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How Much is Gene Simmons worth?

Gene Simmons (Chaim Witz) is an American rock and roll legend, actor, producer, entrepreneur and the bassist for the band KISS. He was a founding member of the band in 1973 and they continue to produce albums and tour 43 years later. He is so well known and loved that everyone asks how much Gene Simmons worth. Well he is estimated to have a net worth at $300 million.

Here is a brief biography of Gene Simmons. He was born in August 25th 1949 as Chaim Wits in Haifa Israel to Hungarian –Jewish parents, his mother Florence was a survivor of a NAZI concentration camp, and his father Chaim was a carpenter. At the age of five his parents got separated and Chaim and his mother moved to the US and settled in Williamsburg, Brooklyn New York and he was renamed Gene Klein. As a child he was introduced to his first love comic books and cartoons with the help of these new interests Gene picked up the English language adding to a vast vocabulary which also included Hebrew, Spanish, Turkish and Hungarian. (His make-up in Kiss came from his love of comic books) He saw the historic band The Beatles appearance on the Ed Sullivan show in 1964, Genes life was changed instantly; it would be the 15th year that his mother would give him a second guitar the Kent.

Gene Simmons
Gene Simmons (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

After years of playing lead guitar he changed to bass guitar because as he saw there was more guitarist than bassist. By 1968 he had already been apart of five separate music groups; Long Island Sounds, Rising Sun, the Missing Links, Bullfrog Bheer and Cathedral. With Wicked Lester he had an Epic Records recording deal but was unhappy with the sound and the group and ended up leaving. He never wasted a chance with education and in 1970 he graduated from Richmond College with a degree in education and four language degrees English, German, Hungarian and Hebrew. He worked as a sixth grade teacher and later gave up and held a job as a personal assistant with Vogue and Glamour magazines and the name Gene Simmons was adopted.

In 1973 he formed the group KISS with Paul Stanley. Their breakthrough came with the double live album, Alive! In 1975, KISS went at it hammer and tongs with striking stage shows featuring eye catching demonic make up. The albums Destroyer and Rock and Roll Over were released in 1976 and Love Gun and Alive II in 1977. The following year they released no less than four albums, all named after the orginal members of the band. They were hot and Simmons took advantage of every opportunity that came along: merchandising, acting, and all kinds of naming deals.

Gene expanded his interest and acted in Runway with Tom Selleck in 1948, appeared in Wanted Dead or Alive in 1986. He started producing and established a management company. Was considered the first producer to discover Van Halen although the demo tapes did not grow into a long term contract. He created the cartoon show My Dad the Rock Star in 2002, Whole Kiss and Make Up and Sex Money Kiss. In 2004 he finished filming Rock School Foe Channel 4 teaching classically trained 13-14 year-olds how to rock. He has appeared in the Apprentice with Donald Trump but was fired in the second week. In 2009, Kiss celebrated their 35th year in the music charts with the release of their first studio show album in nearly a decade. He finally married Shannon Lee Tweed in 2011 after dating for over 20 years and their two children Sophie and Nick live with them in California. You might have seen the A&E reality show Family Jewels featuring the family.