Gene Simmons Reflects on Humble Childhood in a ‘One-Room Stone House’ Where He Had Only ‘a Stick’ To Play With

Kiss rocker Gene Simmons has opened up about his very humble childhood in Israel, where he spent his earliest years residing in a simple "one-room stone house."

While Simmons, 76, boasts an impressive estimated net worth of $400 million—along with an awe-inspiring collection of luxury properties—he has now explained that his upbringing couldn't have been more different from the opulent lifestyle he now leads.

Speaking to The Wall Street Journal, the rock star looked back on his modest upbringing, recalling that he had little more than "a stick" to play with as a child because his parents were unable to afford any toys.

"I was born in Haifa, Israel, in 1949. My parents and I first lived in a small, one-room stone house just outside the city. There was no money for toys. A stick was my play thing," he revealed.

Simmons explained that his mother, Flóra, and father, Feri, had moved to Israel from Hungary in 1948, having seen many of their loved ones killed during the Nazi invasion of their home country. One year later, they gave birth to their son.

However, when Simmons was 6 years old, his parents split—and a few years later, his mother decided to move herself and her son to New York, where her brothers were already living. Once there, they moved in with her sibling, Larry, in Flushing, Queens, where he was working as a "successful baker."

It was after that move to the U.S. that the future rock star first fell in love with music—when he saw The Beatles performing on "The Ed Sullivan Show" and was immediately captivated by the way they commanded the audience, even though his mother admitted she was not a fan of the hit British band.

But his passion for music had been ignited and by the time Simmons and his mother moved into their own home in Jackson Heights, he was busy teaching himself how to play the guitar, before quickly pivoting to the bass when he realized there might be less competition for the instrument.

While he was desperate to pursue music as a career, joining bands, theater performances, and the chorus while in high school, Simmons agreed with his mother that he would attend college and get a degree before focusing on his chosen career.

The rocker ended up launching a band called Wicked Lester with lead singer Stanley Eisen—at which point he changed his last name to Simmons in a bid to appear more "rock 'n' roll." Eisen, meanwhile, opted for the name Paul Stanley. Not long after, the duo would also change their band name from Wicked Lester to Kiss.

Next on their agenda was crafting the right look for their ensemble, something that they believed would help them to stand out from the crowd.

"By then, we lived in a rundown Manhattan loft. We wanted to look different, and the variety store Woolworth’s was two blocks away, at 10 E. 23^rd St. We bought clown makeup there, and Kiss was on its way," he revealed.

The rest, as they say, is history—one that has seen Simmons climbing the music industry ladder to become one of the most iconic rock artists of all time, forever synonymous with the black-and-white makeup looks that were created in the aisle of their local Woolworth's.

Along the way, his life has done a 180-degree turn.

"Today my wife, actress Shannon Tweed-Simmons, and I live in Los Angeles. We have six homes: In California, we own two contemporary houses in Malibu, one house in Beverly Hills and two in Hollywood; and there’s one in Whistler, B.C," he told the outlet.

But while he now owns a very impressive collection of houses, Simmons confessed that the properties—and the items in them—simply "don't matter" to him.

"Houses and stuff in them don’t matter to me. You’d have to ask Shannon. Happy wife, happy life," he admitted.

Still, Simmons noted that he has taken extra precaution to protect all of his dwellings from wildfires, explaining that while he was fortunate that none of his California homes were impacted by the January 2025 blazes, he has done all he can to safeguard them in the future.

"Not a single spark touched our L.A. homes last year, thankfully. I pay for a private fire department, and we have built-in retardant sprayers," he shared.

The rocker is also in the process of attempting to downsize his property portfolio—having spent more than a year trying to offload his mansion in Beverly Hills.

Simmons initially listed the "exceptional" home for the staggering price of $13.99 million in April 2025; however, he has since lowered that ask multiple times, first to $13.5 million, then to $12.9 million.

In March, the asking price plummeted again, this time to $12.5 million—but that sum has since been lowered by another $1 million.

In total, the property has undergone a steep $2.5 million price cut.

The musician does still stand to make a profit on the sale of the property, even at the heavily reduced ask, having purchased the dwelling for $10.5 million in 2021 as a California home base for himself and his wife after they relocated to Las Vegas.

Ironically, however, Simmons and his spouse never ended up having much use for the property.

Not long after relocating to Nevada, the couple U-turned on that decision, admitting they had struggled with the area's punishing temperatures—which ultimately pushed them to return to the Golden State.

But while their time in Las Vegas may have been brief, the fallout from the move has been lengthy and very complex, particularly where their property portfolio is concerned.

First, the rock legend listed his expansive Henderson, NV, property—along with an adjacent lot—just a few months after buying it, initially asking $13.5 million. He ultimately accepted an offer of just under $11 million two years later.

The sale was a bit of a bitter pill for Simmons to swallow, leaving him with just $200,000 in profit after he paid $10.8 million for the combined properties.

Still, he came out of the transaction in the black—a result he celebrated by snapping up another expansive mansion in California in September 2024, which he and his wife are now using as their primary residence.

Property records reveal that Simmons picked up the "one-of-a-kind" Malibu estate for $25 million using the same LLC through which he purchased his Beverly Hills abode. Seven months after making that hefty purchase, he put his original Los Angeles-area mansion on the market, where it has sat ever since.

Granted, Simmons has not helped himself by setting some very strict rules about what kind of buyer he is willing to work with—telling The Wall Street Journal in April 2025 that he wanted to ensure the home was passed to someone who would treat it with the same respect and love that he and his family had.