Gene Simmons recalls how Kiss created their makeup

Formed in New York City in 1973 by Ace Frehley, Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons, and Peter Criss, Kiss became one of the most influential hard rock bands of all time. However, it wasn’t just their music that made them iconic—their appearance played a crucial role in their initial success. Using high heels, unusual clothing, and distinctive makeup, they captivated kids and teenagers in the 1970s.

But how did they come up with the iconic makeup? Gene Simmons explained in an interview with Michael Franzese (Transcribed by Blabbermouth).

Gene Simmons recalls how Kiss created their makeup

We’ve been around 52 years, with different members and all that, because not everybody lasts. And one day, and I’ve talked about this before, and every time I talk about it, I get the imagery again. We’re sitting around in our rat-infested loft, 10 East 23rd Street [in Manhattan], and we’d been rehearsing. It’s a rat trap and a fire trap. No windows, nothing. And after the rehearsal, one of us — I don’t know who — said, ‘Hey, let’s go down to Woolworth’s,’ which was a local store.”

“You could buy anything. Before there were malls, you’d stick everything into Woolworth’s — aspirin, anything, clothing. And there were also gimmicky things… And so we somehow veered towards the Halloween area, and there was clown makeup. Stein’s clown white, a jar, and Stein’s black lipstick. For some reason, Paul Stanley went to the red lipstick thing — I don’t know why — and we just bought the stuff and we bought two mirrors that were four and a half feet tall, about this wide, 15 bucks all in, and brought it up to the loft.”

“Nobody said, ‘I have an idea. Let’s sit down. We’ll do this.’ Like, if you’d look at it, you’d say, ‘Okay, who’s telling you what to do?’ No, it’s just happening. We’re looking in the mirror, putting on makeup and looking at each other and stuff like that, and just talking. Well, it’s kind of weird, it’s kind of sticky talking about the feeling of it.”

Simmons continued:

“Then we started drawing designs around the eyes and looking at each other and stuff and getting off on it, kind of, as it was happening. And Peter Criss liked cats, so he was doing that. I was always fascinated by horror movies and sci-fi, that imagery. And Ace always talked about that he’s from another planet and stuff. His equilibrium was not all that good, so he would often fall or whatever. So he thought of himself as a spaceman. And Paul Stanley, originally the makeup was a round circle, or black, around his eye. And we looked around, and we go, ‘What the hell is that?’ And he says, ‘It’s like Pete, the dog from ‘The Little Rascals’.'”

“There was a dog in an old black-and-white half-hour thing that went back to Mack Sennett comedies. The beginning of movies, they’d have these short about kids in poor areas. And by the way, it was not segregated. They had black kids and white kids hanging out together like friends. Yeah, but in regular civilization, well, no, black and white is supposed to be separate. Not with our gang; they were just black and white friends. Buckwheat and Stymie, yeah. Great names. And the dog was part of it, and he’d have a black circle. And we went, ‘No, nobody’s gonna know that. If they’re younger, they’re not gonna…'”

He continued:

“So he decided to do, and I think it might have been Ace who said, ‘You always wanted to be a rock and roll star, instead of a pudgy Jewish kid. Why don’t you put stars over your eyes?’ So he did. So he did two stars over his eyes, but they didn’t align. It’s difficult to do that freehand. So he decided just to use one. And that’s where his makeup came from. Just one star over the eye, and that was it. And between that first application of the makeup to about three weeks later, I called up a local — I was acting like a manager, I always do — called up a local club, the Coventry, and convinced them to book us sight unseen or anything else for 35 bucks. 35 bucks!” Gene Simmons said.

Since Kiss came to an end in 2023 after 50 years on the road, Gene Simmons reactivated his solo career. He has been touring around the world playing his solo material, Kiss tracks and some covers.