KISS bassist and co-founder Gene Simmons has been making the press rounds recently as he plugs his 2025 solo tour. Simmons recently spoke at length with Michael Franzese about KISS’ longevity and success, among other topics, and the Rock & Roll Hall Of Famer weighed in on if the band would have achieved the same level of success had they not wore makeup during their heyday.
“In a very strange way, KISS became a very big band without hit songs,” Simmons said. “It was about the live shows. And if people are curious, if you go to YouTube, we would literally blow away any act that dared put us on stage. We’d just blow them off the stage. Some of it was smart. We had a KISS logo that was about six or seven feet tall — these bright lights that spelled out KISS. And nobody hung their name, the band’s name above them like a Las Vegas show. That was not considered cool, but we thought it was cool. So that when the next band came on after we were off, a half hour later, if you closed your eyes, you could still see KISS in your eyelids, if you know what I mean. They didn’t have enough time to clear the stage. So while they were on, the KISS logo was still on stage. And those kinds of tricks. And very quickly, we ran out of bands to open up for.”
But would they have been as big without the makeup? KISS did have a lengthy period of success in the ’80s and early ’90s after taking off their face paint.
“Maybe not, but there is such a thing… I keep going back to the right thing at the right place at the right time,” Simmons said. “If you take any one of those away, your chances diminish. In the quote, golden age of rock and roll… In that, if you put KISS or Jimi Hendrix or somebody like that then, it wouldn’t work because the ears of the masses weren’t tuned to that. Likewise, if you take the great bands of that era and stick ’em today… What are you doing? So, there’s that thing. But certainly, I think, it’s a big puzzle, and it helps, certainly helps, not diminishes, if you have most of those pieces on the puzzle, so that the picture is clearer. It helps. Visuals help. Little Richard sticking his legs up on the piano and playing piano like a wild man, which has nothing to do with the songs, but does it help stagecraft? Yeah. Chuck Berry doing the duck walk. What does that have to do with the song? Nothing. But when you see him live, it really helps.”
Watch Simmons’ full interview below.
