KISS’ Gene Simmons recalls the one time he got high

Prompted by his son Nick, with whom he was recently a guest on an episode of Christina Pazsitzky and Tom Segura’s “Your Mom’s House” podcast, Kiss’ Gene Simmons recalled getting high only once in his entire life, and in completely accidental way.

As is probably already known to long-time fans of the American ban, and as told again during the episode by the singer and bassist, who has always been a teetotaler, the artist experienced altering substances for the first and only time in his life when He accidentally ingested some “special” brownies after the band’s concert in Detroit in the mid-1970s.

“I’ve never been drunk or high in my life,” Simmons narrated on the podcast (as transcribed by Loudwire.com). This was echoed by his son, who then asked, “Well, there’s a story about that time you were high. Can we tell the story about the brownies?” Nick added:

“He was always so distant from drug culture that he didn’t know you could bake cannabis into baked goods. He had no idea. So before I was born, and before I was with mom, he was backstage and someone had I made a pan of special brownies. He had no idea that special versions of brownies could exist, so he didn’t hesitate to eat six of them, simply downing them. Now, please, describe the hallucinations you had. You told me about it. a couple of times. It’s my favorite story.”

Gene Simmons then said: “I’ve never had anything like this happen to me before or since.

I wasn’t prepared for something like that. I was in a room full of people celebrating. It was ’76. And I see stacked brownies. I’m crazy about it. Everyone said, ‘Let’s smoke,’ and stuff like that. But I was like, ‘No, just give me the sweets.'” He added, “I kept wanting more and more brownies, until I ate six of them.” The room then started to seem bigger and bigger and my head seemed to shrink, until it was the size of an olive. I remember this: I started opening my eyes wide so that people would think I was normal. And as I moved, my hands swelled like in cartoons.” Referring then to the journalist Jaan Uhelszki, co-founder of the magazine “Creem” who, according to .Ultimate Classic Rock, wrote about this anecdote in 2019, Simmons said: “Luckily, there was a girl there. She was from ‘Cream’ magazine. She took me out of that room to the limo. And as I walked, with every step I took, I saw my giant feet. And I spoke loudly because I didn’t think she could hear me, because my voice seemed weak.”

And again: “We then got into the limousine and I was afraid to move. Since I got thirsty, we stopped two or three blocks away in a Detroit ghetto, and she took me inside a place to get me a drink. It was full of locals, who were there at night to get a burger or something after the show. I was wearing leather clothes – I’m not joking – and everyone turned to look at me. I thought they were looking at me because my head felt small. So I tried to look giant. When they asked me what I wanted, I yelled, ‘Can I have a glass of milk?!'”

Recalling that night, Simmons later said: “On the way back to the hotel, she took out my key and I tried to put the key, which seemed huge, into the keyhole. It did not work. Now – as if my son wasn’t here – I will say that I have never felt so grown up in my life.”

As already told several times, Gene Simmons also recalled why he never used alcohol or other substances during his life, mentioning his mother Flóra “Florence” Klein, a Holocaust survivor. “I never wanted to get high or drunk because of my mother,” the musician said: “She was in a concentration camp when she was 14. And I never wanted to break her heart or disappoint her. So, I never smoked cigarettes , I never got high, I never got drunk.”

Last December 1st and 2nd Kiss said goodbye the stages definitively with a double date at Madison Square Garden in New Yorkannouncing that they will continue to perform in the form of holograms starting probably in 2027.