Kiss legend Gene Simmons has named the singer he rates as the greatest frontman of all time — and it’s someone he helped on the road to stardom.
Simmons was an early supporter of Van Halen, and as he now tells MusicRadar, he never saw a better frontman than the original singer of Van Halen, David Lee Roth.
Referring to Roth’s peak years in the late ’70s and early ’80s, Simmons says: “David, in his prime, was the super frontman of all time."
“There was nobody — and I mean nobody, in any form of music — who ever stepped up on that stage and took being a frontman to the heights that he did.
“David had the acrobatics and sexuality — all that stuff. It had never been seen before, and it was so in-your-face."
He continues: “Everybody has their top moments.
“When Elvis was bloated and naked on the floor of a Las Vegas bathroom, that may have been a downer — but once upon a time, when Elvis got up on stage with the sneer and shaking the hips, he was the King.
“And when Van Halen were at their height, David was the finest front guy of anybody.”
Simmons’ long association with Van Halen began in 1976.
At that time, he was enjoying his first taste of major success after the album Kiss Alive! had given his band their breakthrough hit.
During a stay in Los Angeles, Simmons witnessed a Van Halen show at a famous club, the Starwood.
He recalled to Classic Rock magazine: “I’ve been credited as the man that discovered Van Halen. I did no such thing. I just happened to be there and witness their greatness at what was still a very early stage.
“I saw them that night and was left incredulous. I stood at the front of the stage and couldn’t believe my eyes and ears.
“So I signed the band to my production company, Man Of 1,000 Faces, flew them to New York and produced a demo for them at Electric Lady Studios.”
Included on that demo was a song named House Of Pain — with a heavy riff that was later incorporated into a different song with the same title, which featured on Van Halen’s album 1984.
Simmons now performs the original House Of Pain with his current touring group, The Gene Simmons Band.
He tells MusicRadar: “The original House Of Pain is the steamroller of all Van Halen songs that people had never heard. The band never played it live. They never recorded it, not that version. So we do it live and it’s… gangbusters!”
Simmons has always regretted the fact that he could not convince Kiss manager Bill Aucoin to sign Van Halen back in ’76.
As he told Classic Rock: “I had wanted to take Van Halen under the wings of Kiss. We should have signed them and taken them out on tour with us.
“Sadly, nobody else in our organisation saw it and of course months later Warner Brothers came by and scooped them up.”
