The Beatles member that Gene Simmons said was a genius too

It’s no secret that Kiss was heavily inspired by The Beatles. Band members, like Gene Simmons, have even said that their idea was to create a Hard Rock group that was essentially “The Beatles on steroids.” Although Kiss had a much heavier sound, there are some notable similarities, such as the rhythm guitarist and bassist being the main songwriters and vocalists, while the lead guitarist and drummer occasionally wrote and sang their own songs as well.

They were all big fans of the Fab Four, but for Gene Simmons, the impact was especially profound. As a kid, his life changed when he saw the Liverpool band perform on The Ed Sullivan Show. It was a turning point that showed him the path to follow. But beyond Paul McCartney and John Lennon, the Kiss bassist believes there was another genius in the band as well.

The Beatles member that Gene Simmons said was a genius too

The youngest member of the Beatles, George Harrison, was the one who Gene Simmons mentioned when talking about his favorite songwriters in an interview with Classic Rock in 2024. After mentioning Lennon and McCartney, he noted that Harrison was also a genius.

“It’s either Lennon or McCartney. Because for every Eleanor Rigby, every Yesterday, you had Across The Universe, which is haunting like no other song I’ve ever heard. Even a song that Lennon wasn’t fond of, And Your Bird Can Sing, nobody has ever sounded like that before or after. So many great songs. It’s incredible. And let’s not forget George Harrison. He was supposed to be less talented because he didn’t write All You Need Is Love and all those other hits. But then he came up with While My Guitar Gently Weeps, Something and Here Comes The Sun. So it’s like: “Oh, that guy’s a genius too!”

As Gene Simmons said, Lennon and McCartney wouldn’t leave much space to present his songs in The Beatles. That was something that George himself complained after the group came to an end. He said that they would have to do dozens of songs by Paul and Lennon before they accepted to work on tracks made by him and Ringo Starr.

The Beatles albums that Simmons thinks is overlooked

The band existed only from 1960 until 1970 and released 12 studio albums. But their material was so good that it was enough to change the course of music. In his opinion The Beatles self-titled album from 1968, also known as the “White Album” is an overlooked album by the group. That record has four tracks written by Harrison: “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”, “Piggies”, “Long, Long, Long” and “Savoy Truffle”.

“It’s an overlooked record I think. They were in the midst of breaking up. They were writing separately, and here you can really tell the differences between the Lennon–McCartney and George Harrison songs. What I find really interesting about the record is how it’s not really polished. ‘Glass Onion’ is as unique a song as I’ve ever heard, and with self-reference: ‘I told you about Strawberry Fields’, ‘the walrus was Paul’. I mean all that stuff! It refers to things the fans were talking about.”

“It’s a spectacular album. It doesn’t connect like Abbey Road or Let It Be anywhere near as fast because the songs are all over the place. In the days when album covers and packaging meant so much. It was just a brave statement to say it doesn’t have a title and leave it white. There is no title anywhere on the record, that’s fantastic! Just the solo photos of the band inside. It’s a strange record,” Gene Simmons told The Quietus in 2015.

Simmons always mentions The Beatles as a band that changed the world. For him, the band opened the mind of kids who would then discover Chuck Berry, Motown and many other musicians and music genres.