LONDON, ENGLAND – JULY 04: Gene Simmons of US rock group Kiss performs live on stage, for a one-off Independence Day show as a fundraiser for the Help for Heroes charity, at The Kentish Town Forum on July 4, 2012 in London, England. (Photo by Jim Dyson/Getty Images).
If you think back to your middle school and junior high years, and even into high school, there were some awkward years. And if you didn’t have any awkward years, well congratulations for being so freaking lucky! Most of us endured some awkward times, either for the way we dressed, the way we talked, or the way we looked. But all those awkward times made us each into the incredible human beings we’ve become, right? Gene Simmons from KISS definitely had some awkward years, after moving to the United States from Israel at the age of eight. He had an accent, looked different, and of course was right in the middle of puberty.
After watching The Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1964, he pretended to be English at times, trying to fit in. “It changed my life,” Simmons said in an interview with American Songwriter. “All of a sudden it was okay to sound different and look different and not fit into society. And that’s how I felt, coming from Israel. I spoke with an accent, I didn’t look like anybody else. I was bigger than other people. I just felt like an outsider. And all of a sudden, these guys came who spoke with an accent, and so did I at that point.”