Letters

Happy birthday Gene! The Demon. The Bat-Lizard. The Master of Marketing. The guy who's slept with everybody's Grandma (and has Polaroids to prove it). And, so on and so on. Do you mind if I just call you, "Dad"? I've called you, "Dad", in the past. Metaphorically, of course. I even called you that in an email once. Boy, that must have had you thumbing through all those Polaroid moments. Hehehe. In all seriousness, though, for a generation of kids (mostly males) who grew up in broken homes you (and the rest of KISS) were kind of like "Dad". For better or for worse. Step dads would come and go. I know people who numbered them instead of calling them by name. Step dad #1, step dad #2, etc. But, for some of us, KISS was the one constant we could rely upon. The sad truth is, for some of us, the only time we ever heard anyone tell us they loved us was when Paul said, "We love you, goodnight!", at the end of side three on KISS Alive II. Thanks to Gene Simmons Family Jewels outsiders, people who never "got it", finally "get it". They see what it is we saw in you all along. What a great honest, hard working, patriotic, common sense, clean, sober, decent human being of a role model you really are. This was made clear to me when I was wearing my KISS tour shirt at Darien Lake Amusement Park the day after the concert. One of the workers, a lady, explained to me how she never liked KISS. How she had the wrong impression. Until she saw GSFJ. The main thing is YOU "get it". You know what it's like growing up without Dad in your life. Deep down inside you have a heart of gold. That is why you protect it so much. Thanks for teaching me about women, life, love, winning, adversity, and all the other things dad's teach their sons. Thanks for being there. Happy Birthday "Dad"! Photo was taken by me at the Philadelphia show on August 6, 2010.