The Outrageous Life of Legendary KISS Rockstar Gene Simmons

In America, he was exposed to the pop culture that would eventually feed directly into KISS. Superheroes, horror films, science fiction, television, and rock music all became part of his imagination, while the Beatles showed him how powerful a band could be.

Those influences mattered because KISS would later feel less like a normal rock group and more like a living comic book. The makeup, characters, spectacle, and theatrical danger all had roots in what he absorbed as a young immigrant discovering American entertainment.