Gene Simmons Says Eddie Van Halen Once Wanted To Quit Van Halen For KISS

Rock history is full of near misses, but this one feels especially wild.

Gene Simmons has revealed that Eddie Van Halen once seriously considered walking away from Van Halen to join KISS, at the height of internal tension with David Lee Roth.

According to the KISS bassist and co-founder, the moment came during the early 1980s, when Van Halen were riding high creatively but dealing with growing fractures behind the scenes, Simmons’ connection to the band ran deep by then.

He first saw Van Halen in the mid 1970s at Los Angeles’ Starwood club, later producing their early Zero demo, which featured early versions of ‘Runnin’ With the Devil’ and ‘House of Pain’.

By 1982, KISS were recording Creatures of the Night following the departure of guitarist Ace Frehley, Eddie, increasingly frustrated during the Diver Down era, reached out to Simmons directly.

“Eddie told me, ‘Roth is driving me nuts. I can’t take it. I gotta leave. I know you’re looking for a lead guitar player. Do you want me in the band?’” Simmons recalled in a recent interview.

The two met up at the studio, a meeting Simmons remembers vividly, including Eddie’s hair raising driving in a doorless Jeep, after lunch, Eddie listened to KISS’s new material and reacted positively.

“He heard some of the tracks and was like, ‘Oh, I really like that!’”

Despite temptation

Simmons ultimately shut the idea down, he believed Eddie’s guitar playing wasn’t just part of Van Halen, it was the entire foundation.

“I said, ‘Eddie, a band is worse than a marriage,’” Simmons explained. “‘But with VAN HALEN, everything begins and ends with you — it’s all about the guitar.’”

Simmons doubled down on that logic, comparing the situation to other iconic bands. “There wouldn’t be room for Eddie in KISS,” he said. “It would be like putting Jeff Beck or Hendrix in AC/DC. Eddie would have taken over.”

In hindsight, Simmons believes steering Eddie back to Van Halen was the right call, the band went on to release 1984, their final album with Roth, before entering the hugely successful Sammy Hagar era.

“So that rule — ‘You can’t lose the lead singer?’” he concluded. “Actually, you can.”

One decision, made quietly behind studio doors, and rock history took the path we now take for granted.