"There is no way I'd be doing what I do now if it wasn't for The Beatles. I was watching The Ed Sullivan Show and I saw them. It blew me away that these four boys [from] the middle of nowhere could make that music." – Gene Simmons
KISS bassist, vocalist, and co-song writer Gene Simmons was born Chaim Witz in Haifa Israel today in 1949, to Fery Witz and Flora Klein. His mother Flora was Hungarian born and survived the Nazi concentration camps during WWII, one of just two members of her family to do so. Simmons’ family lived in poverty in Israel, “scraping by on bread and milk.” In 1957 at the age of 8, Simmons immigrated to the US with his mother settling in New York City, and changed his name to Gene Klein. His father, however, remained in Israel and Simmons was raised by his mother.
Prior to his musical career, Simmons, who speaks Hungarian, German, English, and Hebrew, worked as a 6th grade teacher and as an assistant to the editor of Vogue magazine. When he was 20 he formed the band Wicked Lester with Stanley Eisen, aka Paul Stanley, and they recorded one album, but unhappy with the direction of the band walked away from a record deal and the album was not released. Simmons and Stanley then pursued their vision of what a band should be, forming the band KISS in January of 1973, adding Paul Frehley and Peter Criscoula. Simmons and Stanley have been the driving force and only constant members of KISS for the past 43 years.
Simmons has been married to former Playmate Shannon Tweed since 2011 and they had dated for 28 years previously. Prior to that he had live-in relationships with Diana Ross and Cher, and as of 2002 claimed to have had sex with 4600 women in his lifetime. Other than being a man whore, the ‘God of Thunder’ is a fan of science fiction and comics, and has published and contributed to several science fiction fanzines. He’s also starred in a television series about his family – Gene Simmons Family Jewels – and has appeared in several movies including a co-starring role as the villain in the 1984 Tom Selleck movie, Runaway. A self-proclaimed and unabashed mama’s boy, Simmons is an advocate for ChildFund International and he and his family received a MEND Humanitarian Award for their philanthropic efforts and support for Mending Kids International in 2013. In his acceptance speech, Simmons spoke of his own difficult childhood in Israel in a bullet-ridden house. He recalled his mother's excitement when they received a CARE box one day; it wasn't about the contents, it was about knowing that someone cared and that they weren't alone – it gave them hope. You’ve come a long way, Chaim.
“I've become the stately homo of heavy metal.” – Rob Halford
Also born today was the ‘Metal God’, vocalist Rob Halford of Judas Priest. Halford helped define metal’s sound and look in the ‘70s and ‘80s, from the operatic screaming to the leather ‘uniform’. Halford is one of the pioneers of the operatic vocal style later to be adopted by power metal vocalists and regularly appears near the top in lists of the greatest rock vocalists/front-men of all time.
The eldest of three children, Robert John Arthur Halford was born in 1951 in Sutton Coldfield, and raised in a council estate community in Walsall, in England’s West Midlands. He had a good but tough childhood, as WWII had recently ended and rationing and rebuilding were still going on. Some of his early musical ventures were with the groups Athens Wood, Abraxas, Thark and Hiroshima. Then in 1973 Halford’s sister, who was dating Judas Priest bassist Ian Hill, suggested the 21-year-old Halford to Hill as a potential vocalist for the group, and he was admitted. Halford remained with Judas Priest until 1992, recording 12 studio albums; then returned in 2003, recording an additional 3 records with the group. During his hiatus from Judas Priest he formed and recorded numerous albums with the bands Fight, 2wo, and Halford.
Halford’s vocal/musical influences were ‘soul screamers’ such as Little Richard, Elvis Presley, Janis Joplin, and Robert Plant but he describes himself as "a huge Queen fan" since the start, and saw their very early shows. He called Freddie Mercury his "ultimate hero" and is regretful that he never got to know him.
In the late 90s, Halford became the first openly gay metal singer when he confirmed his homosexuality, the hiding of which caused isolation and depression, leading to alcohol and drug abuse. Sober since going to rehab in 1986, his coming out was a liberating experience for him: “"I think that most people know that I've been a gay man all of my life, and it's only been in recent times it's an issue that I feel comfortable to address…In those days, you didn’t talk about those kind of things. It wasn’t talked about in the media, in soaps or on TV.” And unlike his birthday counterpart, his life as a musician has not been a sexual escapade, even calling himself a “vanilla kind of gay guy. I’ve been celibate practically all of my musical career. I know it’s supposed to be sex, drugs, rock’n’roll… Well, I used to do the drugs and I still do the rock’n’roll but the closest I came to sex was going back to my hotel room for a wank!” The Metal God? Say it ain’t so….
Additionally….
Former Antioch (OH) College student Mia Zapata, vocalist for the Seattle based punk-band The Gits was born today. Zapata was brutally raped and murdered in Seattle in 1993 when she was just 27, a crime that remained unsolved for a decade until DNA evidence was used to finally connect an assailant to her killing. She woulda been 51.
Former Dio, Thin Lizzy, Whitesnake, and current Def Leppard guitarist Vivian Campbell is 54. I liked his work in Dio although him calling RJD “one of the vilest people in the industry” was kind of shitty. And Def Leppard has been crap since he’s been in the group. He’s a fellow lymphoma fighter though, so power on Viv.
