Yes, you are the only one.  The son of survivors, he lived the first decade and a half of his life in Israel and  was a full-on Orthodox kid with peyes, tzitzit, the whole works.

Check out the transcript of his interview with Terry Gross on Fresh Air five or six years ago.  It's a hoot.  One of the only times I've ever heard Terry Gross lose her cool.  By the end, Simmons was basically telling Ms. Gross what she needed to loosen her was a good f***, and Gross was saying to him she couldn't decide whether "Gene Simmons" was this Andy Kaufmanesque put-on or whether he was simply the most disgustingly narcissistic a****** in the universe.

Interestingly, this show is one of very few for which you can't find the audio on the Fresh Air website.  I guess that Simmons wouldn't grant the re-broadcast rights.  But if you google it, you can find the typescript on the web.

Chris,

You didn't know about Chiam Wilt? Come on, don't you watch Family Guy?

aeromonas,

I heard that interview. She was so pissed off.

As someone who shares Simmons' fondness for professionally induced orgasm, I look forward to reading his book and thank Chris and TNR for alerting me to it.

For some reason, a famous person's predilection for prostitutes gets tongues awaggin' and fingers atypin'.  Many rock stars can no doubt change their own oil or convince a friend to do so, but they likely drop the car off at the mechanic like the rest of us.  Why shouldn't they treat their own precious bodily fluids as they treat their precious automotive ones?

Oh, yeah, that's right: treating sex materialistically would somehow taint it.  (Makes zero rational sense, as far as I can tell.) And, of course, paying someone to fuck threatens to wrest control of the practice from organized religion and hand it to the two people directly involved in the transaction.  We can't have that, now, can we?

Silly me; I need to write this stuff down--I keep forgetting.

williamyard is our resident admitted john, so we have to defer to him on responses to this post generally, but I have to say that you are alone, Chris is not knowing about Gene Simmons' real name.  I was not aware of the Fresh Air interview, though.  If anyone finds it, please send it to Chris so he can link to it.

I'll link to it.

The transcript is here:

www.rof.net/.../TERRYGRO.HTM

I heard that interview re-broadcast in 2002, and it absolutely made my day.  I think the station was using it for a pledge drive, as they were running "favorites" that day. And I'm pretty sure there's a transcript of it in Gross' book. He really is something else, and largely in a good way. I know the appeal of this for many was seeing her lose it, but I really wish she hadn't, and had stayed on the horse.

I just read the interview (thanks aero) and have decided that Bill Yard IS Gene Simmons!  Nice sockpuppetry Bill!  I mean, Gene, or is it Chaim?

Gee, williamyard, I thought you'd sue Gene for encroaching on your turf. ;)

It's tough, being Bill/Gene/Chaim. Upside: the multiple-personality diagnosis gets me all kinds of cool meds.

I'm curious Mr. Yard - do the women of the evening charge you all separately, or are you able to swing some sort of group rate?

adaglas,

That's why I prefer a schizophrenic hooker. If the math works out--the same number of personalities on both sides--it ends up being like a horizontal square dance, and I'm back to the one-on-one flat rate.

Then after she leaves we end up talking to ourselves: "Who'd you get this time?"  etc.