Gene Simmons (Chaim Witz) was born on August 25, 1949 in Haifa, Israel, is an Israeli-American hard rock bass guitarist and vocalist.

He is best known as "The Demon", his blood-spitting, fire-breathing, and tongue-wagging persona in the hard rock band Kiss, an act which he co-founded in the early 1970s.

Simmons became involved with his first band, Lynx, then renamed The Missing Links, when he was a teenager.

Eventually he disbanded The Missing Links to form the Long Island Sounds. While he played in these bands, he kept up odd jobs on the side to make more money, including making fanzines and buying used comic books. Simmons then attended Sullivan County Community College in Loch Sheldrake, New York.

He then joined a new band Bullfrog Beer, and the band made a demo, "Leeta", which was eventually released on the KISS box set in demo form.

Simmons formed the rock band Wicked Lester in the early 1970s with Stanley Harvey Eisen (now known as Paul Stanley) and recorded one album, which was never released.

Dissatisfied with Wicked Lester's sound and look, Simmons and Stanley sought out other musicians and eventually joined up with drummer George Peter John Criscuola and lead guitarist Paul Daniel Frehley — who would become Peter Criss and Ace Frehley, respectively.