The Outrageous Life of Legendary KISS Rockstar Gene Simmons

His mother, Flora Klein, survived Nazi concentration camps before raising him. Simmons later said her history shaped the way he lived, especially his lifelong rejection of drugs and alcohol. In his view, she had already endured too much pain for him to add to it.

That explanation became one of the most personal parts of his public image. For all the wildness of KISS, Simmons often framed his discipline around his mother’s survival. Before he became “The Demon,” he was first Flora’s son.