Lamb of God frontman Randy Blythe grew up a mega Kiss fan, and as a kid he even dressed as bassist/singer Gene Simmons for Halloween. KISS’ disco-inspired hit, “I Was Made For Loving You,” was also one of his favorite songs. “I really liked that song,” Blythe said recently on “Trunk Nation with Eddie Trunk” on SiriusXM. “Every Halloween… I would always get my faced painted like Gene Simmons, ‘cuz you know I (thought he was the coolest.) Because he was dark and spit fire and spit blood and he was a demon and all that sh*t. So I thought that was the raddest.”
After Lamb of God achieved a level of success, Simmons appeared on a radio show where the DJs played him clips of bands he hadn’t heard to get his thoughts. “And then years later, which I thought was just hilarious, Gene did one of these radio shows where they played (Gene) a few seconds of a song or a band he hasn’t heard and then (the radio DJs) asked his opinion,” Blythe explained. “They played Gene a Lamb of God song and (Gene) was like, ‘Well, the music… they are obviously very talented I like the song, but, and I’m not saying I’m a talented singer or anything but… but I cannot understand anything that guy (meaning Blythe) is saying, and it’s not my cup of tea, so I think that band would be great if (they) didn’t just have that screaming guy…’ and I just LOVED it. I was like this is hilarious, because I used to dress up as this guy for Halloween when I was 7 years old, and there he is dissing my vocals. It gave me much more pleasure (than) if he had said, ‘I just love this vocalist,’ I just thought it was hilarious that he was dissing me. I just thought it was awesome.”
The track was Lamb of God’s “512,” and Loudwire reported in 2015 that Simmons said: “Lamb are a solid bunch of musicians — capable and bombastic. But while I like the backing track here, I must confess this type of vocal styling — what would happen if a werewolf tried singing? — just ain’t my thing. Not that I’m claiming I can sing, mind you. Personally, I’d be curious what this fine backing track would sound like with a decent melody and with Dave Grohl’s vocals.”
In 2019, Blythe listed “The 10 songs that changed my life” for Kerrang. KISS’ “I Was Made For Loving You” made the list. “When I was growing up, the most edgy thing that I liked was this KISS song,” Blythe said. The theatrics dragged me in like pretty much every other kid with any sense in the ‘70s, and for a couple of years on every Halloween I painted my face like Gene Simmons. Ironically, many years later Gene Simmons was being played some Lamb Of God music for an article a lot like this one. He said, ‘They sound very talented, but the singer sucks! What is this terrible singing?’ I thought that was pretty freakin’ funny.”
