Watch Gene talking about the recording session with Van Halen Brothers

Gene Simmons talked about how he wound up recording three demo tracks with Eddie and Alex Van Halen during an overnight studio session in 1977.

He talks about the session in a new video, which includes “Christine Sixteen” demo as backing. The rough recordings of that future Kiss track, along with “Tunnel of Love” and “Got Love for Sale,” are included in the new Gene Simmons Vault collection.

Take a look:

Gene Simmons was asked by Mitch Lafon recently about signing Van Halen and producing their demo tape way back in 1976-77, to which he replied:

“I discovered Van Halen playing in a club and signed them to my Man of 1,000 Faces production company, flew them to New York, produced 15 songs at Electric Lady Studios.

“And then when I got too busy I tore up the contract and I said, ‘You guys are free. I gotta go back on tour, and if I have time at the end of the tour I’ll go shopping for a deal for you. I can’t ethically, personally, hold on to you guys while I’m off on tour.’

“So I did the right thing. And the guys, of course, got signed right away. And in return, the brothers Van Halen were kind enough to appear on three songs that I wrote when we came back from Japan in 1978.

“One of those songs was ‘Christine Sixteen’ that we recorded about 2 a.m. in the morning.

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