“Music to make your head explode”: the Led Zeppelin song Gene Simmons couldn’t live without
Despite their rocky start, Kiss’ legacy is almost entirely unparalleled. Aside from the uncertainty of their early days, the band’s popularity will endure for many years to come, largely due to Gene Simmons‘ monumental creative drive. Simmons approaches every idea, melody, lyric, and structure with everything he has, and the intricacy with which he crafts demonstrates the mind of a true visionary.
Simmons has witnessed many significant movements in music, meaning he understands how to unite people from all walks of life and has seen it happen first-hand. In his view, music is perhaps the most powerful tool for societal and behavioural transformation. “There was a particular mindset in white America, but music – more than religion, more than politics – became the catalyst for change,” he once said.
This was, of course, a remark made in the context of listening to music by black artists and how music was one of the only truly impactful art forms that could alter thinking and bring people together. For a long while, Simmons looked to Diana Ross for inspiration and to learn things he could have never lived, but he also had a genuine appreciation for such music and how it infiltrated all genres.
Little Richard, for instance, not only taught him the power of rock ‘n’ roll but showed him how the genre could take you in and then spit you out. It proved that aggression and art could converge and encourage fun, expression, and belonging rather than spearhead war movements and make people feel more oppressed. “Listening to Little Richard was like being kicked in the nuts. He grabbed hold of pasty-faced, little white kids like me and said, ‘This is where the party starts! Right here, right now!'” Simmons told Music Radar.
One thing that Simmons also loved about hardcore players like Richard was that they showed America’s dominance in the music world. The Beatles, for instance, also exposed him to the nature of the “big” industry, where popularity meant sky-high sales and hysteria loud enough to echo through the airwaves. The Beatles, in his view, were “outsiders”, but they also had the power to appear “cool” and “reach for the stars”.
For many, the one group that epitomised giant stadium rock that ran bone-deep was Led Zeppelin. In the eyes of every hard rock lover around the world, Led Zeppelin were and continue to be holders of the key to great rock ‘n’ roll, shouting loudly and laying bare for everyone to see and enjoy. Despite similar descriptions often being applied to Kiss, for Simmons, it was all about Led Zeppelin.
Alongside his appreciation for Jeff Beck, which centred on his passion for unfiltered, passionate music, Simmons fell in love with Led Zeppelin because, as he appropriately put it, they had “More balls! Fucking great big, huge balls! Steam hammer balls!” The moment Led Zeppelin took to the stage, nothing could prepare audiences for the explosive experience they would have next. As Simmons summarised: “Once they get rollin’, there’s nothing that can stop them.”
For the Kiss musician, it was ‘Communication Breakdown’, with its soaring guitar sounds and Robert Plant’s “wailing” voice, that made his head spin. “Even before the song starts, you’ve got that machine gun riff. What the fuck is that? Woah!” he exclaimed. And the best part, according to Simmons, was that the song emerged during a time when the space was incredibly competitive and growing more saturated by the day.
In his view, however, they shone through with effortless ease: “Don’t forget that this [happened] at the same time as Miles Davis, Hendrix, the Beatles and the fucking Bee Gees. Enough incredible music to make your head explode!”
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