Gene Simmons Turns 77: The Demon, KISS and a legacy that refuses to disappear

On this day, August 25, Gene Simmons turns 77.
Born Chaim Witz in Haifa in 1949, he would eventually become Gene Simmons, “The Demon,” bassist, singer, businessman and, above all, one of the architects of KISS — a band that transformed rock concerts into something closer to a theatrical universe.

Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley had already been musical partners before KISS, first in Wicked Lester.
In 1973, however, they built something entirely different: together with Peter Criss and Ace Frehley, they formed KISS, creating not simply a rock band but a collection of larger-than-life characters. Gene Simmons became The Demon, Paul Stanley The Starchild, and the combination of makeup, costumes, fire, blood, explosions and enormous personalities turned their concerts into events.
And KISS did not merely survive the changing fashions of rock, as they became one of the most recognizable brands in music history.
Their influence reached far beyond records, with the band’s visual identity becoming as important as the songs themselves. Alive! helped establish their reputation as one of the great live acts of the 1970s, while albums such as Destroyer, Rock and Roll Over and Love Gun cemented their place in rock history.

There is something particularly fitting, then, about the timing of this birthday.
Just days before Gene Simmons’ 77th birthday, KISS returned to Anaheim — not for another concert, but to celebrate one of the most important nights in their history.
On August 15, The Demon and The Starchild walked onto the field at Angel Stadium and threw the ceremonial first pitch before the Los Angeles Angels faced the Kansas City Royals.
The first one reportedly needed four attempts before getting one right, but nobody was there to judge his pitching technique, as the appearance was part of the promotion surrounding KISS Destroys Anaheim ’76, the newly released official recording of the band’s historic August 20, 1976 performance at Anaheim Stadium.

And here is where the numbers become almost surreal: 50 years separate the two moments.
On August 20, 1976, KISS played Anaheim Stadium in front of more than 42,000 people, the largest audience the band had ever faced at that point.
The concert, part of the Spirit of ’76, or Destroyer, Tour, became legendary among fans and circulated for decades in bootleg form. And now, for the first time, it has received an official release, newly mixed by Eddie Kramer from the original multitrack tapes. KISS Destroys Anaheim ’76 arrived on August 21, 2026, complete with a setlist that includes “Detroit Rock City,” “Shout It Out Loud,” “God of Thunder,” “Rock and Roll All Nite” and “Black Diamond.”
So Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley returned to the same baseball stadium area half a century later, but the circumstances could hardly be more different.
If in 1976 they were young rock stars trying to conquer America, in 2026, they are living monuments to the very history they were creating.

But there is another beautiful twist to the story.
While the fathers have stepped away from regular KISS touring, their sons are now making music together. Evan Stanley and Nick Simmons — Paul and Gene’s respective sons — have formed their own project, STANLEY SIMMONS. Their debut album, Dancing While the World Is Ending, is scheduled for August 28, just three days after Gene’s birthday.
The music is reportedly much closer to folk rock than the theatrical hard rock of their fathers, suggesting that the family connection is less about copying KISS than finding a new way to carry the musical conversation forward.
It is almost as if the KISS story is quietly changing generations. Gene and Paul once built the band together; now their sons are building something together of their own.

And KISS itself is not entirely disappearing.
After the End of the Road tour finally concluded at Madison Square Garden in December 2023, the band announced that it would continue in another form: digital avatars.
Developed with Pophouse Entertainment and Industrial Light & Magic, the project is expected to become a major new chapter for the band, with the full-scale avatar show now planned for Las Vegas in 2028 and new KISS music reportedly being prepared for the production.
That may sound strange for a band whose mythology was built on sweat, fire, blood, enormous speakers and human beings flying above the audience. But perhaps nobody is better suited to this strange transition than Gene Simmons. For more than five decades, he has understood that KISS was never simply about four musicians standing on a stage. It was about creating a world — and worlds can survive their original creators.

On August 25, Gene Simmons turns 77.
Somewhere between the Demon of 1976, the veteran rocker of 2026 and the digital avatar of the future, one thing remains remarkably consistent: KISS is still finding ways to make noise.