Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley formed Kiss alongside Ace Frehley and Peter Criss back in 1973 but they were the only two original members of the band who were part of the group during the five decades they were active. Both of them were also the band’s main songwriters and were crucial to make Kiss one of the best-selling bands of all time.
Over the decades they talked about many artists from the younger generations and one of them was the Pop star Taylor Swift.
Gene Simmons’ and Paul Stanley’s opinions on Taylor Swift
Although many Rock and Roll might not like Taylor Swift’s music, Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons like her and Stanley even went with his family to see a concert of the “Eras Tour”. Back in 2023 he posted on his social media a photo using the “Eras Tour” shirt and said: “Took Erin, Sarah and Emily to see Taylor Swift Last Night! 6 shows at SoFi Stadium for a total of A HALF MILLION PEOPLE and I know why… PHENOMENAL SHOW BY A PHENOMENAL ARTIST. Thanks to her staff for rolling out the red carpet for us,” Paul Stanley said.
Gene is also a fan of her and admitted in an interview with Page Six (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage) that she is basically the only big artist in the music nowadays. He was asked if there were any new artists on his radar and he mentioned Swift. “No (there are no current amazing Rock bands), neither you can think of anybody. When we were growing up in the 60s. The 60s had Led Zeppelin, The Who, The Beatles, Elvis, Deep Purple, Pink Floyd.”
He continued:
“Later on you had Madonna, Motown, Prince, David Bowie, all that happening at the same time. What’s happening now? There’s no question Taylor Swift has taken over and she’s great. I’m a fan and I know her. She’s really a solid person. Other than that (Taylor), I’m not sure what’s cool other than this (He shows a Kiss photo).”
He recently also talked about her in an interview with Forbes. “(Her success is) well deserved. She’s young. She paid her dues. She started off in her early teens as a country singer and decided for herself to broaden her thing. Because she decided, not because there were any rules that she was going to follow. I’ve met her a few times. She’s a very impressive young lady.”
Swift’s success is undeniable and the “Eras Tour” which lasted from 2023 to 2024 is the highest-grossing tour of all time. In 60 shows she made more than 1 billion dollars.
Taylor Swift
Born in West Reading, Pennsylvania, Taylor Swift is one of the best-selling artists of all time. She sold an estimated amount of more than 200 million records sold worldwide. Until 2024 she released 11 studio albums, 4 live albums and 4 re-recorded albums.
She is currently the solo artist with the most weeks at number one on the United States Billboard 200 chart and also the first billionaire to have music as the main source of income. In 2023 she was the most streamed artist in Spotify, with 26.1 billion streams.
Certainly there is no artist like her nowadays, who can generate this amount of ticket and record sales everywhere in the world.