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Mark Kennedy | Stamford Advocate

NEW YORK (AP) — Gene Simmons wants you to be rich and powerful, but it’s not going to be easy. You’re going to have to learn English, wake up early, turn off the TV and study.

“I want to shake you up and tell, you a real harsh truth: The world doesn’t need you,” he says. “The only way you’re going to become rich and powerful is if you stand up on your hind legs. You’re only going to get the respect you demand.”

Simmons, the co-founder and bassist for the rock band Kiss, is brutal in his advice: Women, choose between a career or a family. Guys, get rid of your worthless friends. Above all, don’t listen to the self-esteem movement or be politically correct. Simmons is here to demand that you drop and give him 20.

“I want to be your drill sergeant and piss you off so that you wake up and smell the coffee and go out there and become that rich and powerful person you deserve to be,” he says. “You cannot fail in America.”

Why should you listen to this guy, someone who has spent much of his adult life slathered in scary makeup, in towering platform boots, wagging his tongue onstage and singing songs like “Lick It Up”?

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KISStorian ranks the original studio LPs

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KISStorian

#1 > LOVE GUN – Eddie Kramers KISStoric sonic masterpiece, the punchy Love Gun boasts Ace’s first vocal, some of his best leads and the original line-up’s finest studio hour. Best snare sound found on any KISS studio recording save the non-live side 4 of Alive II, compliments again of Kramer.

#2 > ROCK & ROLL OVER – Meaty, beaty, big & bouncy, and again with Kramer at the wheel, Rock & Roll Over is a bombastic rock record that captures the band getting back to what they do best, rock. The debut EP should probably have this spot but the band is so much more developed by ’76’s RRO .

#3 > KISS – Almost as pristine as “Christeen Sixteen” herself in sheer simplicity, KISS is loaded with more of the bands live staples than any other and, If you don’t like “Kissin’ Time”, you’re probably in the band because Ace’s solo on it is fierce, capturing on his frets the bands frustration in being forced to record the number.

#4 > DRESSED TO KILL – Shortish but tight, Dressed To Kill is a surprisingly crisp sounding album given it was practically self-produced …DTK features a notably improved Peter Criss and a number of now classic KISS rockers for the subsequent tour and Alive!. Turns out that giving the band more control, at least at this juncture, enabled them to produce something that represented them better than the debut and HTH, employing acoustic guitars to add texture for the first time. 

#5 > DETROYER – The bar and the band raised to the high ‘n mighty Bob Ezrinstandard, Destroyer is KISS’s first successful foray into mainstream pop hot on the heels of the radio explosion of the Alive! version of “Rock & Roll All Nite”. Although many argue it’s KISS’s best studio effort because of their expanded scope with Ezrin producing, the overblown fascism that is “Great Expectations” gives us their first truly cringeworthy moment and a snapshot of the shape of things to come.

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Why Gene Simmons says you should work on the weekends if you want to be wealthy

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Ruth Umoh | CNBC

If you were planning on spending this weekend lounging on your couch, Kiss frontman Gene Simmons advises against it.

The controversial singer, who was reportedly banned from Fox News for inappropriate behavior, says you must log in hours over the weekend to acquire wealth.

In fact, the singer says that taking breaks from work is the biggest thing holding people back from becoming rich and achieving their career goals.

“It’s too easy to sit back,” he tells CNBC Make It. “We like to binge watch TV.”

Simmons says that most people live in an “entitlement area” in which they want to enjoy the perks of being rich but don’t want to put in the work that it takes to get there.

“You take two days off every week and do nothing, if you even have a job,” he says. “Times 52 weeks is 104 days.”

That doesn’t even include the time you take off for holidays and vacations, which are generally spent shopping and gossiping, says the rocker. That lost time could be better spent making money.

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Gene Simmons: I’ve never been high or drunk in my life

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BBC

The co-founder of the rock band Kiss, Gene Simmons, has told BBC Hardtalk’s Sarah Montague how he has shunned alcohol and drugs throughout his long career in the music industry.

Mr Simmons, who formed the band in New York in 1973, explains how the use of drugs and alcohol by other members of the band led to tensions and eventually to the breakup of its original line-up.