Gene Simmons thought AC/DC “might be a gay band” the first time he saw them in 1977

Gene Simmons has opened up about the first time he saw AC/DC live in 1977 and the way he was “blown away” by the sheer “brilliance” of their performance – though the band’s name initially gave him rather the wrong impression.

In the latest issue of Classic Rock, the Kiss bassist reminisces about his fateful encounter one summer night with the Australian rock band at the iconic Whisky A Go Go in Los Angeles.

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“I’d never heard of AC/DC, and I thought it might be a gay band,” Simmons admits, noting that the term ‘AC/DC’ was slang for bisexuality at the time in America. What he discovered that night, however, was apparently a band far removed from any stereotypes Simmons had.

“I was blown away,” Simmons recalls. “No minor chords here, mate – just major chords hitting you in the balls! It was all – as you say in England – meat and two veg. I was just mesmerised by this band.”

“Bon Scott was a force of nature with his shirt off, drinking. It was like a homeless crazy guy had jumped up on stage. He never had that sort of rock-star sheen, or any kind of showmanship. It just felt like a stream-of-consciousness expulsion of his inner demons on stage.”

Scott wasn’t the only one who left an impression: “When the lights went out at the end of each song, Angus [Young] was still going crazy, doing that Chuck Berry thing during the blackouts with nobody watching. And I said to myself: this is the real deal. This is a guy that does it because he feels it inside.”

After the show, Simmons didn’t waste any time in connecting with the band. “In those days I wore seven-inch heels even when not on tour,” he says, “so I was towering over Angus, who is a tiny human being. He said: ‘Oh, you’re that Kiss bloke with the tongue!’ I said: ‘Yeah. I need to talk with you.’”

“I had a limo outside and I convinced him to come with me to Ben Frank’s, a twenty-four-hour restaurant where touring musicians would eat and hang out before they went to the Rainbow to pick up chicks. Angus ordered beans and frankfurters, and I remember him picking up a frankfurter with his left hand and biting into it on one side of his mouth because he had a load of teeth missing. I was talking my head off, like a fan. I said: ‘You’re coming on tour with us!’”

True to his word, Simmons got AC/DC to open for KISS on their Alive II tour on a handful of dates in December 1977.

Recalling the way he and bandmate Paul Stanley would pause putting on their makeup to marvel at AC/DC’s raw sound thumping through their dressing-room wall, the musician says, “We would talk about this band. It was three chords, kick, snare, kick, snare – bang! We were stunned by the simplicity and the brilliance of it. So my recollections are fond. Was a fan, still a fan.”