The Kiss bassist says the three businessmen operate on a scale most people never attempt, and rejects the idea that loving your work is a problem.
Gene Simmons was asked about his appetite for the stage and ended up talking about billionaires.
Speaking to Meltdown of Detroit radio station “WRIF“, the Kiss bassist and vocalist named the three people he rates above everyone else, and made clear he thinks most people set their sights far too low.
“We are entitled and spoiled, and I think I’ve had about enough of that. The most impressive people to me are [American investor and philanthropist Warren] Buffett and Elon Musk [the CEO and largest shareholder of Tesla and SpaceX] and [Jeff] Bezos [American entrepreneur and investor who founded Amazon in 1994]. Elon‘s worth — I don’t know — about a trillion and a half, something like that. What does he do every day? He gets up. He’s planning, he’s doing. He’s planning, for goodness sakes, cities on Mars while the rest of us are complaining about the traffic jam. We’re doing nothing. These are people who have higher intellect and a grander vision of life, that you can do big things. And for me, the big thing is — look, imagine you write a book and you’re really proud of it. You worked hard and then once you’re finished, you put it on a shelf and nobody reads it. Well, you don’t get anything out of it. The joy is to have other people read it and comment. Some love it. You’re a painter and you do this amazing painting that you’re really proud of — and I’ve done some of that myself — well, if nobody sees it, where’s the joy in that? So writing songs is the same thing, or being in a band. There can’t be a party without you. If you’re alone at home spinning your favorite record and you have potato chips and Diet Coke, that ain’t much of a party,” he said (as transcribed by Blabbermouth).
Warren Buffett built his fortune through Berkshire Hathaway and has pledged the bulk of it to charity. Jeff Bezos founded Amazon in 1994. Musk runs Tesla and SpaceX.
The figure Simmons cites is high. Musk briefly became the world’s first trillionaire on June 12 this year when SpaceX listed on the Nasdaq, and peaked at around $1.33 trillion later that month. His fortune then fell by $363 billion across July before recovering some of it in August. Forbes put him at $892 billion on September 1, which still leaves him more than three times richer than the next person on the list.
The remarks came after the host suggested there must be an addictive element to performing constantly. Simmons rejected the framing.
“I don’t like that word. I think it infers negativity — drug addicts, alcohol and so on. But when you love doing something, I wonder why that’s an addiction. Like you’re a workaholic. Losers say that. You know who the starving people in India and other places in the world who don’t have jobs and are trying to figure out how to feed their families, they can’t imagine anybody would come up with a phrase like, ‘You’re a workaholic. You’re working too much.’ Too much? Please let me work too much. I’ll give you my firstborn,” he noted.
Earlier in the conversation, Simmons described how his ambitions have kept moving, starting from a point where he wanted one thing only.
He explained: “I love it… I often wondered, when I was first starting out with the band 50 years ago, actually closer to 55 now, all I ever wanted was to be in a band that went in the studio and recorded one album. One. I just wanted to be able to go into a store, record store — they used to have those in those days — and that’s all I ever wanted to do. And then that day came. That day came when I walked next to Electric Lady Studios in New York where we did our first record, went next door and actually bought the first record. $3.39. Then they got more expensive and all that. And then after that, I think it’s analogous to when you’re a kid and you never made a penny in your life, you walk down the street, you look on the floor, and you go, ‘Oh my God. There’s a penny on the floor. I can pick it up and it’s mine.’ Then when you find the second penny, whatever, ‘That’s good. I did that.’ Then you find a dime. ‘Oh my God, there’s a dime.’ And you pick it up and you go, ‘Wow.’ And then later on you find a dollar, and you go, ‘Oh, wow, I found a dollar. I’m rich.’ So, how we look at life is all relative. When you climb on top of a mountain, you go, ‘Wow, I made it.’ Then you look around and there are taller mountains, and you go, ‘Okay.’ Roll up your sleeves and keep going. That’s really the idea. Keep going.”
Simmons still plays regularly with the Gene Simmons Band, nearly three years after Kiss closed their “End Of The Road” farewell tour. The group is Simmons on bass and vocals, Jason Walker on guitar and vocals, Brian Tichy on drums and vocals and Brent Woods on guitar.
He was born Chaim Witz in Haifa in August 1949, to Jewish immigrants from Hungary. His mother Flora Klein survived the Holocaust; his father Feri Witz left the family, and they emigrated to the United States with nothing. Alongside music he has built businesses across television, film, publishing, merchandising, restaurants and consumer products.
