Gene Simmons doesn’t have “friends” and prefers his own company.
The KISS rocker says his closest kinship is with his bandmate Paul Stanley, and they only get together when they have band things to do.
Speaking to Goldmine magazine, he said: “Even today, as I sit here, other than Paul, and we only get together when we do stuff for the band.
“How do I say this without sounding inhuman?
“I don’t have friends.
“Yeah, if friends means, ‘Gee, I don’t know what I’m going to do this afternoon. Hey, you want to come over and hang out?’
“I’m more interested in what I want to do, and I don’t want to pretend that I’m interested in what you want to do because I am not.”
Meanwhile, Paul previously shared how he thinks KISS could continue without him and Gene.
The ‘Detroit Rock City’ rockers are on their ‘End of the Road’ farewell tour, with founding members Paul and Gene now joined by Tommy Thayer and drummer Eric Singer, who replaced Ace Frehley and Peter Criss, respectively.
Weighing in on the future of the band once its final two original members retire, he said: “I think that recasting KISS or KISS 2.0 is not what we have ever talked about.
“Can KISS continue and can it evolve without us in it? Well, yeah, because it’s already 50 per cent there.
“In other words, there was a time where people said, ‘Well, it can only be the original four.’ [And then] it was, ‘Well, it can only be the original three.’ Well, things move on and circumstances change.”
He admitted despite his confidence in his own abilities, the group is “bigger than any member”, and he doesn’t rule out future iterations with different lineups.
He explained: “Could I see KISS evolving with different personnel? Yeah.
“As big a fan as I am of what I do — and I think I’m damn good — there’s other people around who could pick up the torch and bring something to the philosophy and to the live show and to the music. It would be KISS. It wouldn’t be KISS 2.0.
“If it were to happen, yeah, it would be really just a continuation of the philosophy that we’ve always had, and that’s that KISS is bigger than any member.”
However, Ace – who first left the group in 1982 before coming back again between 1996 and 2002 – has previously slammed the idea.
He argued: “They’re trying to rationalise to the fans, ‘Well, you know, we replaced Peter and we replaced Ace, and eventually we’re gonna replace ourselves.
“That’s like Mick Jagger saying, ‘Yeah, after me and Keith [Richards], die, The Rolling Stones will continue on with two other guys.’ I mean, it’s a joke.”
