Gene Simmons

Gene Simmons was born Chaim Witz on august 25, 1949 in Israel. He is the blood-spitting, fire-breathing, tongue-wagging vocalist and rock bass guitarist of the rock band KISS. Due to his demonic face paint and on stage persona, he is also called "the demon" of the hard rock band which Gene Simmons had co-founded in the early 1970s.

Immigrated to the US when he was 8 and emotionally scarred, Gene Simmons had a strong desire for wealth. He had changed his name from Chaim Witz to Eugene Klein, later Gene Klein and finally to Gene Simmons in the late 60s. Kiss released its first album in February of 1974 and Simmons became the driving force behind an extensive Kiss merchandising franchise. Simmons has been the creative force behind several television projects like 'My dad the rock star', 'Mr. Romance', 'Gene Simmons family jewels' and appeared in films such as the 1978 TV movie 'Kiss meets the Phantom of the Park'. Besides television and movies, Gene Simmons has made several television guest appearances, video appearances, dished out solo albums, produced a number of albums and in 2002, published a men's lifestyle magazine 'Gene Simmons's tongue' which had to be pulled off after 5 issues.

The band Kiss and the members became superstars after their album KISS Alive released in 1975; for their music as well as the demonic face paint they wore and Gene Simmons. His make up, bass playing, singing, fire spitting and sticking his tongue out really far while on stage. The band played heavy metal with comic-horror themed elaborate stage productions.

Gene Simmons never got married, speaks four languages including English, Hungarian, Hebrew and German while learning Japanese and mandarin. Besides the band Kiss, Simmons specialty soon changed loyalties and he became a successful businessman. Besides sporadically creating music and handling the career of Liza Minelli, Gene Simmons has been involved in a number of other fruitful ventures. Simmons Abramson Marketing is the worldwide branding entity for the INDYCAR series. He is the chairman of he board of NGTV.com which has reached 200 million clicks within one year! Gene had branded the entity No Good TV. Simmons Comics Group, a venture with IDW Pub features comic books like the Zipper, House of Horrors and Skullduggery.

Gene Simmons has a reality show titled Gene Simmons Rock School on VH1 besides the famous Gene Simmons Family Jewels; he is the creator of the smash hit cartoon on Nickelodeon 'My dad the rock star'. Is it any more surprising then that if you walk into your local post office, you can also pick up a Gene Simmons US Postage stamp?

With a successful music career in the 70s to ever increasing business ventures even three decades later; from the tongue sticking, face painted heart throb who was a notorious womanizer to the father of two who dabbles as easily in music as in movies, TV reality shows and joint ventures; Gene Simmons remains a legend in himself and for his avid fans.

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