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Apr 2, 2014 · Famous Musicians. Rock Musicians. Gene Simmons is best known as the bassist for KISS, the rock band he co-founded in the early 1970s. Updated: Jun 29, 2021. Photo: Kevin Nixon/Classic Rock...
Gene Simmons (born Chaim Witz; Hebrew: חיים ויץ [χaˈim ˈvits]; born August 25, 1949) is an Israeli-American musician. Also known by his stage persona " The Demon ", he was the bassist and co-lead singer of the hard rock band Kiss, which he co-founded with Paul Stanley, Ace Frehley and Peter Criss in the early 1970s until their retirement in 2023.
- 1970: Paul Stanley meets Gene Simmons. Guitarist Paul Stanley, still going by his birth name of Stanley Eisen, meets bassist Gene Simmons, then known as Gene Klein, in New York City.
- February 18, 1974: Their debut album, 'KISS,' is released. KISS releases its self-titled debut album, which features signature tracks like "Strutter" and "Deuce."
- March 15, 1976: 'Destroyer' is released. The band reaches new creative heights with the arrival of the Bob Ezrin-produced Destroyer. The platinum-selling studio effort features classic rockers like "Shout it Out Loud" and "Detroit Rock City," though it is the Criss-composed ballad "Beth" that becomes the album's biggest hit.
- September 18, 1978: The members release solo albums. All four members of KISS simultaneously release their self-titled solo albums. Frehley's album, fueled by the Top 20 hit "New York Groove," enjoys the greatest commercial success of the quartet.
May 14, 2022 · Ultimately, Kiss was the culmination of those efforts. Why Gene Simmons changed his name When Simmons changed his name for the first time, he went from Chaim Witz to Eugene Klein.
- Contributing Writer
Jul 5, 2023 · Before there was KISS, there was Wicked Lester, a New York City-formed band led by bassist Gene Simmons and rhythm guitarist Paul Stanley, known then as Gene Klein and Stanley Eisen,...
- Staff Writer
- 4 min
The KISS story starts in 1970 when two guys from Queens, New York— Stanley Eisen and Gene Klein (born Chaim Witz in Haifa, Israel)—meet at the home of a mutual friend.
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Apr 30, 2013 · However, just about 10 years later, there would be some industrial-strength irony in those words when Klein, as Gene Simmons, would help mastermind a long-running and innovative KISS merchandising machine that would eventually generate hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue – a marketing juggernaut that made Lee’s modest mid-1960s ...
