Kiss co-founder, bassist and vocalist Gene Simmons has an estimate an estimated equity of 350 million dollars and he never hid his love for money. In an interview with Music Radar back in 2019, the musician said why money can buy happiness.
Kiss’ Gene Simmons gave his opinion about money and being rich:
A wise man once said, ‘Money doesn’t make you rich’.
“Well, that’s a fool, and I’ll tell you why. If your mother needs a hip operation, or your family needs food and shelter, only money will get you that. The Ethiopian mother in the Kalahari desert who holds her baby has all the love in the world, but that baby will die.”
“You need money to buy protection and food. Money actually profoundly and accurately makes you happy. I’ve never seen anyone on TV or in print who won the lottery, who won two million pounds, who was sad.”
But does money make people happy?
“Yes it does. I’ll say this; if you’re a miserable son of a bitch, it’s still better to be a rich miserable son of a bitch than a poor one. There’s just no arguing with that. Money is the root of all happiness, from the food that you buy to feed your children, to the money you give to charity, and to the jobs you create.”
“It’s in the language: the word ‘poor’, meaning not having money, is synonymous with doing badly. ‘How’s that food?’ ‘Oh, it’s rich.’ ‘How did he do in school?’ ‘Oh, he did poorly.’ People are misguided – I don’t want to say they’re fools – they’re misguided, and they say things like, ‘Oh, I just want enough to get by.’ I invite all those people to send me all the pounds they don’t need. You think you’ve got too much? Send everything you don’t want to me. Just trying to help out.”