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News Archive October 2010

Click to enlarge KISS' Gene Simmons Unlikely Campaigner For Women's Health
From: AdelaideNow.com.au
by Darren Devlyn
Posted: October 3, 2010

HE'S a fire-spitting, cod-piece wearing demon in platform boots. He gloats about his eight-inch tongue and says his passion for pashin' has resulted in his bedding an estimated 4600 women.

All things considered, it seems a little odd that KISS axeman Gene Simmons, whose family life is laid bare in the dubiously titled reality series Gene Simmons: Family Jewels, has suddenly positioned himself as a campaigner on women's health.

Simmons has been derided for saying he's been "happily unmarried" to actor Shannon Tweed for 24 years.

Tweed, he maintains, is the best friend he's ever had. And when she found a lump in her breast - since given the all clear - it threw the family, including Gene, son Nick and daughter Sophie, into a spin.

Simmons, who was in full KISS make-up backstage at a gig when Shannon called to say she was having a biopsy, cancelled touring commitments and flew home to be by her side during the trauma.

"Men are stupid, you know," Simmons says.

"We are oblivious to what goes on outside of us. We never ask women how they are, what's going on. The fact is one in every four women gets cancer. That means your daughter, your sister, your mother, girlfriend, your loved ones. And we men can't sit on the sidelines."

"This all sounds like cornball, politically correct language, but it's not. Hundreds of millions of women will get cancer and all you have to do is get them to go see a doctor."

"It's not hard. Catch it early and survive. Catch it late, you will die a miserable death."

"Part of being alive is understanding that death is a real possibility. And without getting too cryptic about it, it's better to be alive than not."

"Life should be the pursuit of pleasure and the avoidance of pain and if you avoid pain and suffering it's your responsibility to do that for your family. If you can do something just by making sure people visit the doctor, then force them to go now, not tomorrow." Asked if he's good at looking after his own health, Simmons begins talking about the fitness base he builds while on the road with the band.

A two-hour set, performed in demon attire, can be physically punishing.

Imagine as a guy, he says, even taking a brisk walk in platform heels.

"Stick 40lb of suit, like an armour, on top of that," Simmons adds.

"Do that on stage and you'll sweat like never before."

He cloaks in humour his response to a question about men being intimidated by tests for prostate cancer.

"You know what's going to happen when the doctor goes through the gateway to hell, so let him at least kiss you and take you out to dinner first," Simmons says.

"Seriously, the only thing that is your enemy is time. If you prefer to watch a sports game and let the days go by while your body rots, it's your fault, because cancer is curable if you catch it early."

Gene Simmons' KISS and Tell

Craving moments of solitude or anonymity:

"Never. Solitude is over-rated. You'd be miserable."

When it's OK to tell a lie:

"When it hurts somebody. Your mother comes down the stairs looking like Bozo the Clown and says, 'What do you think of my dress and my bling and my red shoes?' I say, 'Well, it's a new kind of look mum.' You don't say, 'Mum, you look like Bozo the Clown, take off those f--ing things.'"

How to disarm a lady most effectively:

"Beg. For God's sake, if a guy ever wants to marry a woman, what's the thing he's got to do? Go down on a knee? That's right, grovel. A guy has to be able to talk female talk. Women, incidentally, don't have to talk guy talk. We have to be in touch with our feminine side. They do not have to be in touch with their masculine side. These are the rules. I didn't write them."

Keeping Polaroid pictures of his sexual conquests:

"Well, they don't make those cameras any more. I hate digital technology. It's cold."