Gene Simmons says he once had to be talked out of using a swear word as the title of a Kiss song.
“I originally wrote a song called ‘Shit’ — ‘Doesn’t mean shit to me’ was the tagline,” Simmons told UCR. “Bob Ezrin, who produced that record, said, ‘You can’t call a song ‘Shit.’ Wal-Mart won’t put it out. So I said, ‘How about ‘Spit?’ ‘Doesn’t mean spit to me?’ Same vibe, different word.”
The impressively gonzo “Spit,” which borrows some lyrics from Spinal Tap’s “Big Bottom” and mixes them with guitar solo quotes from “The Star-Spangled Banner,” wound up on 1992’s Revenge.
Read More: Kiss Band Member Power Rankings
Simmons and his new band have added “Spit” and other curiosities from Simmons’ songbook into the freewheeling set lists of his post-Kiss solo concerts. They’ll be back on the road for six weeks of dates starting April 3 in Anaheim, you can see the schedule below.
“The shows are almost never alike,” Simmons adds. “We toss around songs; if somebody in the band says, ‘Hey, why don’t you do [Cream’s] ‘Sunshine of Your Love?’ we look at each other and go, ‘What key?’ and there you go.”
Why Gene Simmons Named His Solo Album ‘Asshole’
Twelve years after the release of “Spit” and Revenge, Simmons defied Ezrin’s advice by naming giving his 2004 solo album the eye-raising title Asshole. “It’s just another way of me saying, ‘I don’t care what anyone says about me,” he told Q Magazine at the time. “I’m preempting what people say and therefore diffusing the power of my detractors.”
Hear Kiss Perform ‘Spit’
Gene Simmons Band 2025 Tour Dates
April 3 – Anaheim, CA @ House of Blues
April 4 – Temecula, CA @ Pechanga Resort Casino
April 5 – Rohnert Park, CA @ The Event at Graton Resort & Casino
April 8 – Auburn, WA @ Muckleshoot Casino Resort
April 10 – Magna, UT @ The Great Saltair
April 11 – Denver, CO @ Paramount Theatre
April 25 – Clearwater, FL @ Ruth Eckerd Hall
April 26 – Miami Beach, FL @ Fillmore
April 28 – Tallahassee, FL @ The Moon
April 29 – Jacksonville, FL @ Florida Theater
April 30 – Orlando, FL @ Hard Rock Live
May 2 – Peachtree City, GA – The Fred Amp
May 3 – Beaver Dam, KY @ Beaver Dam Amphitheater
May 5 – Red Bank, NJ @ Basie
May 6 – Montclair, NJ @ Wellmont
May 8 – Bethlehem, PA @ Wind Creek Casino
May 9 – Huntington, NY @ The Paramount
May 11 – Uncasville, CT @ Mohegan Sun Arena
May 14 – Northfield, OH @ MGM
May 15 – Niagara Falls, ON @ Fallsview Casino
May 17 – Hammond, IN @ The Horseshoe
May 18 – Rockford, IL @ Hard Rock
May 20 – Nashville, IN @ Brown County Music Center
May 22 – Dallas, TX @ House of Blues
May 23 – San Antonio, TX @ Tobin Center
May 24 – Houston, TX @ House of Blues
Kiss Solo Albums Ranked Worst to Best
Counting down solo albums released by various members of Kiss.
Gallery Credit: Matthew Wilkening
