Gene Simmons’ 10 favourite albums of all time
Gene Simmons is a titan of music. As ‘The Demon’ of Kiss, his presence in the world of rock music is a domineering one in both sound and persona. His band were a key slab in the path of music history, helping to direct the classic rock of the 1960s into the darker, heavier territory that would become metal and grunge in the 1990s. In the ‘70s and ‘80s, their high-octane glam meets hard sound was a vital piece of the puzzle. But Simmons’ own tastes stray far beyond his own genre scope.
In interviews, the bass player has revealed himself to be somewhat of a music historian. His understanding of the rock genre feels encyclopedic and inclusive, seeming to understand that one subgenre could never exist without a lineage of others. Even though he’s now up there at the top with the legends, he still pays respect to those who came before him.
“I came to America with my mother in 1958, and I had never heard of rock and roll, and I actually had never seen a television set,” he said. “The first music I heard in America was Chuck Berry and Little Richard and all that,” he continued, paying homage to the black American artists who truly originated the sound. He also loves Ray Charles as he picked his Greatest Hits record as one of his top ten favourite albums of all time.
“You can’t get any better than ‘Hit the Road Jack’,” he said of the classic. To Simmons, that track is a lesson in catchiness and form as he continued, “It doesn’t have a bridge; it doesn’t have a chorus. It only has that riff that keeps going back over and over again, and on top of that is a haunting melody with a give-and-take in the background. It’s just classic.”
Another pioneer that he honours is James Brown, selecting his Greatest Hits too. It’s Brown’s start-up spirit that inspired him most, as he said, “James Brown came up from nothing in the swamps of Georgia and somehow created himself, educated himself and learned the craft without going to dancing school or music school.”
If the originators of rock and roll are one vital pillar in Simmons’ musical taste, The Beatles have to be another. “There is no way I’d be doing what I do now if it wasn’t for the Beatles,” he said of the band, remembering watching them on The Ed Sullivan Show as a kid. But the record he chose is The White Album, being fascinated by the behind-the-scenes action. “You’re seeing turmoil within perhaps the greatest band that ever existed that recorded its own music, where each member was a star,” he said, “You could hear and feel the disjointed sense of that album, although clearly the songs shined and the playing and the production was terrific.”
The English masters of rock clearly had a major influence on Simmons. Alongside The Beatles, he honours Led Zeppelin with their self-titled debut, especially admiring the amount they did with a simple set-up. “The fact that the band had one guitar player, one bass player and drums and were able to sound like that live, that says a lot,” he said. He does, however, consider Jeff Beck to be the originator of all this as he said, “Before Led Zeppelin, there was a band called the Jeff Beck Group, and then Jimmy Page heard what Jeff was doing and said, “I got to put a band together.’”
The Who also get a shout-out as he picks Tommy as a favourite. “That album still stands the test of time,” he said. He even admits that it’s a project Kiss tried to replicate as he added, “Not only was it made into a movie, but those songs and the performance are clearly extraordinary. Believe me, I know what I’m talking about. We tried to do The Elder, we couldn’t shine their shoes.”
The rest of Simmons’ picks are more unexpected, straying out of his own genre. ABBA’s Greatest Hits are in there as Simmons said, “If I’m riding in my car and ABBA music comes on, I turn it up, and that’s the sign of greatness.” He also chose work from Patsy Cline, a more mainstream 1950s singer. “You can’t appreciate music without really appreciating music,” he said of this stranger choice, “Yes, Jeff Beck’s riffs and guitar playing, the bombast of Led Zeppelin, but you can’t leave Patsy Cline over on the side.”
“The truth is we all like all kinds of music,” he said as he picked his own band’s record, Destroyer. “What’s interesting is in the dressing room, we put on all kinds of music,” he added, sharing how sounds from all genres have found their way into his own music. As a reminder to always look beyond yourself and to appreciate a little bit of everything, who would’ve thought that Gene Simmons would be such a well-rounded music fan?
Gene Simmons’ 10 favourite albums:
- Ray Charles – Greatest Hits
- The Beatles – The White Album
- Jeff Beck – Truth/Beck-Ola
- Dave Clark Five – Greatest Hits
- Patsy Cline – Greatest Hits
- ABBA – Greatest Hits
- Led Zeppelin – Led Zeppelin
- James Brown – 20 All-Time Greatest Hits!
- The Who – Tommy
- KISS – Destroyer
