SIMMONS’ KISS OFF
Rocker says women can’t have career and kids
Hey, women! Forget your grandiose notions of working toward equality based on your intellectual merits. That’s all nonsense, and Gene Simmons — a 68-year-old man — is here to tell you why.
In his new book, “On Power: My Journey Through the Corridors of Power and How You Can Get More Power” (Harper Collins, out Tuesday), the Kiss bass player and vocalist uses his decades of business experience to preach about how to get ahead in the modern world.
For women, Simmons argues that using sexuality is still the quickest route to power.
“Women have a choice,” he told The Post. “They can dress in potato sacks, [but] as soon as they pretty themselves up with lipstick, lift and separate them and point them in our general direction, they’re gonna get a response. Guys are jackasses — we will buy them mansions and houses . . . all because of sex.”
And, ladies, if you’re thinking of being a working mom, think again. “Get over your biological urges,” Simmons said. “It’s natural to want to have kids, but, sorry, you can’t have it both ways. You have to commit to either career or family. It’s very difficult to have both.”
Simmons knows his (freakishly long) tongue will get him in trouble. But as he so eloquently put it, he doesn’t “give a f--k what anyone thinks.” The rocker — whose band’s earnings and business interests, such as the restaurant chain Rock & Brews, have earned him an estimated net worth of $300 million — offers “On Power” as a way to share his valuable insights and help the common shmuck be as important as he is.
The way he sees it, people desire power and money more than they let on: “I’ve met losers in my life who’ve said, ‘I just need enough to get by,’ but they’re lying to themselves.”
In the book, Simmons argues that the idea of power as a corruptive force is a myth. Even as once-influential figures such as Harvey Weinstein, Brett Ratner and Kevin Spacey have recently seen their careers and reputations disintegrate because of the alleged misuse of their positions, Simmons stands by his theories in the book.
“Power is neither good or bad, it is simply a tool,” he said. “I’d rather the good guys have it. In the hands of someone like the Dalai Lama, it’s going to be used well, and not to hurt people. In the hands of Harvey Weinstein, maybe not.”
And Simmons, who has a son, Nick, 28, and a daughter, Sophie, 25, with his wife, exPlayboy model Shannon Tweed, doesn’t want to hear any whining from people who haven’t yet earned their power. “You’ve got 20-year-olds who are say
ing, ‘I’m looking forward to my vacation,’ ” he said. “Vacation? You’re 20! You haven’t worked!” In all fairness, no one can argue that Simmons had anything handed to him. Born Chaim Witz in Israel in 1949, he grew up so poor his family reused rags for toilet paper. They arrived in New York in 1958, and Simmons quickly learned the value of a hustle. In college, he set himself up as a typist to earn extra money, later worked at a deli and even taught sixth grade in East Harlem before Kiss started to take off in 1973. The band would go on to sell more than 75 million albums around the world. Simmons, who now lives in Beverly Hills, Calif., feels no guilt about being rich. In fact, he feels the unwashed masses should be thankful he is. “If it wasn’t for the rich, there wouldn’t be jobs for people. There’d be no philanthropy. There’d be nothing,” he said. “A poor person never gave me a job. The American dream is not only alive, but it’s better and stronger than ever.”