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Who: Grammy-winning singer and Oscar-winning actress Cher, 73, and Kiss guitarist and co-lead singer Gene Simmons, 70.

How They Met: Though Cher and Simmons both belonged to the mainstream music scene, they didn’t exactly run in the same circles. Their meeting was a “fluke,” precipitated by both their shared support of former California Governor Jerry Brown and Cher’s son Chaz Bono’s love of Simmons’s band, Kiss. In early 1978, Cher and Simmons both attended a fundraiser for Brown. Chaz, then nine years old, reportedly begged his mom to help him get an autograph from the flamboyant musician.

By ’79, Simmons and Cher were going strong (enough). Cher, who’d been married and divorced twice by this point, called her and Simmons’s time together “the best relationship I’ve ever had with a human being.” But still, this being the ‘70s and all, neither party was monogamous. “Gene might spend time with another woman and stay the night, but he wants her to leave in the morning so he can get on with his day,” Cher told People about her boyfriend’s tour, uh, habits. While she herself admitted to the occasional dalliance “for companionship,” she admitted, “Gene is the one I’m crazy about.”

Why We Loved Them: Despite Simmons’s hardened rockstar exterior, he was actually quite sweet to Cher. He told People the pop icon was his “first love,” calling her “an untainted soul who has never done anything bad to anybody.” He even loved her “wonderful” kids, Chaz and Elijah Allman. “[Chaz] is going to be President of the U.S. someday,” he gushed. “[He] busts me.”

Even after their split, the pair remained cordial, with Simmons vowing he and Cher would “know each other forever.” Decades later, Cher called Simmons (“Genie”) “charming and intelligent” and even took credit for Kiss’s decision to reunite in 1996.