Kiss co-founder Gene Simmons has spoken openly about the years he was unfaithful to his wife, Shannon Tweed, and the moment he decided to change.
In an interview with “The Daily Heretic“, Simmons credited Tweed with keeping him away from a destructive lifestyle. He said (as transcribed by Metal Stop): “I asked my beloved Shannon. Yeah, I finally got married. I got two kids together. I married her twice. I’m gonna marry her again, and I’ll continue to marry her as long as my heart keeps, because she in a very real way saved me from the dark side, which is drugs, alcohol and all that.”
Simmons, who has long said he has never been drunk or high, continued: “I’ve never been higher drunk in my life. I’m turning 77, and that’s why my hand doesn’t do this. Put in sand with your fuel in the car and it’s gonna get… it’s not gonna run very well.”
When the interviewer asked how Tweed could have saved him from something he had never done, Simmons admitted he was unfaithful for most of their relationship: “For the first… we’ve been together for… we’re about to turn 42 years together. The first 29 years together, I would mount anything.”
After a crude joke aimed at a member of the interview crew, he went on: “No, I just… I didn’t care. It didn’t matter. The thing that guys say was actually profoundly accurate. It doesn’t mean anything. It’s just sugar, sugar, sugar, sugar. It lasts a few things. You know, the perfect date. I’m done. Get out.”
Asked whether his behavior hurt Tweed, Simmons said: “That’s exactly what it is. And there was a shrink who actually offered that men who are arrogant and self-engrossed… Yeah, you have to be some of that to be able to climb on that stage and weather the storm, because most people are concerned they’re going to be judged. They don’t want to get in front of other people. Those of us who get up on stage don’t care. It’s like, I’m here.”
He added that he never hid what he was doing: “Well, I want to make the point. So for the first 29 years being together, we lived together. I supported everybody. The kids were great, Nick and Sophie and stuff, but I didn’t keep any of it a secret. There were photos, the paparazzi and all that kind of stuff. And then… and Shannon never tortured me. Never did that line in the sand. You either do this or you do that.”
Simmons described the moment he proposed while filming the family’s reality series, and explained that his fear of repeating his father’s mistakes had kept him from marriage for so long: “And at 62, I dropped to my knees in Belize. We were shooting our reality show. We had a TV show. And I, despite everything I ever told myself, I dropped to my knees and I asked her to marry me. And I never wanted to have kids or get married. I didn’t want to turn into my father. Have kids and then run out on your family, which shamefully many fathers do. I didn’t want a child to feel what I felt, because it takes a long time to… like, ‘What did I do? Why doesn’t my father love me? What did I do that was wrong?’ That lasts years. You’ve got to really work to get over that.”
He continued: “And so once I decided to do that, I… there was the epiphany, you know, this kind of, ‘Hey, a**hole’ — and I named one of my solo records A**hole — ‘How could you be so self-engrossed?’ ‘Well, look, that’s my little corner here. It doesn’t affect anybody else.’ Yeah, it does. It affects Sophie and my son Nick and Shannon. Breaks their hearts. ‘Why is daddy doing that stuff?’ So you gotta s**t or get off the pot. And you want to get married and have kids? You’ve got to commit. That’s what I’ve done.”
When the interviewer pointed out that the couple already had children by then, Simmons replied: “Oh, yeah. Yeah, that’s where the lunacy of it is, this kind of, ‘Hey, it’s my little corner over there. I’m still being a good father and I support everybody.’ It’s all delusional. It’s all self-aggrandizement. It’s… it’s bulls**t.”
Simmons, born Chaim Witz in Haifa, Israel, has spoken in the past about his father leaving the family when he was a child. The solo record he referred to is his 2004 album A**hole.
Simmons and Tweed met in 1983 and were together for 28 years before marrying on October 1, 2011, in Beverly Hills. They have two children, Nick and Sophie. The proposal was filmed for their A&E reality series “Gene Simmons Family Jewels“, which aired from 2006 to 2012.
The couple will celebrate their 15th wedding anniversary on Thursday, October 1.
