The Outrageous Life of Legendary KISS Rockstar Gene Simmons

Before forming KISS, he briefly worked as a sixth-grade teacher in Spanish Harlem. The job stands out because it is so far removed from the image that later made him famous: black-and-white makeup, blood-spitting, fire-breathing, and a towering stage persona called “The Demon.”

Teaching gave him a glimpse of a very different life, one built around responsibility, routine, and children rather than rock theatrics. But music kept pulling at him. The classroom could give him stability, but it could not give him the future he was starting to imagine.