Gene Simmons hates Kiss' million-selling 1979 single I Was Made For Lovin' You, and not for the reason you think

Gene Simmons, and Kiss' I Was Made For Lovin' You single artwork — (Image credit: The Howard Stern Show/SiriusXM, Casablanca Records)

Gene Simmons has revealed why he hates Kiss' million-selling 1979 single I Was Made For Lovin' You, and it's not because he considers the disco-influenced song a betrayal of Kiss' hard rock roots.

Simmons spoke about his dislike of the song during an interview on US media personality Howard Stern's SiriusXM show yesterday (March 1), in response to the host asking Paul Stanley, "Did you ever bring a song to the band, back in the day, and Gene would say, 'We're not putting that on an album'?"

"I wanna tell you a story," Simmons cuts in, dramatising the scenario by re-enacting the conversation between Stanley and himself. "Paul walks in, during '79 or so... 'Gotta new song.' What's it called? 'I Was Made For Lovin' You'.

"Aww, that's great, what's the first line? 'Tonight... I wanna give it all to you'."

"Yeah, I know what it is, that's cool."

"In the darkness..." In the darkness? Okay, that rocks! '...There's something I wanna do...' That's really cool! What's my part?"

[Sings] 'Do do do do do-do do doooo'

"No, come on... I'm doing [Demon voice] God Of Thunder! What's my part?"

"Do do do do..."

"You were upset with the 'Do do do do do'?" Stern asks, for clarity.

"I hate it to this day," Simmons admits. "Except... stadiums full of people jump up and down like biblical locusts. 'Do do do...' And so I sing along."

"We do these shows...," Stanley chips in, "We'll do festivals, and sometimes we'll find ourselves on a bill headlining over all these hardcore metal bands, and in the beginning we'll say, Do we really wanna play that? There'll be people onstage with the lead singer going [death metal voice] 'Geuuurrrrrrrrrrrrrggghhh!' and then we come on, and we're going, 'Do do do...' and the whole audience is [punching the air] 'Do do do...' And that's the beauty of music. It hits you here [points to his heart], it hits you in the heart."

Kiss used their platform on the show to reveal exactly when and where they'll bring down the curtain for the final time on their farewell End Of The Road tour. The quartet will play their last ever gigs on December 1 and 2 at Madison Square Garden in their hometown, New York City, at the end of their winter US tour.

Watch the interview clip below:

A music writer since 1993, formerly Editor of Kerrang! and Planet Rock magazine (RIP), Paul Brannigan is a Contributing Editor to Louder. Having previously written books on Lemmy, Dave Grohl (the Sunday Times best-seller This Is A Call) and Metallica (Birth School Metallica Death, co-authored with Ian Winwood), his Eddie Van Halen biography (Eruption in the UK, Unchained in the US) emerged in 2021. He has written for Rolling Stone, Mojo and Q, hung out with Fugazi at Dischord House, flown on Ozzy Osbourne's private jet, played Angus Young's Gibson SG, and interviewed everyone from Aerosmith and Beastie Boys to Young Gods and ZZ Top. Born in the North of Ireland, Brannigan lives in North London and supports The Arsenal.