Richard Shotwell
Rocker Gene Simmons has credited a fear of disappointing his mother with steering him away from drugs and alcohol.
The Kiss frontman insists he has never been drunk or gotten high because he always worried about his mom’s reaction.
He tells U.S. talk show host Wendy Williams, “My mother is actually my biggest inspiration. At 14 years of age she was in the concentration camps of Nazi Germany and I’m an only child. Our father left us when I was about six or seven years old. I would never break her heart.”
However, Simmons admits he found other ways to indulge after deciding to stay away from drugs and booze his whole life, although his days as a ladies’ man are now firmly behind him, because he only has eyes for his wife, Shannon Tweed.
He continues, “I’ve been a jacka** most of my life… I have been self-absorbed all of my life, self-centered, arrogant, selfish and full of myself and it took the angel that walked into my life, Shannon…
“Part of the parcel of being a jacka** and not growing up to be a man is not realizing that the dream woman of your life was always there and it took 29 years for this jacka** to grow up and realize I have everything…”