From: Daily Star
HE is as famous for bedding women as he is for his music.
And Kiss legend Gene Simmons certainly does not mince his words when it comes to the fairer sex.
“I would strongly urge all men to stop lying to themselves,” says the owner of rock’s most famous tongue. “We’re not meant to be with one partner.
“The closer you get to death, the more mature you get. Before that you have too much testosterone in your system.
“Men think about sex all the time, and I have female friends who ask why. I say: ‘Because our most sensitive part keeps rubbing against our pant leg.’ We have no choice in the matter.”
And with a whopping 4,600 notches on his bedpost – working out at a different woman roughly every four days since he lost his virginity aged 13 – the Crazy Crazy Nights singer knows what he is talking about.
But despite his views on the difficulty of fidelity, there is one woman who’s managed to tame the legendary rocker – former Playboy Playmate and actress Shannon Tweed, 54.
They only tied the knot on October 1 this year, but Gene jokes they were “happily unmarried” for more than 20 years.
“I ended up meeting a beautiful girl,” he says. “She’s 6ft tall, doesn’t sweat the small stuff and has waited for me for 28 years and never tortured me.
“We’ve lived together for so long and have two great kids together. I’m 62, it’s time to grow up. Don’t I look good though, baby?”
Striding into the Daily Star office, the 6ft 2in singer, dressed in black, keeps his sunglasses firmly on the whole time as he chats about hosting the Classic Rock Roll of Honour in London tonight.
“Whatever preconceived ideas I have about it being an honour, emotionally it means a lot too,” he explains. “Without British rock there wouldn’t have been a Kiss. It may look and act like an American band, but intrinsically its heart and soul is British. All the bands I loved, starting with The Beatles and the British Invasion bands, were British.
“The classic rock generation, from the late-60s onwards, was born then too.
“Something special happened here. The Jeff Beck Group, Led Zeppelin, Humble Pie, The Who and on and on. Classic music. There’s something suspicious about the fact that it all came from a little island that’s not part of mainland Europe.
“I don’t know how that happened, but from the 60s through to the 80s, this country put out classic music. My son is 22 and he’s now rediscovering all this stuff himself, he’s a huge Humble Pie and Zeppelin fan. This music is 50 years old.
“I know some of them, I’ve met Jimmy Page a few times. The idea that I get to stand in front of those people and say a few words… I want to talk from the heart, I’m not taking notes up with me or anything.
“Great music, whether it be rock, classical, whatever, they’re really soundtracks to your life, where you were, a memory,” he adds. “When you see your favourite band, it has an emotional background. And when music really affects people, it does so through the ears, but also through the generations. That’s astonishing.”
There is only one star he believes comes close to being a true rock star in today’s music scene – the oddball that is Lady GaGa.
Gene says: “All rock stars, barring Elvis, are British. Let’s look, there was The Beatles, the Stones, The Who, Bowie… Every age doesn’t produce rock stars. And rock stars aren’t about music. They’re bigger than the band
they’re in.
“If I hear the word ‘Elvis’ I don’t think of a song, I think of Elvis. The persona, the charisma. He’s bigger than his music, just like Marilyn Monroe is bigger than any film she was in. Kiss are like that, don’t kid yourself baby.
“GaGa is the only true rock star in the last 20 years,” he adds.
“Critics point at Kurt Cobain as a rock star. But he wasn’t. No-one dresses up as him at Halloween. Cover bands don’t do those songs.”
Gene once said he would like to save another true star, Amy Winehouse. So what are his thoughts on her untimely death?
“I really did want to help her,” he says. “And the sad thing about Amy is that she seemed not to have enough people around her that wanted to exert tough love.
“Tough love means intervention, tying them up and gagging them, whatever it takes to get them away from their lifestyle.
“We have boot camps in the US. Do whatever you can, call the cops, get them arrested and jailed – you do it just to
keep them alive.
“Addicts don’t know who they are, it’s like being possessed, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. If it was my daughter, wife or whoever, I wouldn’t stand for it.
“You immediately have to take control as soon as something goes wrong, to save their life. It’s tragic what happened to Amy because she had such deep, deep soul.”
Gene and the band are as busy as ever with their music and selling their own Kiss-branded merchandise, including a coffin.
“We had a two-and-a-half-year world tour that came to an end 10 months ago,” explains Gene. “And Monster is the next studio album. It’s our 1,001st record.”
But soon he’s back on his favourite subject. As he fondles the metal breasts one of the Classic Rock statuettes, he adds: “It’s a shame that women’s breasts don’t make a noise when you press them isn’t it? A little squeak or something.”
The Classic Rock Roll of Honour takes place tonight at the Roundhouse in Camden.