Gene Simmons has opened up about the first time he saw AC/DC live in 1977 and the way he was “blown away” by the sheer “brilliance” of their performance – though the band’s name initially gave him rather the wrong impression.

In the latest issue of Classic Rock, the Kiss bassist reminisces about his fateful encounter one summer night with the Australian rock band at the iconic Whisky A Go Go in Los Angeles.

“I’d never heard of AC/DC, and I thought it might be a gay band,” Simmons admits, noting that the term ‘AC/DC’ was slang for bisexuality at the time in America. What he discovered that night, however, was apparently a band far removed from any stereotypes Simmons had.

“I was blown away,” Simmons recalls. “No minor chords here, mate – just major chords hitting you in the balls! It was all – as you say in England – meat and two veg. I was just mesmerised by this band.”

“Bon Scott was a force of nature with his shirt off, drinking. It was like a homeless crazy guy had jumped up on stage. He never had that sort of rock-star sheen, or any kind of showmanship. It just felt like a stream-of-consciousness expulsion of his inner demons on stage.”

Scott wasn’t the only one who left an impression: “When the lights went out at the end of each song, Angus [Young] was still going crazy, doing that Chuck Berry thing during the blackouts with nobody watching. And I said to myself: this is the real deal. This is a guy that does it because he feels it inside.”

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Jay Jay French looked back on what would eventually become KISS, and recalled witnessing what he thinks is the first time the legendary NYC band performed under their new name.

Between dealing drugs (which, as he would often suggest, taught him how to be a good manager) and playing in a myriad of bands, Jay Jay’s pre-Twisted Sister‘s days were definitely picturesque. One fascinating episode in the guitarist/manager’s early career was auditioning for KISS when the on-stage extravaganza that would enter the annals of rock history was barely a glimmer in Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley’s eyes.

As French explains in a recent interview on the Denim and Leather podcast, the audition came as Gene & Paul were “transitioning” from their previous band, Wicked Lester (transcribed by Ultimate Guitar):

“I was babysitting for a guy who was a music business attorney, and his client was a producer named Ron Johnson, who produced the Wicked Lester album. One day, when I was babysitting for his daughter, he told me, ‘Are you in a band right now?’, because he would hear me play guitar in the building. And I said, ‘No, I’m looking for a band.’ He said, ‘Well, I’m representing a guy who’s producing a band, Wicked Lester.’ So, he gave me the phone number of either Gene or the producer.”

“I made a phone call, and I was invited. Gene and Paul came down to see me play. On June 6, 1972, I was playing with a band called Scout, at a church social event, when they asked me to play with them, so I did. They invited me to rehearsal, which I did three or four times. I jammed with them, and I never heard back.”

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