Why Rocker Gene Simmons Deserves a Big KISS

In the words of that great philosopher from the band KISS, Gene Simmons:

I think we should be racially profiling anybody from the Middle East … and as an Israeli; I want you to look at me first. I want you to search my anal cavity and look at my tax records. I want you to look at me first, and then at every guy named Muhammad.

I have never been a big fan of the group KISS.  Bunch of guys wearing white demonic makeup one with a serpentine tongue it seemed more show biz than music. That was until I got "into" the A&E   reality series, when II realized that Gene Simmons is the consummate impresario. He is not  (nor has ever been) one of those drugged up Rock and Roll stars trying too survive for one more concert.  Along with being a Rock Star, Simmons is a marketing star. The way he has branded KISS and built it into a marketing empire has been nothing short of amazing.

When it comes to politics, Gene Simmons has never been shy about expressing himself even though his opinion normally conflicts with the standard Hollywood progressive orthodoxy.

In his latest interview he puts it on the line for Tim Teabow;

“He’s got a religious passion, as well he should, we’re in America,” the KISS frontman told Radio.com earlier this week. ”He’s proud to be a Christian, what’s wrong with that? And yet, with sports media and pop culture media, they make fun of his religion. Really? In America? If he was wearing a burqa, they wouldn’t dare say anything [editor's note: only Muslim women wear burqas]. But if you’re a Christian, you get to be picked on? What the hell? The guy’s got family values. I never saw the media picking on Michael Vick for torturing dogs. Or this other football player, who’s alleged to have killed, committed murder. That’s ‘cool.’ But a guy who’s religious and has got family values isn’t ‘cool?’ He’s cool to me.”

As has been widely reported, Simmons and his KISS bandmate Paul Stanley are now co-owners of a new Arena Football League team, to be called LA KISS. And Simmons wasted no time drawing attention to the expansion team (which will begin playing in 2014), extending a very public offer to quarterback Tim Tebow, who after a brief up-and-down career in the NFL, was released by the New England Patriots a few weeks ago....

Simmons may relate to Tebow on that level: he has always taken issue with the music media (notably Rolling Stone) for not treating KISS seriously, which he addresses in Nothing To Lose. But the treatment that he feels Tebow has received makes him particularly incensed: “They’re a**holes. And they should be called to task, and they should lose their license, because in a very real way, as far as I’m concerned, it’s slander and defamation. You’re making fun of somebody’s religion.”

“I think religion is good for mankind. Without the Ten Commandments,” he pauses to note, “Jews gave you that,” and continues, “Without that, there’d be chaos. Somebody had to say, ‘Here are some good ideas: don’t steal, and don’t kill.’ Those are good ideas. That’s called ‘civilization.’ There was once a time where those things weren’t written down. You had chaos! We still have chaos, but there’s a reference point. But those are good ideas. Honor thy father and thy mother. That’s a good idea!”

Actually Gene it is not only a good idea but it shows you remember what you learned in Hebrew School.

Gene and his wife Shannon Tweed are big supporters of our heroes in the military, just another reason why he deserves a big KISS.