990s, when his now-grown kids were little and Marin-resident George Lucas
52 NorthBaybiz
April 2025
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