Credit: Raph_PH

How The Beatles made Gene Simmons want to play bass

Mon 13 March 2023 13:00, UK

Any history of rock music could be categorised as ‘rock before The Beatles’ and ‘rock after The Beatles’. Though acts like Chuck Berry and Little Richard hit their stride in the 1950s, creating the basis for rock and roll, The Beatles took the genre to places that fans had never heard before, bringing genres like soul, rock, pop, and world music under one roof. The next generation of rock and roll was paying attention, including a hopeful kid named Chaim Witz.

After seeing The Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show for the first time, Witz (later rechristened Gene Simmons) was shocked by what he heard. He told SPIN (via MetalCastle): “When I was a kid, I was affected by the Beatles – like a religious event, like a singularity. I wasn’t a musician. I was just a kid. Turn on the TV, and the Beatles came out: ‘She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah.’ I’m going, ‘What is that? What accent is that?’ And they look like girls, and they’re small human beings with silly haircuts”.

Simmons found a companion in ‘The Fab Four’, and his next steps towards stardom led him to play bass. He said: “I taught myself how to play, and the first instrument was an SG Standard Gibson guitar, second-hand. My mother bought it for about 50 bucks. My 14-year-old fingers bled because I couldn’t make the strings go down. And then I switched to bass because Paul McCartney played a Hofner bass, and my mother bought me a Japanese knockoff”.

After playing in various groups around New York City, Simmons found a musical soulmate in Stanley Eisen (later rechristened Paul Stanley). Although their relationship started off a bit rocky, they realised that they would work better together than apart.

Once they ditched their original band, Wicked Lester, their plans to rule the rock world began by making a spectacle onstage. After some trial and error, the duo drafted in drummer Peter Criss and guitarist Ace Frehley and sought to create a band that would break every rule in the book.

Donning white and black makeup, KISS was born as a demonic circus version of The Beatles. Throughout their early years, Simmons admitted to taking inspiration from The Fab Four when making their first steps. He noted: “Our reference point was The Beatles because we were delusional. We wanted to think of ourselves as The Beatles on steroids”.

The group mentality of KISS also emphasised The Beatles’ democratic mentality when it came to singing. Each member sang lead on the first handful of albums, with the holdout being Ace Frehley, further emphasising the ‘Quiet One’ dynamic he had in common with George Harrison.

More than anything, Simmons appreciated The Beatles’ work ethic despite the odds being stacked against them. The Beatles had to work for what they had, and Simmons never forgot that. He added: “In the middle of nowhere, you had these four young guys hovering around age 20, 21 years old, who, within seven years, wrote hundreds of classic forever songs. ‘Michelle’ and ‘Yesterday’ and ‘Eleanor Rigby’ and ‘I Am The Walrus’, and just hundreds and hundreds of songs”.

Rock music might not get purer than The Beatles, but Simmons envisioned KISS as The Beatles from another planet.