Legendary KISS frontman Gene Simmons believes that it’s better to be “rich” and “miserable” than to be poor.
Now 75-years-old, the iconic pop/rocker who grew up in modest surroundings admitted that his career success has been motivated by “power and money”.
During this recent interview on ‘The UCR Podcast’, Simmons explained:
“It’s funny, I’m an only child to my mother and I grew up with the hard knocks of not being very romantic about what it all means.” “I developed a harder skin and for myself, realized that everything was about the search for power and money, which is not a very romantic notion. But I didn’t want to be poor, because I know what that felt like.”
Shaped in part by his mother’s life experiences surviving the Nazi concentration camps, the larger-than-life musician believes money and power are key to his “survival” adding:
“My mother worked at a sweat factory six days out of the week and survived the Nazi concentration camps of Germany. You know, life is tough, so the romantic hippie dippie notation about life never worked for me.” “All I ever did was try to figure out how to become powerful and make lots of money, for survival. The only thing money ever does, really, is give you the freedom to do stuff you actually like doing. It’s what it’s really about and also to keep you safe, pay for your hospital bills, create jobs, give to charity, all of that stuff. A poor person never gave me a job.”
Insisting that it’s better to be “a rich, miserable f***” than to be poor,” the member of the Casablanca Records signed act concluded:
“Throughout KISS, fame was nice, but there are a lot of famous people who are relatively poor, that’s not a lot of fun.” “But on the other side, there’s a lot of industrial types whose names you don’t recognize who are filthy rich. It’s better to be rich than poor, it really is. And if you’re a miserable f***, it’s still better to be a rich, miserable f***. That’s all I ever tried to do.”
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Author: Saul Goode
Photo: V-spectrum