The artist Gene Simmons said her music hit him like a truck

Although the Kiss co-founder, bassist, singer and songwriter Gene Simmons became one of the biggest icons of Hard Rock, he always had a really broad musical taste. From ABBA to Metallica, the musician praised many incredible artists that some people could not expect he even liked. But there is a classic female artist that Simmons once said that her music hit him like a truck the first he had the chance to listen to her songs.

The artist Gene Simmons said her music hit him like a truck

Simmons has a really broad musical taste and was influenced by many artists from the 60s. In an interview with Goldmine Magazine in 2023 he revealed which were some of his favorite records of all time. He mentioned Patsy Cline’s “Greatest Hits” as one of them and the song he praised was “Crazy”.

“Her music hit me like a truck running you over. The more I read about her, the more fascinated I became. She had a song called ‘Crazy’ and in country & western culture, you couldn’t say the word crazy. It was supposed to be vulgar. Here was this janitor by the name of Willie Nelson who wrote ‘Crazy.’ By the way, the classic songs, like ‘Yesterday’ or ‘Michelle’ or even the Charlie Chaplin-written song ‘Smile,’ start off with the name of the song.”

Same thing with ‘Crazy,’ and that is the sign of great, not just good, but great songwriting. When I first heard the words in ‘Crazy,’ and the fact that it came out of country & western, blew me away. Then I heard all her other tracks. So you can’t appreciate music without really appreciating music. Yes, Jeff Beck’s riffs and guitar playing, the bombast of Led Zeppelin. But you can’t leave Patsy Cline over on the side,” Gene Simmons said.

Patsy Cline

Patsy Cline was born in Winchester, Virginia in 1932 and sadly passed away too soon at the age of 30 in 1963 when the airplane she was in crashed. The accident also killed Cowboy Copas, Hawkshaw Hawkins and the manager Randy Hughes. They were traveling from Kansas City, Missouri back to Nashville. She is remembered as one of the first Country artists that managed to cross over into Pop music. She had many major hits during their short career (1948 to 1963). Some of them were: “Crazy”, “Walkin’ After Midnight”, “I Fall to Pieces” and “She’s Got You”.

During her lifetime, Patsy released three studio albums “Patsy Cline” (1957), “Showcase” (1961) and “Sentimentally Yours” (1962). Later on some posthumous records were also released. In 1973, 10 years after her death, she was the first female artist to be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. Although she had a really short career, Patsy Cline still is considered one of the most influential female artists from the 20th century. A biographical movie called “Sweet Dreams”, starring Jessica Lange, was released in 1985.