Gene Simmons thinks it’s better to be “rich” and “miserable” than to be poor.
The 75-year-old musician – who is best known for starring in the rock band KISS – grew up in modest surroundings and Gene admits that his career success has been motivated by “power and money”.
Speaking on ‘The UCR Podcast’, Gene explained: “It’s funny, I’m an only child to my mother and I grew up with the hard knocks of not being very romantic about what it all means.
“I developed a harder skin and for myself, realised that everything was about the search for power and money, which is not a very romantic notion. But I didn’t want to be poor, because I know what that felt like.”
Gene’s outlook has been shaped by his mother’s life experiences. And the iconic musician believes money and power are key to his “survival”.
Gene – whose mother survived internment in Nazi concentration camps – said: “My mother worked at a sweat factory six days out of the week and survived the Nazi concentration camps of Germany. You know, life is tough, so the romantic hippie dippie notation about life never worked for me
“All I ever did was try to figure out how to become powerful and make lots of money, for survival. The only thing money ever does, really, is give you the freedom to do stuff you actually like doing. It’s what it’s really about and also to keep you safe, pay for your hospital bills, create jobs, give to charity, all of that stuff. A poor person never gave me a job.”
Gene insisted that it’s better to be “a rich, miserable f***” than to be poor.
He said: “Throughout KISS, fame was nice, but there are a lot of famous people who are relatively poor, that’s not a lot of fun.
“But on the other side, there’s a lot of industrial types whose names you don’t recognise who are filthy rich. It’s better to be rich than poor, it really is. And if you’re a miserable f***, it’s still better to be a rich, miserable f***. That’s all I ever tried to do.”