Kiss‘ Gene Simmons has never been ashamed to voice his love for green stuff—no, not marijuana, but cold, hard cash. In a 2017 interview with CNBC, he declared, “Money absolutely buys happiness” and “Money is the fuel of life. Without money, you’re going nowhere.”
However, the other long-time leader of the band, Paul Stanley, does not exactly seem to share his bandmates’ love of money. Or, at the very least, admits it was not what initially fueled his desire to rock and roll all night and party every day.
During an interview with The Magnificent Others with Billy Corgan, Stanley recalled his early musical inspiration. And it was not money-based.
“We learned through mistakes and nobody has to take up a collection for us,” Stanley said (transcribed by Ultimate Guitar). “Our rent is well paid. But you know, the idea of being like, money hungry, or anything like [that], it’s not the case. I’ve always done this, and we’ve always done this, ultimately, truly because of the joy it gives us.”
Kiss’ Starchild then listed several concerts he was lucky to have witnessed first-hand, which inspired him to write music and perform.
“I was so fortunate. I grew up in an era that took us into the next era, but I grew up seeing Jimi Hendrix play for a couple of thousand people, Led Zeppelin, The Who, with Buddy Guy opening in ’69, Humble Pie, Derek and the Dominoes, all these bands. That’s what I love, and that’s what I wanted to be.”
“I never started doing this with the intention, ‘I’m going to be a millionaire,'” Stanley continued. “Back then, a millionaire was like, the Monopoly man. Y’know, ‘Whoa! That’s incredible.’ But it was never about that. It was about — I want to be that guy, I want to be up there. Yeah, I want to be Steve Marriott. I want to preach. I want to be up there preaching rock and roll.”
