I don’t really care about Simmons’s sex life as such. I don’t make any judgment about him on the basis of his promiscuity. The real issue is that he’s gone out of his way to make it a subject of public discussion and he’s also exposed the personal lives and feelings of his wife (face it, she’s as good as his wife, even though they’re not technically married) and his children through this reality show and the accompanying publicity interviews, and it’s all really just for money. I just find it sad to see people who seem to be genuinely hurting in public like that, and I include both Tweed and Simmons in that, because they both seem to be losing something important to them.
Really what makes him an asshole is using all this to make money. He’s not rich enough? He has to put his family through this public laundry-airing just so he can do a TV show? And that on top of the way he generally interacts with people, like Terry Gross. It’s uncalled for. He’s just an unpleasant person. If not for all of this, I’d have no opinion about him based solely on his screwing around with groupies.
It’s his persona, but personas are frequently manufactured as much from legend and myth as fact. Unless you’re privy to the ins and outs of his every day life, you don’t know what the actual reality is. Nor do any of us know exactly what arrangement and agreement and promises were made between him and Shannon about what sort of behavior was acceptable when and where.
Whatever’s changed is enough that, despite contracts, despite public appearances, Shannon walked out at some recent point. Whether she’s back, or semi-back, or just remaining entangled because of their children I don’t know (and I don’t think anyone who doesn’t know them personally could say) but she’s obviously, from her demeanor, at a very bad place.
It’s really rather horrifying watching someone’s life unravel in front of reality TV’s cold glare. And if this were about a mutual failing, I’d expect someone as balls-out as Simmons to say so, instead he stammers and wavers and looks like an ugly fool. The sympathy meter is definitely not pegging in his direction.
Exactly. It’s not entertaining at all. And I haven’t even seen the reality show, the interviews linked in this thread are really horrifying.
Although, I have to admit that I found it odd that after “walking out” on the Behar interview, Tweed continued to wander the set instead of just leaving. It makes me think twice about whether this is a put on for the cameras.
And on the other hand, this makes me think it’s real. If it’s all a put-on, Gene Simmons, of all people, would have an assholish comment all ready to go. Instead he just seems like someone who’s finally getting dumped.
I know that I haven’t been watching his show. I didn’t even know he had one. And I know that I’m not going to be watching the show. I really don’t want to watch this play out. Watching Shannon Tweed break down and cry just isn’t what I’m interested in.
I think he’s a giant prick. And yeah, Shannon has some grief coming for getting into a relationship with a known womanizer and then expecting him to change for her. But that doesn’t mean Gene isn’t still being a giant ass.
I know people are very skeptical of what they see on TV, especially reality shows. I know that the promotional tour of this certainly feels like hype, and you wonder about people going through such an emotional turmoil and not only playing it out on a reality show, but going on a promotional tour and continuing to play it out. I can see how someone could wonder if it is real or all a big publicity act.
To me, I don’t really care to follow any more. I never cared about KISS, never cared about Gene Simmons, hearing that he’s an asshole doesn’t really mean much to me. Watching a washed up rock star with an oversized ego and horrible hair go through an emotional crisis with his not-quite-wife is really not something that matters to me. Sure, laugh at him because he’s an ass, but if you’re not in the entertainment business (where you’re paid to pay attention to these things), then don’t feed the troll. Ignore his show, ignore him, and hope he goes away.
According to my calculations, at 3 minutes per (Anybody who brags about it only gets 3 minutes per in my calcs), 900,000 women is ~208 days of fucking.
900,000 women * 3 minutes = 2,700,000 total minutes of banging
2,700,000 minutes / 60 m/h = 45,000 total hours
45,000 hours / 24 h/d = 1,875 total days
1,875 days / 365 d/y = 5.14 years of copulation
:smack: …should have been * instead of / by 3…you’re right of course. What this says about my math skills or psyche should be taken with a grain of salt(peter). :o
If you watch his show Gene comes off like Bill Cosby on the Cosby show. He is the butt of all of the jokes and he doesn’t seem to take himself that seriously. He will pull out the rock star schtick just so they can shoot it down and he seems to enjoy it when they do. His kids are very well mannered, smart and funny. They aren’t screwed up like Ozzy’s kids and their interactions with their father all seem very healthy.
A lot of the shows are staged from start to finish but you can kind of get a feel for how they actually are. Shannon knew about Gene sleeping around and about his addiction to work from the get go. I cannot believe they did not have an understanding. She claims she put up with it for the sake of the kids but I don’t think she ever let Gene know her plan was to dump him once they were grown. She is also losing her looks and that probably adds to the insecurity. Gene never had anything to lose in that department.
Gene’s public persona works against him. I think James Taylor dumped his family because they interfered with his work and then named an album about the event just to drive home the point but his public persona is a sweet and kind one so no one says boo about it or thinks ill of him.
It also hurts that KISS was always such an artificial construct and marketing vehicle. Gene can’t even claim to have the wild animal spirits of the artist as an excuse.