
Rock legend Gene Simmons returns to the show to talk about his upcoming tour, the origins of the croissant, producing early demos for Van Halen, how James Brown inspired Mick Jagger’s stage persona, dating Diana Ross &...
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Adam Carolla
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Gene Simmons
Better assist on the go travelers with real time information. From the Delta Sky Club to the.
Adam Carolla
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Gene Simmons
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Adam Carolla
Hey, fans of freedom and open discussion. I'm heading over to Substack and there's an ad free audio and video version of the Adam Carolla show that's going to be waiting there in the near future. You'll even be able to watch ACS live unedited as we record it. Participate in the show via live chat that'll be coming up very soon. You also get an ad free version of the Adam Kurl and Dr. Drew show. You also get an exclusive to my new podcast, Beat it out where I share unpolished ideas with my Comedian buddies. The first series of episodes is going to be Jay Moore. You'll get all this and more for the low, low price of nine bucks a month. A pittance for all we're going to bring you. Subscribe now@adamcarolla.com substack and I'll see all of you in our new speakeasy called Substack from Corolla One studios in Glendale, California, this is the Adam Corolla Show. Adam's guest today, Gene Simmons and Natasha Leggero. Plus the news and trending topics with Jason Mayhem Miller. And now, reminding you this candy cane season to lick it up, Adam Perolla. Yeah. Get it on Got to get it on the church we got a mandate. Get it on. Welcome back, Gene Simmons to the show. Great to see you, my friend.
Gene Simmons
Nice, nice of you to say that. By the way, the. That beginning musical soliloquy are the big words like, sounded like butt trumpets.
Adam Carolla
Butt trumpets. Yeah, yeah. There was a band called Butt trumpet from the 80s in Los Angeles.
Gene Simmons
1880S.
Adam Carolla
1880S. Hezekiah Butt trumpet was the founding member.
Gene Simmons
Hezekiah.
Adam Carolla
Hezekiah Butt Trumpet. Now look it up. There was a band called the Butt Trumpets with Hezekiah probably 85.
Gene Simmons
You're sure it's not Ira? Ira Butt Trumpet.
Adam Carolla
What was your mom's name? Does she have an old timey name?
Gene Simmons
Flora.
Adam Carolla
Oh, she had an old timey Hungarian name.
Gene Simmons
Hungarian name.
Adam Carolla
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Hungarians. Jean's Hungarian. People don't.
Gene Simmons
Wow, she's born in Israel. But okay, but my mom and dad and in case you guys are tuned in late, the last time I was here. But wait two for one. Last time I was here, we started talking about turtut kaposta and, you know, all kinds of Hungarian things which the rest of the world doesn't give a squat about.
Natasha Leggero
Chicken paprikash. Is that one Paprikash my favorite food.
Adam Carolla
Yeah, see, that's that they don't. But I force chicken paprikash and no kettle up dumplings upon everyone I meet knockedly. Yeah, I know, but my grandpa just called it no kettle and Aunt Bougie called it Aunt Bougie.
Gene Simmons
And how old is Aunt bougie today?
Adam Carolla
Yeah, 143, but she didn't see her 93rd. Bougie. Gabi.
Gene Simmons
Sure. Gabi's very Bela Laszlo. As in. As in Lugosi. Because he was Hungarian.
Adam Carolla
Yeah, the Hungarians. There's more to offer there. A lot of them were writers. They came here and wrote in the 50s and 60s.
Gene Simmons
Laszlo Kovacs the other Kovac, you know, was a mainstay of early television. Yeah, lots of. Lots of Hungarians.
Adam Carolla
Yeah, yeah. They're storytellers.
Gene Simmons
As a matter of fact, they're the remnants. The only country where one of the five Mongols there was a Mongol invasion. Blah, blah, blah. Tillah the Hun and Genghis Khan, who was his father or grandfather, one of a thousand kids he made literally about 5% of all males owe their lineage to Genghis Khan. I bet you didn't know that.
Adam Carolla
I have heard that, but.
Gene Simmons
So as they came across the Huns, the Tatars, the Magyars, the Mongols, a few others. But the Magyars, one of the four or five tribes, if you will, for some strange reason, wound up settling in Hungary. In fact, the name of Hungary in Hungarian is Magarorsag, which means land or country of the Magyars. So what, Gene?
Adam Carolla
No, I'll tell you what I think about, and I've told you this before, farm animals. There's two groups that like to talk. Hungarians and Jews. They love to talk. They love to tell stories. Somebody did a study once about groups that were loquacious and they spoke and they liked story.
Gene Simmons
Loquacious.
Adam Carolla
They like story time.
Gene Simmons
Word over here. Let's do a market research. How many of you kids. No the word low or high. Questions.
Adam Carolla
They like to tell stories and Hungarians are at the top. They're just cultures that don't talk as much as tradition. Other. Yes. And then you take.
Gene Simmons
Sounds a little gay.
Adam Carolla
You take Jews and you combine them with Hungarians. And now you have my grandfather, Laszlo Gorog. And you have Gene Simmons as well, Larry.
Gene Simmons
Yeah.
Adam Carolla
Yeah.
Gene Simmons
Well, that's it. That's the end of the show.
Adam Carolla
That's it.
Natasha Leggero
We talked about Hungarian history.
Gene Simmons
Why do you have a crucifix on your right hand?
Natasha Leggero
Oh, oh, yeah.
Adam Carolla
Tattoo.
Natasha Leggero
Yeah. Some friends of mine, yeah. Placed it upon me.
Gene Simmons
Is it religious?
Natasha Leggero
I would say somewhat inertly.
Gene Simmons
You know, I was a theology student major. A few other things just waste of time and, you know, very religious. Christians of the faith do the crucifix and so on, but it had nothing to do with Jews, who were all the original Christians. The Romans, Christians created that as a sign of torture and death. I mean, otherwise, why. Why would you have a sign of death?
Natasha Leggero
Yeah, but then, like, look at that one.
Gene Simmons
That. Those are the other guys.
Natasha Leggero
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Adam Carolla
What's the other guys?
Natasha Leggero
Right here.
Adam Carolla
What's the other tattoo?
Natasha Leggero
That's star and crescent. Was that simple Islam, shout out to my habibis.
Gene Simmons
Now you know, a little minutiae is. The croissant is a history lesson. Croissant. You know what that is the question that you have breakfast, you know, it's like a little French something is not French at all. Which is.
Natasha Leggero
Nigerians gave them that.
Gene Simmons
Not an island at all. An atol. No, no. It came in through the Austrians when let them eat cake. Who said that? Royal Marie Antoinette. That's right, Marie Antoinette. She was a Austrian princess who was sent over to France to marry the royals so that they wouldn't go to war with each other. So her favorite chef, she brought with her from Austria, Wien, Vienna. And the Austrians for a long time ate and created the croissant, the crescent pastry, as a celebration of where the long pikes. Because the Austrians and their army had extra long pikes, spears and the Muslim, you know, bless them. And all that stuff came from the Ottomans, right? Turk. Out of Turk. Ottoman. The Ottoman Empire tried to take over Vienna. They didn't do it. So they failed because of these long spears. And the Austrians to celebrate that, created the crescent pastry to symbolize. I eat you and it's so sweet. And then I poop you out. And then. And then the Austrians brought. In other words, Marie Antoinette and her chef brought it to France. The croissant is not French.
Adam Carolla
Show them the tattoo of the bran muffin and let's. The bran muffin has thoughts about that. All right, Gene, let's talk rock and roll for a second.
Natasha Leggero
No, I know. Yeah, I was like busting that.
Adam Carolla
He's touring.
Natasha Leggero
You are touring again.
Gene Simmons
There's a Gene Simmons band. You can Google and schmoogle it because we have so much. I mean, just for a second, I'll be serious. We have an awful lot of fun. No managers, no road crew, no nothing. I show up with a guitar pick. My three guys who are monsters can sing and play and everything. And we show up and put on just great. We're headlining festivals, doing our own shows. Last summer we toured Europe and did outdoors and stuff. A lot of fun. It's not. It's completely different vibe than the. You gotta really plan Kiss shows because you got 60 people, private jet, you.
Natasha Leggero
Know, a lot of Cairo, a lot.
Gene Simmons
Of 20 tractor trailer, 45 foot long things.
Adam Carolla
Really.
Gene Simmons
Three double decker buses. You know, it's a fortune just to begin the show. This is easy peasy. And we have an awful lot of fun and no rules in the middle of it. If somebody says, hey, do you guys know Sunshine Every love?
Adam Carolla
Sure.
Gene Simmons
And then you kind of break into it. No Rules usually bring up people from the audience. Usually kids. Can you sing?
Adam Carolla
No. Well, you know, I can sing too.
Gene Simmons
Well, I mean, you don't have to sing. You can do Wild Thing. You make my heart sing. You don't have to sing.
Adam Carolla
No, but we sung, sang, sang.
Gene Simmons
So language I'm learning.
Adam Carolla
Yeah, we sang. Gene. Also McDaniel songs.
Gene Simmons
You know, you and I. Gene McDaniels.
Adam Carolla
Gene McDaniel.
Gene Simmons
Yeah.
Adam Carolla
Yeah.
Gene Simmons
They don't know that they.
Adam Carolla
I know, but you know I can sing. By the way, I belted out my Gene McDaniel songs.
Gene Simmons
Yeah. Should we do a reprise? Which is not just. Not just a record label owned by Frank Sinatra.
Adam Carolla
You want to do Tower of Strength.
Gene Simmons
With the Trump of Amra.
Adam Carolla
Do we have. We can find some.
Natasha Leggero
We're getting banned off YouTube for this one.
Adam Carolla
Yeah, we'll see. It's worth it.
Gene Simmons
And also all these great guys, Clyde McFadder, Gene McDaniel, Jackie Wilson. They had, you know, real pop soul, which is different than different souls. Great songs. Can we play it, young man?
Adam Carolla
Yeah.
Gene Simmons
22, 22.
Adam Carolla
Here comes the trombone.
Gene Simmons
I just got a woody.
Adam Carolla
If I were a tower of strength.
Gene Simmons
Go on with your bad self.
Adam Carolla
I look in your eyes and here's what I'd say. I don't love you, I don't need you, I don't love you anymore. And I'd walk out the door through the. Oo Yah. You be down on your knees. You be begging me. I partied a little hard last night. Here it comes.
Gene Simmons
That is so cool.
Adam Carolla
So you guys cover. I was looking. You play KISS songs, but you also play other songs.
Gene Simmons
We give the fans the. A chance to hear nuggets and smuggage and other big words like gymnasium and do tunes that KISS never did. And in fact, some of the tunes I wrote, stuff. There was a box set, largest box set of all time, called the Vault, which came out, which was about three and a half feet tall, had four wheels and 167 tracks that were never released. And A Partridge in a pear Tree and all that. And one of the tunes that was recorded that I wrote was called Hell if I Know what It's Called. So we do that one.
Adam Carolla
You do Communication Breakdown as well by.
Gene Simmons
Led Zeppelin on some of the shows, if somebody screams out for it. But I'll tell you one thing that I think the fans will get a kick out of. Before you guys were born, in 1977, early 78, I personally discovered a band called Van Halen, who was recently changed their name from Mammoth and All that. And they were playing the Starwood, which was a club that no longer exists. I went that night with my date, Bebe Buell, who was a playmate and all that. She later had a child, well, children with Steven Tyler and hung out with other guys and stuff. But it was in those days you just, you could wake up with somebody whose name you never bothered to learn. Ah, pre aids. Oh boy, the good times.
Adam Carolla
And mid coke, pre aids. Now you didn't indulge in drugs, never have. But what I'm saying is the greatest party time in this nation is pre aids, mid coke, meaning everyone's doing coke and they think it's good for you and there's no such thing as AIDS. And that's why.
Gene Simmons
But it was also the 60s is when women really went in full on the pill before then they gotta get married, get 2.5 kids. And all of a sudden chicks decided, you know what? I want to enjoy myself the way the guys do. So they all started taking pills. And this is before aids, so whoopty fucking do.
Natasha Leggero
Sweet spot.
Adam Carolla
Yes. Mid pill, mid coke, pre AIDS party, everybody.
Gene Simmons
And I remember New York in that period, late 60s, early 70s. Every night was like everybody got dressed up to the tease.
Adam Carolla
And there was no ring doorbells, people with their phones filming everything. There was no anything, There was no trace.
Gene Simmons
You could feel comfortable in a public subway bathroom without somebody putting a cell phone underneath the cubicle looking up your ass. Now, some of us like that sort of thing.
Natasha Leggero
That's my kink.
Adam Carolla
So you go to the Star wars.
Gene Simmons
Right, to go see a band called the Boys B O Y Z with George, who played with Docken and all that, way before forgot his name for a second. Good guitar player. And the first band, 78. Yeah, and the first. Actually early late 77. And so the first band that goes on, I'm upstairs with all the rest of the assholes and sitting with kisses.
Adam Carolla
At the height of its powers right now. So you're recognized and respected three years in a row.
Gene Simmons
Gallup poll. We had licensing merchandise, we had.
Adam Carolla
George lynch is.
Gene Simmons
George lynch is right on my screen. He went a two week vacation in Bangor, Maine, first prize, one week vacation in Vanguard. So. But anyway, here's the punchline. Punchline is that all of a sudden I hear something symphonic like almost like. And your bird can sing by the Beatles. When it first comes on, you go, what is that? Three part harmony? And I go up and I guess there must be three guitar players playing this stuff. And I go to the edge of the. The Railing up there. Hey, man, how you doing? A lot of hey mans. And I'm looking on the stage, there's only one guitar player doing that stuff. One great bass player, killer drummer, and this great looking guy with long blonde hair, half, you know, bare chested, doing acrobatics. I said, what is that? And within the first three songs, I was backstage and I convinced the guys to sign with me. A man of a thousand faces and my production company and I flew him to New York on my time.
Adam Carolla
It's Van Halen. 77, 70, early 78. Van Halen was out of the Pasadena area, I do believe. And that's the original lineup. That's really the only lineup they. Well, I mean, Hagar later, but you. Then Eddie van Halen is 19 or something or he's a little older than that, 22, whatever.
Gene Simmons
Yeah, early 20s. But flying to New York, buy Dave his first, I don't know, high heels or whatever, leather pants and all that, because I want them to audition for a coin, our manager and all that. But before then decide to go into Electric lady and do 15 songs, a 24 track demo using a guy named Dave Whitman who mixed Humble Pie and all that legitimate, you know, stuff. And One of the 15 songs was a song called House of Pain. Now, for all you Van Halen fans, this is not the House of Pain that they eventually wound up recording. This is the original version, which bears no resemblance. In fact, that song under the name House of Pain was never recorded. And it's a steamroller. I can't believe that. The band never used that. So that's the version we do live. And I'm telling you, as soon as it starts, it's like zero to 60 and. And a lot of changes and, you know, crazy stuff.
Adam Carolla
Did they have a talking about love yet or any songs that we knew?
Gene Simmons
Oh, sure, you know, Devil and all that other stuff. In fact, a lot of those arrangements, you're looking at them.
Adam Carolla
So is there anybody who can really replicate Eddie Van Halen?
Gene Simmons
I don't. You can play the notes, but not the flavor, not. Not the soul, not the. You know, it's funny, I was the voice of all things of a documentary about the history of hip hop. I have no idea why they picked me. And it was all based on a sample of a song called Apache written by a friend of mine who's passed away, Michael Wiener. And the original, you know, Grandmaster Flash, all those guys used that drum beat, the beat. And then hip hop was born. And so I'm doing the narration and Stuff. And waiting to come on is Carol K. A shorter woman of a certain age and stuff. And I was a major fan because most people don't know that a lot of the Motown tunes were not all Motown musicians, were not all African American. This one little Jewish, short blonde woman actually played on, you know, Seven Rooms of Gloom and Bernadette. That's all her. The beat goes on, boom, boom, boom, boom.
Adam Carolla
Was she in the Wrecking Crew?
Gene Simmons
That's it. Yes. So she played on Everything Sunny and Sheriff Frankson.
Adam Carolla
Oh, yeah. There's, like, one woman in the Wrecking Crew.
Gene Simmons
That's her.
Adam Carolla
That's her. So the Wrecking Crew was the band that played behind every hit from the 60s, 70s.
Gene Simmons
All kinds of music and.
Adam Carolla
All kinds of music.
Gene Simmons
Yeah. Nat King Cole, Sonny and Cher, Beach Boys, everything. So here's the. The end of it is, I'm back there. I'm such a fan and all that. And. And this will tie to Eddie Van Halen.
Adam Carolla
There's a good doc called the Wrecking Crew, by the way.
Gene Simmons
People should watch many times.
Adam Carolla
Yes.
Gene Simmons
About the secret unheralded sound that we all love.
Adam Carolla
Yes.
Gene Simmons
Were not the bands that you like not.
Adam Carolla
Sonny Bono's not playing the bass. And the beat goes on.
Gene Simmons
And the Monkees didn't play. And the Beach Boys didn't play. Nope. Hardly at all.
Adam Carolla
Right.
Gene Simmons
But here we go. So tell Carol, who's still around and, you know, respect and all that. And I'm saying, you know, I listened to a lot of your stuff and actually copped a lot of it. And she says, really? I go, well, here she's got her bass out with a little amp, and I'm going, play a little bit. I'll show you what I mean. She goes, you want me to play for you? Sure. And then she goes, be dope. You know, she does that. I'm going, carol, watch this. She said, oh, you want to play? Yeah. I picked up the bass and I played it. And she goes, yeah, that's all wrong. What do you mean, that's all wrong? Those are the notes. She goes, well, those may be the notes, but there's no soul. There's no feel. Let me show you what I mean. It's not what you play, it's how you hold it. It's not having sex with a woman. It's how you do it. It's the subtleties that make it come alive. And when she started playing it again, then I heard what I was doing. Well, that was just kind of like a robot doing it. And that goes Back to your question about Eddie, which is there are a lot of guys out there copy the. And her fingering and all that. It's not Eddie. It doesn't have the soul.
Adam Carolla
Yeah. I mean, it's like you could memorize Richard Pryor's act word for word if you wanted. You could do a two hours of Richard Pryor material if you wanted. It's not going to be the same.
Gene Simmons
Have the heart and the soul of the. Yeah, that's right.
Adam Carolla
Did Kiss have musicians on their tracks? No, as well, because the Beatles did. You know, everybody had somebody playing this part. I don't think it's a. You know, there's no shame in it. Everyone did it and continues to do it.
Gene Simmons
No, unfortunately for everybody else, we played our own instruments and stuff, but often within the band, because the Beatles, we noticed, said it was okay, we switched instruments. So sometimes I'm playing guitar because the way I wrote a song has a certain feel. Even though I'm the least talented guitar player, you know, in the band. So almost Human War Machine, those riffs, you know, that I came up with. And it bears noting that McCartney, who was the bass player in the Beat, actually played the solo, literally the solo to Taxman and a few other things. Lennon played some of the solos as well. So this idea, it's also the same with Hendrix. When you hear bass playing on the Hendrix stuff, sometimes it's Hendrix playing the bass.
Adam Carolla
Oh, really?
Gene Simmons
Yeah. So all this stuff about, well, you're the bass player, you only play that. No, no, you switch around. Whatever works. Now it bears noting one other exception. We did a record, not one of my favorites, called Unmasked before you guys were born.
Adam Carolla
I remember when the mask came off was a big deal.
Gene Simmons
Yeah. And Peter, Chris, our original drummer at that point had some issues, so he did not play on the album.
Adam Carolla
Substance issues.
Gene Simmons
Oh, I didn't know that.
Adam Carolla
Yeah.
Gene Simmons
And so we got the drummer for a band that was also managed by our. Our manager group called Spider, that unfortunately never made it. But the drummer was really good. Anton, who then went on to play with Letterman. So he was actually.
Adam Carolla
Anton was the Letterman in house band drummer because he would say it every once, like Paul Anton, you know.
Gene Simmons
That's right.
Adam Carolla
That's interesting.
Gene Simmons
And he, he actually wound up playing the drums on the record because Peter was not around.
Adam Carolla
First time I did Letterman, James Brown was the. Was the act.
Gene Simmons
You just.
Adam Carolla
On Letterman and you really. You really get ready to throw up. I remember thinking I was a peon from North Hollywood. And they're like I was like, when? When? So James Brown goes on, and then I'll come in, time permitting. And they're like, no, you go on, and if there's time, we'll bring out James Brown. And I'm like, are you nuts? Are you nuts? I don't go on before James Brown. Now, that music would go at the end after him. Yeah, that's a good point, too. But I did James Brown, and so Anton was probably playing. Oh, yeah, you know, with. With James Brown. You love James Brown.
Gene Simmons
Oh, my God. There's a. The first concert film, the Tammy Show, T A M. I had Beach Boys, Rolling Stone, James, Everybody. And it was precursor to these variety shows where you had lots Ready, Steady Go and Midnight Special and all that. But it was a movie that came out in movie theaters, and the Rolling Stones were top of the bill, and they made a mistake. James Brown went on before them. And there's a telling moment backstage when James Brown, you know, he's doing those flips, those inhuman, defying gravity stuff. And, baby, please don't go. I love you. So, you know, they're bringing him off stage because he can't stand it, and they put a cape on him and that stomps his feet. Then he goes back. Nobody ever did that stuff. And the way he treats his microphone, you know, like porn. And Jagger is backstage. There's a camera up close watching him, and he's biting his nails.
Adam Carolla
Yeah.
Gene Simmons
And then when Jagger goes out, that very first time, we ever saw Jagger, who I'm a big fan of, do the white version of James Brown, all of a sudden.
Adam Carolla
Oh, he's inspired.
Gene Simmons
So ever since then, whenever you see Jagger run around on stage, he's doing James Brown.
Adam Carolla
I would not. Look Jagger, I love the Rolling Stones, but Jagger, not the voice of an angel. And he couldn't move like James Brown. That would not be the guy I'd want to go after if I was Mick Jagger.
Gene Simmons
But at the end of the. It doesn't matter how you feel about anything. They're playing stadiums 60 years on.
Adam Carolla
It's crazy.
Gene Simmons
And God bless.
Adam Carolla
Well, you love comedy. You're comedy fans. That's why you're listening to this podcast. And the funniest comedians in the world are on tour right now, and you can get tickets to see them live near you. So they're traveling, and you're bringing the mountain to Mohammed. They're coming to your town. You don't have to go to their town to see them. And they got huge names in comedy. Otsuko Okotsuka is coming out. Maybe not a household name, but I bet if you're listening, you know, comedy, you love Otsuko. Bill Burr. Well, there's a guy, you know, Sebastian Maniscalco is coming to town near you. And so many more. All kinds of shows, all kinds of venues, all kinds of funny. So head to live nation.comcomedy to get your tickets today. That's live nation.comcomedy. and get caught up on all the comedy.
Natasha Leggero
If your day sounds like we need to report asap. You deserve Modelo. If you've persevered through, you deserve this ice cold reward. Medela, the mark of the fighter. Drink responsibly. Beer imported by Crowning Port Chicago, Illinois.
Adam Carolla
So back to Van Halen. You bring them to New York in 78. You get David Lee Roth some wedgies and some tight pants.
Gene Simmons
I knew I was going to get in trouble.
Adam Carolla
And what's the vibe? What happens after that? They go into Electric Ladyland and lay down 15 tracks. And then what?
Gene Simmons
And I take the tape and bring it up to our manager, Bill, a coin at the time. And Paul, my partner for forever, is in the office and playing the tapes. And I'm just going, wow, this thing sounds great. And listen to that stuff. They didn't get it. I said, you guys should listen to me. Let's take this band out. They're going to be the next big band. They didn't get it. So I did, I think the ethical thing. And I told the Van Halen guys, this contract that you signed, I tore it up, you're free to go. You don't have to pay me a dime. I believe in you. We gotta go out on the Love Gun tour. I'll be back in six months. If you don't have a deal by then, we can take a look at it. But ethically and morally, for six months, I'm not gonna be able to work your record and get you a deal. And after that time, I mean, during that time, they got a deal right away at Warner's and the rest is history.
Natasha Leggero
There was no way to take Van Halen to tour with you, like as an opener or anything like that? I'm surprised.
Gene Simmons
Well, if they were signed to me, sure.
Natasha Leggero
Oh, I see. I see. So ethically tore up the contract so they could be free.
Gene Simmons
So they could be free to record or get their own deal or whatever.
Adam Carolla
Who did you. I hear famous stories of bands throwing other bands off the road because they tore it up when they opened for them and they didn't want to follow them. I Don't know. Not for Kiss. No, no, no, no. But I'm saying. But yes, as a comedian, sometimes a guy will go up in front of you and just destroy the place. And you'll go, oh, well, on the very first. I don't know if I want to go after James Brown.
Gene Simmons
Yeah, good, good point. On the very first Van Halen tour, they were opening for Sabbath and the guys, Tony and everybody. Geezer would go on record as saying, unfortunately, we had to follow Van Halen.
Adam Carolla
Right.
Gene Simmons
You can't.
Adam Carolla
Right. So who would open? Who would you guys take out?
Gene Simmons
Oh, we took out. Proud to say we took out on the very first tours for these bands. Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, ac, dc, Rush, Oh, Bon Jovi, Motley Crue, you name it. We took them on their first tour because we're also fans, right? You can't just sit in your ivory tower and say, it's all about me. Meantime, you're checking stuff out, saying, you know, this is really good. Let's give those guys a chance. In fact, before you were born again in 77, I think it was, I went to. Might have been either Roxy or the Rainbow. One of those. Roxy, probably. No, no, it was a Troubadour. And ACDC couldn't. You know, they were barely out with their first record. Nobody cared. They're an Australian band. And I saw. They just knocked me out right away. And when the house lights went to black at the end of a song, most bands, you know, kind of take stock of where they are. Not Angus. He was in, you know, in the moment, moving in the black across the stage. And I go, this guy's the real deal. It's not an act. He's just full of that. The fire in the belly. So I waited for him backstage. I went upstairs and I introduced myself and you know, with a thick Australian accent. Oh, yeah, you're that bloke and all that Angus. And they're tiny people, you know, I'm six two, and Angus was just a tiny little guy. And I said, you need to come with me. When I get you a bite to eat, I have an idea for you. He says, all right. So he got into the limo because I couldn't drive in those days. I didn't start driving until. Oh, my God. 70, 83.
Adam Carolla
You grow up in Israel and then you move to New York. So those aren't good places for driving.
Gene Simmons
No autobombing in New York. Your car may not be there when you get up in the morning, you can't find a parking space. And Subways and taxis.
Adam Carolla
People I know live in New York, don't own a car.
Gene Simmons
You don't need it. And so I took Angus to what used to be Ben Frank's up on. Yeah, Sunset Boulevard and stuff. And it's about one in the morning, and they knew me there because at night I'd go in there and have my cheesecake and crack and whatever else. Not really, folks. Don't put the headline in there.
Adam Carolla
No, but cheesecake is like crack for you.
Gene Simmons
Oh, yeah. And I swallow too, so don't get me started. So Angus and I sit there and the waitress comes over. Hi, Mr. Sibling, do me a favor. Take this gentleman's order. Whatever he wants, just make it. And I've said this story before, it's really sweet. And he looks up at her and says, I'd like hot dogs and beans. I'm not making it up. And she's looking at me like. And then he says, without the bread. I go, you mean the bun? Yeah, without the. So she's shrugging her shoulders. Get him that thing you got baked beans and the hot dogs. And I'll never forget when it came in, when the order came in right away ahead of the other people. He picked up the hot dog and opened his mouth and started to chew on the side because in the front there were no teeth. Oh, it was unbelievable. He couldn't afford it.
Adam Carolla
Wow.
Gene Simmons
So I told him right then and there, you're coming out on tour with us. The rest of the country doesn't know who you guys are. You need to be out on tour. We took them out. And I will tell you that every night they went out there and played their hearts out like it was the only chance they'd ever get. And, you know, we had to go out there and go, okay, can't. Can't just do this by the numbers. You got to go out there. Because this band went out there and set the stage on fire.
Adam Carolla
AC dc.
Gene Simmons
Oh, yeah.
Adam Carolla
Yeah. And also for them, it's. You're playing rooms with 175 people in it. Now you're playing stadiums with 65,000 people in it. That's. That's a. That's a cabin pressure change.
Gene Simmons
But I tell you, when I first saw them, they were playing big. It didn't matter that they were 100 people.
Adam Carolla
They're playing big in a small room.
Gene Simmons
They're big. Yeah. So when they hold their arms up. Jesus Christ. Pose with a big A chord hanging a thing, and pick their chins up to the heavens. That's Big. That's not, you know, being relegated to the size of the room.
Adam Carolla
So when did Bon Scott die?
Gene Simmons
About two years after that, unfortunately. He drank a lot. He was originally their roadie. They were looking.
Adam Carolla
Really?
Gene Simmons
Yeah. They were looking for a lead singer and couldn't find anybody. And their roadie got up on stage and started. They're going, okay. And he was the older. He was older than the rest of the guys in the band.
Adam Carolla
So he. He's on all those early albums and.
Gene Simmons
Yeah, that's right.
Adam Carolla
And he went out with you guys?
Gene Simmons
Yes.
Adam Carolla
And Jesus Christ, it's crazy. And then they got Johnson, right? Who, Brian? Yeah. Who's a car guy.
Gene Simmons
You know, there's not misconception, but you guys, you know, you're all dreaming and you're not qualified to make these rules. Oh, you gotta have the original members and all stuff. It's actually not true. In point of fact, when Brian came in AC DC exploded. Got five times bigger than they were, by the way. Likewise. Even though I prefer Roth by far in Van Halen because of the sleaze and the personality and his look. They got twice as big with Hagar. They just did. They started doing ballady stuff. And.
Adam Carolla
Yeah, Hagar. I like Hagar. Hagar's a good dude.
Gene Simmons
I'm not talking about what people like, just how big you get. Yeah. Genesis started off with Peter Gabriel. He left. They didn't like him. And the drummer came on board. Phil Collins. They're playing stadiums when the drummer came up on top. So there are lots of examples where, including the Beatles, got the original drummer. You know, that's not right. Once they got started, Pete Best was the star of the band. The chicks liked him.
Adam Carolla
Oh, really? Yeah.
Gene Simmons
McCartney didn't like that. So they got rid of him and got rid of him.
Adam Carolla
They didn't like McCartney, didn't like the fact that he came clean.
Gene Simmons
He said, that guy's too good looking. They're looking at the drummer.
Adam Carolla
Oh, really?
Gene Simmons
Yo, really, O'Reilly?
Adam Carolla
Wow. Yeah. I didn't know that was the reason. He didn't say that for a long time, did he?
Gene Simmons
Well, he's come clean.
Adam Carolla
He has now. Yeah.
Gene Simmons
And I'm such a useful. So I don't care. What?
Adam Carolla
You dated Diana Ross for a while, right?
Gene Simmons
Yeah.
Adam Carolla
She seems like old school diva to me.
Gene Simmons
But what you see on stage is not what it is. That includes Cher.
Adam Carolla
I was gonna say Cher as well.
Gene Simmons
What you see on stage is judging the book by the COVID I have to say, both women are amazing. You would be so lucky to be in the same room and breathe the same air. Amazing mothers, responsible. No drugs, no booze, none of that Beverly Hills, I'm depressed kind of stuff. And no everything. You see, Diana came up the hard way through the projects in Detroit, and by 16, she was singing. And, you know, they were signed. Originally, they were called the Primates because the original band, the Temptations, were called the Primes.
Adam Carolla
The Temptations were the Primes. They were going to call them the Primets.
Gene Simmons
Yeah. They found the Supremes who could sing. And we're going to bring you to Berry Gordon and all that. But in those days, racism was, you know, still the thing. She told me a horrible story. They're headlining. Supreme's got six number one songs on the very first album. Bigger than the Beatles that year.
Adam Carolla
It's like 67, 66 earlier.
Gene Simmons
66, possibly.
Adam Carolla
All right.
Gene Simmons
And they're touring in Dick Clark's Cavalcade of Stars. It was the Supremes, Dave Clark Five under, and other bands all over.
Adam Carolla
Yeah, I think. Yeah.
Gene Simmons
And the Dave Clark Five were also bigger than the Beatles for a short time. And so they're touring the south, and on the way in, people are shooting at the bus.
Adam Carolla
Wow.
Gene Simmons
And after the Supremes headlined the shows, they couldn't stay in the regular hotels. They have to stay in the black hotels. Yeah.
Adam Carolla
Wow. Even though they had six number one or huge album.
Gene Simmons
First album.
Adam Carolla
Yeah.
Gene Simmons
And we know them today, Baby. Love. Stop in the name of love and all that.
Adam Carolla
Yeah.
Gene Simmons
So what you see of a performer, I mean, I get this all the time. And maybe it's more true in my. My behalf. When you see somebody on stage, you go, that guy's an asshole. I don't like that. It's all entitled kind of stuff. You don't know who they are. What you're responding to is a public image. Like, I don't care what people say about you, Adam. I think you're a decent guy.
Adam Carolla
That's what I love about you.
Gene Simmons
Yeah.
Adam Carolla
I mean, Cher comes from her own adversity for sure.
Gene Simmons
Both clawed their way to the top.
Adam Carolla
Yes.
Gene Simmons
Nobody handed anything to them. Little known fact is that Caesar and Cleo, the original band with Cher, Sonny.
Adam Carolla
And Cher were supposed to be called or were Caesar, Caesar and Cleo.
Gene Simmons
But Ahmet Erdogan didn't like the band. And my old lawyer said, let's take the same thing. Sonny. Dress up in some, you know, hippie kind of stuff. So this kind of Beat Nicky stuff. Yeah, Beat Nicky stuff. And they went back in as Sonny and Cher with the same Music and got signed. In the meantime, Sonny and Sher went to England just because Jagger of all people said, you know, you're not happening here. Why don't you fly to England? You'll get a lot of noise. And literally, I think Cher talks about it in her new book, which you guys should get there. In London, Nobody knows who they are. And I think they get kicked out of the hotel. We don't like your kind around here. That kind of thing. And they check into another hot. And literally. And they handed the I got you, babe, you know, to an A R guy. And they had no noise, no traction, no nothing. When they woke up, that's Cher telling the story. When they woke up the next day, there were paparazzi outside the hotel.
Adam Carolla
Wow. Yeah, she. I mean, she's an interesting story. I remember Diana Ross, or yeah. Came from tough, hardscrabble backgrounds.
Gene Simmons
She ran away from home, broken home. I knew her mom, Georgia for a while, but the dad was not what you'd want dad to be.
Adam Carolla
Yeah, you come from that as well.
Gene Simmons
My father left us. I mean, unfortunately. Unfortunately, it's not unique.
Adam Carolla
No, but you make a valid point, which is you could go to a show, a Cher show, a Diana Ross show, a KISS show, and then you could look up at these people and go, God damn life o'reilly or douchebags or rich self important celebrity or something. But they all come from pain, broken homes, poverty. I mean, real poverty, not kind of us modern poverty. Like we can only afford a 42 inch TV set.
Gene Simmons
What you're seeing and what you're impressed with is the COVID of the book. You don't know anybody that's on stage and you don't know what they're like.
Natasha Leggero
Well, speaking of that, you know, you perform so much like a superhero with a, you know, face paint and costume. Do you find like yourself being like more intimate with the crowd or more, you know, open without all this?
Gene Simmons
You mean Gene Simmons Band?
Natasha Leggero
Yes, sir.
Gene Simmons
Sure. I don't have to stick my tongue out anymore unless I want to, but I'm careful. I checked to make sure the floor is clean. See what I did there? That was another joke. Look, part and parcel of being on stage is to dig deep into who and what you are as a kind of Jekyll Hyde transformative thing. Because we all get bigger, our chest expands and the adrenaline runs and all that. And off stage. Can I have a cookie and a glass of milk? Which I often say after a show, but being in the Gene Simmons band is much more, much, much Less formal, it's more informal. And literally I've jumped off the stage and taken the microphone to the front row and. Hey man, you can't do that with Kiss.
Natasha Leggero
Yeah, I was gonna say, like, I'm sure you, you have fans, like newer fans and also fans that have been with you through like this whole journey. So you know, KISS has been around.
Gene Simmons
For, oh my God, over half a century.
Natasha Leggero
Yeah.
Gene Simmons
And boy, do I look good. But I will tell you, about a year ago, we met an amazing bunch of guys, usually business people. And you know, pencil pushers are not necessarily people who have vision or futurists. We met along the way. People have tried to buy Kisses, obviously. And these guys, Pop House, Swedish group of guys, one of the guys actually is a member of abba.
Adam Carolla
Oh, really?
Gene Simmons
Yeah. And I will tell you that no, the most creative, futuristic looking, you wouldn't know that they come from numbers and you know, cross collateralization and other big words like gymnasium. They. We met, we broke bread, we started to share the idea that your girlfriend's been lying, that size does matter. And we both agreed, you know, maybe we should dance a few more dances. Maybe there's some things. So that one plus one equals three.
Adam Carolla
Isn't ABBA doing the virtual thing?
Gene Simmons
That's their show.
Adam Carolla
Pop House is kissing. I mean, KISS seems like a perfect candidate for that.
Gene Simmons
Like AI, you're getting closer.
Adam Carolla
Yeah.
Gene Simmons
AI pts lol. Nobody has a clue what it means. But imagine this thing that we're doing with Pop House is a jaw dropping, never before seen thing. And I can't get too specific except to let you know the following because it's out there. We flew up to George Lucas's ILM and we did motion capture.
Natasha Leggero
Oh wow.
Adam Carolla
Oh really?
Gene Simmons
And just to make sure that it feels and moves like us, because it is us. Okay, now imagine the experience is going to be beyond anything you can imagine because imagine a caveman goes to IMAX and beholds experiences a 3D event. They just wouldn't understand. So the only way I can describe what's going to happen in the next two years or so. We, most of us know what virtual glasses are, right? You put glasses on and all of a sudden the room and the world you're in disappears. And if you look down, the floor that you're standing on is no longer the floor. You could be floating in space or on another planet or floating. So no matter where you look in back of you, forward, up, down, you're in this alternative universe. Now imagine that experience with sound and heat and all that kind of stuff without glasses.
Adam Carolla
Without glasses? Yeah.
Natasha Leggero
You're talking holograms, then.
Gene Simmons
No.
Natasha Leggero
Oh, wow.
Gene Simmons
Because if you go to the Sphere or if you go to the ABBA show and millions of folks have gone, you'll swear to God they're live on stage. But if you look down, you can see your hand and person next to you. So what's reality crossed with? You can't believe your eyes. The technology has improved so much that reality will disappear. You're going to be in an alternate. It's tough to describe it.
Adam Carolla
Could it be played at almost any venue or does it need a special venue?
Gene Simmons
Initially, we're controlling every square foot of these huge places. In the same way that IMAX 3D, they need special cameras, special lighting and all that. You can't just do an outdoor. Can't take IMAX and go to an outdoor.
Adam Carolla
Could you go to Madison Square Garden with this show?
Gene Simmons
If we take over Madison Square Garden, because it's not linear. You're not looking at a screen. It's all around you. So if you pick your head up, your chair disappears, you're in a different. It's difficult to describe it because nobody has seen this.
Adam Carolla
All right, I got a million thoughts.
Natasha Leggero
Yeah, yeah, me too.
Adam Carolla
Okay, one. One is you have to go to the bathroom. One is, this is fine. Because I go to concerts now with younger people and 11 year old, 11, 12, up to 13. I saw. Well, I see bands now that lip sync the whole fucking concert. And then I'll say to people younger than me, I'll go, is that okay with you? And they go, yeah, it's good. Conc. Good show.
Gene Simmons
Yeah, they don't.
Adam Carolla
And I go, I saw Janet Jackson. Yeah, she lips on half her stuff, but, you know. And I go, that's okay. And then they go, yeah. And I go, paul Abdul had no band. There's no band. There's no. Yeah, that's good. No, it's good.
Gene Simmons
Not only that.
Adam Carolla
And they see DJs who are just pushing buttons. And I'm like, that's a concert for you. Oh, yeah.
Gene Simmons
I was about. I was about to tell you. Some of the biggest acts are DJs. They're called DJs. And my day was just a guy on radio playing hits.
Adam Carolla
Yeah, we call them Jack Offs.
Gene Simmons
Nice, nice. He said that, not me. And so you can play to 50,000 people.
Adam Carolla
Yes.
Gene Simmons
Swedish House Mafia. And, you know, all that stuff. And the creative thing is done before, you know, they work on computer, get all that stuff. And the beginning of the concert Goes like this. Put your finger up to the sky.
Adam Carolla
All right, here we go.
Gene Simmons
And you press a button and that's it.
Adam Carolla
I know.
Gene Simmons
And you're jumping up and down with everybody.
Adam Carolla
Right, but the point is, back in the day, someone would go, you want to see abba, but abba's not going to be there. You'd go, no, I'm not doing that. You know, way back in the day, you want to see Kiss, but Kiss not going to be in the building. I'd go, I'm not going to go for that. There are no more rules.
Gene Simmons
No, there are no more rules.
Adam Carolla
There's just experiences.
Gene Simmons
And I want to say something on behalf of EDM and rap and all that stuff. I don't have to understand it. The only thing I care about is the experience of the audience. And if they get off on it, even if it doesn't make sense to you, it doesn't matter because we're in the business. We just work here. We're in the business of making sure the audience gets off.
Adam Carolla
So this is the ultimate. Now, because. And they bought your catalog.
Gene Simmons
Yes.
Adam Carolla
Can you tell us for how much?
Gene Simmons
Oh, more than you've got. And you're a very rich man.
Adam Carolla
Well, it's out there somewhere. You know, it's got. I mean, if Bruce Springsteen can get 800 million or what if Bruce Springsteen. So you got more than Bruce, really? I saw you point out.
Gene Simmons
No, I was just nice.
Adam Carolla
No, but. So this is an interesting conversation. Look, Gene is a, at his heart, an entrepreneur and a businessman.
Gene Simmons
And good looking.
Adam Carolla
And good looking. Yeah, at his. In his heart. At his heart, at his core. And so in terms of being an entrepreneur, a musician, but an entrepreneur as well, you have thoughts. So I was talking to Roseanne Barr about this yesterday.
Gene Simmons
I knew Roseanne in the days when I had a magazine. She came over to my house and I interviewed her.
Adam Carolla
But I will say. So here's the deal. She said, what led you into comedy? We were just having a conversation about comedy.
Gene Simmons
Yeah, I see.
Adam Carolla
And we were just talking about it generically. And I said, well, look, I'm a pragmatic guy, was a carpenter and I had a skill.
Gene Simmons
And one of our guys was also a carpenter.
Adam Carolla
One of the. Jesus Christ.
Gene Simmons
The guy that lived with his mother until he was 33.
Adam Carolla
That's right.
Gene Simmons
Thought his mother was a virgin. She thought he was God. Then he went into his father's business.
Adam Carolla
Well, that's what I did.
Gene Simmons
Gotta be Jewish.
Adam Carolla
And I said I had a skill. And it was worth 15 bucks an hour. And then I had a potential skill, which was comedy, But I didn't know what that was worth. But I told her that I made a hypothetical question for myself when I was about 21. I said to people, when I was 21, I was getting about eight or nine bucks an hour, and so were all my friends on the construction site. And I said, as a wild hypothetical, I said, even if I made $50 an hour, and I'm never going to make $50 an hour, making $8 an hour to making $12 an hour would be a huge deal. But I said, even If I made $50 an hour, I would still be getting paid for the amount of time I sat on this job site or this place I didn't really want to be. So even if it's an incredible amount of money, they're still just buying your life. They're saying, you're saying, I don't.
Gene Simmons
I don't. For that.
Adam Carolla
Yeah. Period of time, I don't want to be here, but here's $50. I will be here. I said, but even when I was like 21, I was like, I don't think that's the way to go. I think the way to go is to get paid for what you do, not by the amount of time you spend there. And then I realized, but still, if you're doing a standup show or you're doing a KISS concert, you still have to show up. You get paid a lot, but you gotta be there now. You don't have to get on an airplane.
Gene Simmons
Yeah, it used to be that way. In fact, I was talking with Howie yesterday. As a matter of fact, Howie MANDEL.
Adam Carolla
Bruce got 500 million, by the way, Springsteen. So we did a little better. All right, well, maybe you're the boss.
Gene Simmons
I didn't say anything.
Adam Carolla
I saw your point.
Natasha Leggero
You keep on shelving.
Gene Simmons
I had a booger and I had to pull it out. Now, everybody, look, everybody is. We're all. All of us blessed to be able to get up in the morning and do stuff you like. Because the vast majority of people make. Build the highways we drive on. And this house that we're in, this opulence that you have around you. Somebody worked hard to do that.
Adam Carolla
So I have flashbacks. I did it until I was 31 or 32. So it wasn't like I was, you know, first year of college, and then I stopped. You know, I did it. So I think.
Gene Simmons
And I believe that that's really important, because the way that you. I'm assuming because I'm. That way you relate your present life to what it used to be. So there's no sweeter food, there's no house that you live in that's nicer than if you grew up once upon a time and were poor.
Adam Carolla
Yeah. No, it's a great base if you can escape it. You know what I mean? If you never leave it, then it's a horrible life. I mean, you would wish for your children. I don't know why, but when I do this rich man, poor man bit, sometimes rich people and poor people, they say that things, they all have, but it's all relative.
Gene Simmons
Because if you're poor here, go to Africa.
Adam Carolla
Yeah, we'll just do it by United States standards. But I would say I never have eaten at an Outback Steakhouse in my life. And the reason I've never segue well, the reason I never, ever have is I was too poor for the first half of my life. Outback TGI Fridays was as high as I got because of my monetary, because I was making $11 an hour. Outback Steakhouse was a little rich for my blood. Then I got rich, and I wouldn't be caught dead in an Outback Steakhouse. I went right to Laurie's or Morton's or whatever. I skipped Outback Steakhouse. And I said, you should hope your kids die.
Gene Simmons
That's a headline.
Adam Carolla
You should hope your kids grow up so poor and humble that they can't afford it, and then at some point become successful enough to avoid it.
Gene Simmons
Or if you're too rich to care, eat wherever the fuck you want to eat.
Adam Carolla
Yes.
Gene Simmons
And not worry about what people say.
Adam Carolla
Well, it's a metaphor. But the point is, is Gene Simmons the ultimate entrepreneur who got paid a hefty sum to show up and play the bass guitar, now does not have to show up and get paid?
Gene Simmons
But you can't find that feeling. There is that indescribable thing of band and fan. And I hope other performers who get up on stage feel that, otherwise they're going to be miserable.
Adam Carolla
Right. But then there's Legacy, which is, after you're gone, Kiss carries on digitally.
Gene Simmons
I have to say that I think Paul and I both agree on that. You know, there's that ego part, which is we're kind of important kind of a thing. But at the end of the day, we're just so thrilled that anybody ever gave us the time of day, much less allow us to get up on stage. Because there, but for the grace of God, I could be asking the next person, would you like some fries? With that, did you? And by the way, that's. That's a respectable living as well. But how you got to where you are and how I got to where I am and all that is. Some of it is just a luck of the draw. You may have the right thing, you may be the right time, but also to be at the right place. That.
Adam Carolla
Yeah, that's very rare. Maybe we can agree on this. I think so.
Gene Simmons
Heterosexual.
Adam Carolla
Yeah. And the best time to be in this country. Pre aids, mid coke, mid pill. Those are the things we know. I was happy as a carpenter and I see guys I work with, guys in the trades all the time. They take pride in what they do. They can put metal together and they can do it in such a way where you can't even see the seam where they're done with it and they shape it and they like it and they take pride in it.
Gene Simmons
You bring up a good point, but.
Adam Carolla
I just want to say they didn't have something else they want they thought they could do. That's the problem. See, for me, everybody does not. But monetarily, what plagued me is getting 11 bucks an hour on the job site and then jumping into my truck and sitting in traffic on the way home and listening to the DJ on the radio do the funnies at 5:00 and thinking, I'm funnier than that. I could do that. I could. I'll never get a chance, but I could do it. The part that plagues you is when you think you can do something else, but you're doing this all day. Doing this all day. If that's what you do and you find pride in it, it's fine.
Gene Simmons
But I have to respectfully point something out, which is the sas, the British guys who are at the forefront of military and stuff.
Adam Carolla
The Navy seals of Britain.
Gene Simmons
Yeah, they're solid guys. They're out way in front. And he who dares, wins. Which is to say that the difference between you and everybody else who dreams is you rolled up your sleeves and you took a shot that people would think you suck and everything. Because every time you get in front of people, they judge.
Adam Carolla
Well, yeah, I did, but. And I don't think we're disagreeing. I'm just saying the other guys on the job site didn't think they could do comedy, so it didn't bother them that they were hanging drywall all day. I was bothered because I thought I should be somewhere else doing something other than this. I didn't think I was too good or better than I thought I Was wasting potential, I thought. And I would have thought the same if I played in a band, too. I'd say, I want to be on stage with an instrument, not in Reseda hanging Sheetrock.
Gene Simmons
By the way, are you allowed to talk?
Natasha Leggero
Yeah, yeah, I just shut up most of the time. Usually I, like, take a deep breath and wait for him to run out of breath, and then I start talking.
Adam Carolla
But I can breathe through my ass is what he doesn't know.
Natasha Leggero
You could beg Jim Carolla for that.
Adam Carolla
So you. You also signed Liza Minnelli back in the day?
Gene Simmons
No, I managed Liza.
Adam Carolla
Managed Liza Minnelli. Yeah. That seems difficult task.
Gene Simmons
No, no, it wasn't. We were initially friends through Cher More with Diana. She'd take me to, I don't know, Halston's house. This famous clothing designer who, you know, before I met her, I didn't care about any of that. So we're sitting at Halston's place, and Nureyev wants an iconic ballet guy. The iconic guy. And everybody in the room was Pacino and everybody. And Liza was there. And I remember Cher and I sitting next to each other, just kind of, oh, this is a nice place and all that modern house right on Park Avenue and everything. And all the who's who are there. You know, usually I wouldn't care about that kind of thing. And Liza came over and dropped to her knees and started singing, you know, in front of us. My old piano, you know, something like that. I'm going, what? And then after that, we became friends. And she took me aside one day and wanted to know, you know, what's Madonna got that I ain't got? Because I've been around forever.
Adam Carolla
And, you know, this church, this is what year approximately?
Gene Simmons
Oh, my goodness. Must have been in the 80. 80, probably 85, something like that.
Adam Carolla
Liza had. She definitely had a hit album in the 70s, by the way.
Gene Simmons
So she asked me, would you manage me? I said, well, yeah, if you're willing to not think about the past. Because believe it or not, today is not yesterday. And cool is a moving target. And what you do, you do best. But it's going to be a little brave, you know, because if you want to get off of the soul business, you know, the wide vibrato thing.
Adam Carolla
Eliza with Liza with a Z was her head.
Gene Simmons
Yeah, Pops, amazing. And she won Academy Awards and musical theater and all that. And so I called up Walter Yetnikov, who was the head of Columbia, CBS and all that, and he took the call right away. I think he must have thought I was Richard Simmons, instead of see what I did there. And I brought Liza with me. And I said, walter, I'd like you to sign Liza. And he said, sure, right on the spot. Put her on Epic Records. And there was a great A and R guy named Goldie. And he and I talked about it. She can't just do a record. You can't just do it. Let's put her together with people who understand. So her album was produced and put together by the Pet Shop Boys, really, who were enormous. And that record was the biggest record she ever had around the world.
Adam Carolla
Really.
Gene Simmons
She got so big that she did 27 nights at Radio City Music Hall. 27.
Adam Carolla
Wow.
Gene Simmons
And when Dean Martin, he was ill, couldn't keep up with the Rat Pack because it was Frank, Sammy Davis Jr. And Dean Martin. When he couldn't do it, Liza took his place.
Adam Carolla
Really?
Gene Simmons
And they toured big. It was big.
Adam Carolla
Wow. I didn't. I mean, I remember sort of her renaissance with Arthur. The movie.
Gene Simmons
Yeah. Great, Great film.
Adam Carolla
Yeah. Fun. Super. They probably didn't need to remake it. Dudley Moore was a real old school talent, you know, charismatic guy, you know, could play the piano.
Gene Simmons
And as far as I'm concerned, Sir John Gielgud stole the movie. This kind of deadpan, like, Arthur Treacher. Of course, nobody knows what we're talking about.
Adam Carolla
No, we do. He's the Merv Griffin's show. Yeah. So, like Gil. Sir John Gilgit. He was like. He would say, like Arthur would be like. He'd be. I don't know what. I don't know what. Set it up. He said, like, I had a solid bm. And he'd go, I'll alert the media.
Gene Simmons
That's exactly right.
Adam Carolla
I love that. I love that. Alert the media. Right.
Gene Simmons
Dudley is in a bathtub because he's always drunk.
Adam Carolla
Right.
Gene Simmons
And Arthur Treacher is this. I do. So, yes. Everything's matter of fact. And that's exactly his line. Dudley Moore shoots out a.
Adam Carolla
What is that? What did. What did he set him up with? Something like, I think I'm gonna have another Bloody Mary or something. And he'd go, I'll alert the media.
Gene Simmons
Yeah.
Adam Carolla
Which is. It's just a great snarky. It's beautiful.
Gene Simmons
You're also important.
Adam Carolla
But Dudley Moore was great.
Gene Simmons
Great. Remember him in 10?
Adam Carolla
He was great in 10. And he was married or dated.
Gene Simmons
Well, he didn't touch Beau.
Adam Carolla
I know that Susan Anton.
Gene Simmons
Sure.
Adam Carolla
Who was literally six foot tall.
Gene Simmons
Yeah. Foot tall.
Adam Carolla
And he was five foot three. And he dated this giant blonde.
Gene Simmons
But as you know, Fame supersedes anything. If you want to Google and schmoogle Sophia Loren, who I still worship, she married Carlo Ponti, who was, I don't know, 30 years her senior and much shorter, but he was powerful.
Adam Carolla
We have the line. Yeah. I mean, there's countless examples of it, but here is. Here's Sir John Gilga Hobson.
Natasha Leggero
Yes.
Gene Simmons
Do you know what I'm gonna do? No, I don't. I'm gonna take a bath and alert the media.
Adam Carolla
It's a great idea for a movie. Oh, Liza Minnelli's dad was great in it. Remember the guy played her dad?
Gene Simmons
You don't mean his. Her actual dad?
Adam Carolla
Now, in the film.
Gene Simmons
I don't recall the actor who played in the film.
Adam Carolla
He was kind of a real New Yorkie, kind of poor, schlubby guy and a wife beater.
Gene Simmons
And was it Ed Asner?
Adam Carolla
No, no, no. It was a guy you would recognize and he would see Dudley Moore pull up in his limousine and he was out of work and she got fired from the department store or whatever. And she would be like, he's all right, but I don't think I'm going. He was going nuts. You go out on a second date, that guy's rich. We got nothing. Barney Martin was the guy's name. And that's not gonna ring him, but when you see him. If you see it. Yeah. Like, if you get a scene with Barney Martin and Liza Minnelli, you'll see he was like the perfect New York dad. Oh, he was Seinfeld's dad, right? Yeah, he was Seinfeld's dad.
Gene Simmons
And Seinfeld. Now I remember. Yes.
Adam Carolla
He was like. There used to be character actors and you just recognize them, but you never knew their name. And they were great. And they pop up everywhere. And you're like, oh, that guy. There'd be three guys who played bikers. There'd be three guys that played cops. There are three dad guys. There were three angry neighbor guys. There's a couple of characters now. Everybody can't keep track of people.
Gene Simmons
And speaking of potato chips, tomorrow at 7pm you're at the Pasadena Ice House.
Adam Carolla
Yeah.
Gene Simmons
Yeah. You guys should catch it. How do you like that?
Adam Carolla
You know what? I'm going to give you a plug. GeneSimmons.com is where you go, because Gene Simmons band is out on tour. Tallahassee coming up.
Gene Simmons
Oh, we also have Kentucky coming up. I think I mentioned this before. We also have a film company. I use the royal. We Simmons Hamilton. We have Randy Harlan directing. Oh, Ranny movie is done. Sir Ben Kingsley. Aaron Eckhart. Real good movie.
Adam Carolla
What? Oh, Rennie's a good dude.
Gene Simmons
Oh, yeah.
Adam Carolla
Interesting dude.
Gene Simmons
Next one is coming after that with Bella Thorne and Mel Gibson. A lot of stuff. There's a lot of stuff.
Adam Carolla
Do we have anything with the dad and Liza Minnelli? You'll. You'll love this guy.
Gene Simmons
And.
Adam Carolla
But he. Arthur.
Gene Simmons
Arthur.
Adam Carolla
Different movie.
Gene Simmons
I know them.
Adam Carolla
What's it All About?
Gene Simmons
Burt Bachrach. Did you ever hear the original version by Cher?
Adam Carolla
No. There's an original. Alfie.
Gene Simmons
Burt Bacharach wrote it for shares.
Adam Carolla
I've heard Diana Ross do Mahogany.
Gene Simmons
Yes.
Adam Carolla
Which is a theme to another movie.
Gene Simmons
But it's her movie.
Adam Carolla
Right.
Gene Simmons
So Bertrack, Hal David, Burke Brack, Seven Seas Music. See, I know that stuff. Wrote what's It all about and all that. And Cher recorded it. He didn't like the Virgin. And then the Virgin, the version. And then he had Dionne Warwick rerecorded. And that's the version we know.
Adam Carolla
Here's Cher and dad.
Gene Simmons
You mean Barney Moissa.
Adam Carolla
Oh, sorry, Liza. See, I'm all over the world. Liza with a Z, not Lisa with.
Gene Simmons
An S. I take it this bum will be calling you dad.
Adam Carolla
He's a millionaire.
Gene Simmons
You have my permission to marry him.
Adam Carolla
Yeah. That guy. Yep. That is. That's. That's Seinfeld's dad.
Gene Simmons
He's great.
Adam Carolla
All right, let's take a break. We'll come back, we'll do a little news with Gene, and that'll be right after this. Hey, I'm Adam Krall. That's Brad Williams and Jay Leno. Hey, everybody over there. We're doing our third annual comedy fantasy camp. That's going to be January 23rd through the 26th. Right? In Hollywood, California. Where else would it be? These guys are going to be there. Remember, two out of every three comics make it big or one and a half. Do I get paid for this? Please tell me. Get paid for this. Go to comedyfantasycamp.com and get in on the fun. Well, it's that time of year again. You thinking about those holiday meals? It's upon us. And I have the perfect hack to make them delicious and stress free. It's meter smart. Wireless meat thermometer. You leave it in the meat while it's cooking, then you'll get notifications on your phone when it's ready. Skip all the guesswork. I use it all the time. We've all been there. Checking the turkey a million times. Get black lung from opening the oven a million times, wasting tons of time. Overcooked prime rib? No, it's a guessing game and Meter's taking the guesswork out of it. With cloud service, you can have limitless range. So you can cook. Put the meat in, go on a beer run, go in and watch the game, Make a piece. It's easy. Mash up some potatoes, grab a cocktail, enjoy yourself. Don't just hover over the oven, over the barbecue. And it works on all different cooking forms and all different proteins. Get them the gift they'll actually use this year. A stress free life for the cook at home. It's meter, right? Dawson, shop Meter's holiday sales. To get an unbeatable deal. Go to me a t e r.com and save big on the best meat thermometer out there. Get your holiday shopping in and get one for you and one for the chef in your life. Meter.com hey, it's Adam Kroll from the Adam Kroll Show. Bet Online is the world's most trusted betting platform and your number one source for online betting. From the earliest odds to in game live betting. Betonline provides you with all the action and the ability to watch and bet on games as they happen. With the largest selection of odds on everything from football, NBA, college basketball as well. BetOnline has NHL, MMA and championship boxing, all your betting needs in one place. Head to Betonline today to get in on the action with America's most trusted site for online wagering. So have some fun. Make these games, in these events, in these combat sports a little more interesting with Bet Online. Bet Online, the game starts here. Here's a memorable moment from the Adam Carolla Show's ACE Awards archives. Remember Gene McDaniels? Sure.
Gene Simmons
He took a hundred pounds of clay you thought you'd built.
Adam Carolla
Then he said, come on.
Gene Simmons
But he had the Jackie Wilson kind of roast. He took a hundred pounds of clay.
Adam Carolla
Tower strike, tower straight.
Gene Simmons
Fantastic with the big trombone.
Adam Carolla
Don't miss the 2024 ACE Awards this December. Now back to the Adam Corolla show. I like Gene Sims because I can bring up Gene McDaniels and if I do that in front of any other American, they go, what are you talking about?
Gene Simmons
I'm sorry to say, you could bring up Rudy Valli and I'll tell you more than you'd ever want to know.
Adam Carolla
I know it's encyclopedic is what it is, but also sobriety. Not sobriety, but I just mean you traveled through all these. You know, everyone else when they go, well, I met Dave Clark, 5 at the Whiskey in 1977. They were probably drunk.
Natasha Leggero
Yeah.
Adam Carolla
You know what I mean? So it's a little fuzzy in terms of some of the details, but at.
Gene Simmons
13 years of age I was always invited to Sweet Sixteen. So I used to have these things, girls at 16 and they'd invite, you know, the guys and potato chips and Coca Cola and stuff like that. That's what we had in those days and spin the bottle. But that was later. And they'd always invite me because they thought I was older because I was tall and all that. And I noticed early on the guys would start drinking and acting like morons. So like a vulture, I stayed straight on the side, waited for the guys to throw up on the girls shoes and all that stuff and then just swoop in and take any girl you wanted.
Adam Carolla
You know, it's really the drama class versus the football team. You know, guys go out for the football team thinking they're going to get the girls, but really the smart move is going out for the dance or the drama. I took a Pilates class yesterday. Sure. It was me and 31 chicks. It was literally sounds terrible. Just me and 31 chicks. There was not any other dick and balls in that room but me. And I'm just looking at all the girls and I thought smart. And I was looking through the window and all the guys are doing the slide hacks and the press and the stuff and they're all hanging. It's a sausage vest in the next room.
Gene Simmons
Something for everybody.
Adam Carolla
I'm in here with all the chicks. And I thought, But I wish I thought of this earlier in life.
Gene Simmons
I actually figured that out early in school. I took up typing because all the girls were in the typing class. I took stenography, which was like shorthand.
Adam Carolla
Greg, you took stenography?
Gene Simmons
Oh, yeah.
Natasha Leggero
Home economics right here.
Gene Simmons
Yeah, that's a little.
Adam Carolla
I know that's a little.
Natasha Leggero
Yeah, that's a little.
Gene Simmons
But I mean that in a good way.
Adam Carolla
Oh, yeah, Stenography.
Gene Simmons
Yeah, because all the girls were there. And my first, I got work right away. I worked for Williamson and Williamson, a legal firm and did, you know. Take a note, miss? Oh, yeah.
Adam Carolla
Stenographers and stenography machines have abbreviations, right.
Gene Simmons
That you have to know in court with a pen and pad, there's its own Alphabet. Like high would be like a check mark kind of things. You can talk at full speed and you basically get it.
Adam Carolla
So it's a little bit like American sign in that American Sign Language is kind of its own language.
Gene Simmons
That's right.
Adam Carolla
And it's not just what's being written at the bottom of the screen.
Gene Simmons
You know what that is in sign language?
Adam Carolla
The devil horns. It's rock and roll.
Gene Simmons
No, young man, no. You have a long. So this means I love you, I, L, U. And I've got his Holiness, the Dalai Lama, doing it with me and Clinton.
Adam Carolla
Oh, you got everyone doing it.
Gene Simmons
Yeah.
Adam Carolla
Are you bothered? This is a sign right now, Side to sign. No, I don't like it.
Gene Simmons
What?
Adam Carolla
Marlee Matlin, she does the signing, and she has her spokesperson, and it's a dude. I don't like the dude voice coming off the chick.
Gene Simmons
Oh, I thought you meant she should have a chick doing the voice.
Adam Carolla
That's what I'm saying.
Gene Simmons
Oh, you are?
Adam Carolla
Yeah.
Gene Simmons
That's very sexist.
Adam Carolla
I know, but I'm. But I'm sticking with it, all right? And listen, I wouldn't want a dude coming through a chick voice. Yeah, it's bothersome. I don't like it. Well, I'm taking a stand.
Gene Simmons
Some people listening to the show know where you live.
Adam Carolla
Mm. I don't think. I see. I don't really think it's a. It's a sexist thing, because I think when you're talking about. So this is from Dancing with the Stars. In Dancing with the Stars, you have to say I was a judge. We had a chemistry. I liked the way he felt, you know, up against me, you know, so we aesthetically, we make a good couple when it's coming. When a dude's voice. You say that. Say what? I just said.
Natasha Leggero
Which one?
Adam Carolla
I like the way he.
Natasha Leggero
I like the way he felt. I like the way he moved. I like.
Adam Carolla
See, it doesn't. It's not right when it's coming. If I was a woman, it wouldn't.
Gene Simmons
Sounds like we're in jail.
Adam Carolla
Yeah, it doesn't.
Natasha Leggero
Really troublesome in the bedroom if you have, like.
Gene Simmons
We're in jail.
Adam Carolla
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I'm just. I'm just saying. That's just me. All right. Sorry. Mayhem. You got some news?
Natasha Leggero
We got some news. The city of Memphis plans a lawsuit against Kia and Hyundai over thefts.
Adam Carolla
I do love when we reverse engineer this stuff. I like when we get angry at the car that's being stolen versus the people that steal the cars.
Natasha Leggero
Well, I mean, yeah.
Adam Carolla
I mean, we're in a weird time where I was talking to Dr. Drew the other day. He was in a pharmacy. He couldn't get to anything because everything was in a cage.
Gene Simmons
Oh, well, that's because of how human beings act. Certain human beings.
Adam Carolla
Right, right. But I'm saying these cars are easy to hack and then steal. And Memphis is angry at the manufacturer, not the people. Not the people that steal the car.
Natasha Leggero
Well, but it not just easy to steal. Like, comically easy to steal where? And also, the interesting part about this story is that on TikTok, it went viral. I, in fact, did some research and looked how easy it is to break into a Kia or Hyundai just with a usb, show it. So it's like a conspiracy with the Asian countries, China, who owns TikTok and Hyundai, Kia and Korea. Yeah, it's like they let. Let the car be stolen very, very easily.
Adam Carolla
All right, well, so let's dissect this for a second, if you want to know where I stand on this stuff. Yes, Gene. You want to know?
Gene Simmons
Yes, please.
Adam Carolla
There are things that companies do where they pretend they don't want it to happen, but they profit from it. You know how. So the iPhone is shaped like a bar of soap. It's just shaped like a bar of soap. And they do $2 billion a year in replacement and repair because it flies out of everyone's hands. Right.
Gene Simmons
I have to apologize. I thought when you mentioned it's shaped like a bar of soap, I thought we were going to the dark side.
Adam Carolla
No, we're still in the light and.
Natasha Leggero
Glass on all sides.
Adam Carolla
Yeah. So you go, well, they don't want their product to slip out of people's hands and break. And you could say that about drug companies. I used to say Dr. Drew all the time, he'd go, well, I know people that are on 90 Norco a day. They're on 90 pain pills a day. And I said, well, that sounds pretty good for the company that makes Norco. And he'd go, no, they don't want that. And I'd go, why don't they want that? And he'd go, they don't want that. And I'd say, well, look, I take three every seven years. They're not making money off of me. But if someone's doing 50 a day, then they're making money. He'd go, no, they don't want that. Well, they do want that. Yeah, it turns out they wanted that because they're a business.
Gene Simmons
Not. Not just consider the source, but consider where he's saying that. So.
Adam Carolla
But does Kia and Hyundai want their car stolen? See, I would say, yes. You think they do?
Natasha Leggero
Yeah, because then.
Adam Carolla
But what's in it for them?
Natasha Leggero
Well, the insurance takes the hit because all these car like they don't factor. They didn't factor this in. I would guess they didn't factor this in to the insurance rates initially because they didn't know that this was an issue. So then the insurance company pays for the repairs, whatever, Austin or someplace.
Gene Simmons
Because when you say insurance, you say insurance. Where are you from?
Natasha Leggero
Oh, man, I'm from America. All over. I'm army brat, so I zigzagged all over this country.
Adam Carolla
Yeah, insurance is the insurance is the like the black version of McDonald's. Oh, you know, they don't go McDonald's. They go Mac McDonald's. Yeah, it's a thing. I don't know why it's a thing. It's just McDonald's to us. Right. But it's insurance to the white trash. Into black folks. If they could put that insurance.
Gene Simmons
It's almost proper Bostonian.
Natasha Leggero
All right, well may spend some time out there.
Gene Simmons
You have. Yes, that's where insurance comes insurance.
Natasha Leggero
But. Yeah, yeah. So these. The big deal about this is they lack the engine immobilizer. So you don't even have to have the real key or a facsimile. You can just jam a screwdriver in there and no immobilizer.
Gene Simmons
And you could just take like the movies.
Adam Carolla
Yeah, yeah. I had my truck stolen. They pulled ignition out. No, it's a Datsun Nissan. But I had to start the thing with a flathead screwdriver for like three years because I didn't have enough for the. To replace ignition. And then the cops pulled me over because they saw that.
Gene Simmons
Consider my perspective, which is when I was growing up, there were no Japanese cars. Was all. No, it was all Chevrolet and Ford.
Adam Carolla
And all that Pontiac. So look, I. They should correct their ways, these companies. But also it's a slippery slope to start blaming the victim versus the perpetrator.
Natasha Leggero
Other people have done this.
Gene Simmons
Yeah.
Natasha Leggero
The other cities have. Have sued over.
Adam Carolla
Yeah.
Natasha Leggero
They're all progressive and they just did a Software upgrade in February 2023 cities have sold. Who about what about this exact thing that. The fact that Kia and Hyundai were so easily stolen. So.
Gene Simmons
Yeah. Why do cities care?
Natasha Leggero
Because the cops had to arrest so many people and go on. Go on a witch hunt for this or I go on a wild goose chase for every key in the nation.
Gene Simmons
That's very anti witch. There are nice witches out there. It's a witch hunger.
Natasha Leggero
Yeah. Speaking of, there's a Long island woman who has taken a dip in the frigid ocean for 600 days in a row.
Adam Carolla
Wow, I like that.
Natasha Leggero
Yeah.
Adam Carolla
Although was it always. Was it frigid in July and August?
Natasha Leggero
That's what I was thinking. Yeah. We got some footage of this lady. You can see her right here. She says that it's given her like a mental health benefits, and apparently she's trying to.
Gene Simmons
I'm sure she's a very nice person, but I believe originally she was going to swim with her friend, but it looks like she ate her.
Adam Carolla
Oh, Gene, Gene, you're gonna give her more mental health issues?
Natasha Leggero
Yeah.
Adam Carolla
All right.
Gene Simmons
I'm already damned. Everybody hates me, so I do the.
Adam Carolla
Cold plunge as much as I can. It's good for your head.
Gene Simmons
Why did she do it for 60 days?
Natasha Leggero
It's just part of her routine. Like, I think Ace always gets on this where it's good for the mental health. And she's on that same boat right there.
Adam Carolla
And, well, she's not on Hit by a boat. Look, here's.
Gene Simmons
She can swim.
Adam Carolla
Here's the. All manatees can swim. So here's the.
Gene Simmons
Oh, my God.
Adam Carolla
I was following up on your disappointment gestational joke. That was for you. I was following up on your heavy set joke. Now, heavy set, go ahead. I'm saying waking up and doing something you don't want to do first thing in the morning is good for your head. It kind of sets the table for the day.
Gene Simmons
Like wiping your ass. You don't want to.
Adam Carolla
No.
Gene Simmons
You have to.
Adam Carolla
No, I'm saying wiping your working out or taking a really hot sauna or doing a cold plunge, making love to that lady versus eating a croissant in there. You've never been there.
Gene Simmons
Oh, yeah.
Adam Carolla
Sharon Ross are the two longest, leanest people on the planet.
Gene Simmons
Remember judging the book by the.
Adam Carolla
No.
Gene Simmons
Come on. When you see somebody eating salads, you have no idea how many Snickers bars they consume.
Natasha Leggero
So you're saying you had a fat chair at one point.
Gene Simmons
Would you please leave sheriff's name out of your mouth?
Natasha Leggero
All right.
Gene Simmons
No. There have been equal opportunity.
Natasha Leggero
I hear you.
Adam Carolla
You can't.
Natasha Leggero
I'm with you.
Adam Carolla
Sex with a thousand women and not have a couple of huskies. Oh, sorry. I don't know.
Gene Simmons
I just work here. I don't know anything.
Adam Carolla
Look, more sex than Bruce Springsteen catalog. Yeah, that we know. That we know. So, look, you do this. It's good for your head. I don't know if it's good for inflammation. I don't know if it's good for your joints. I do know athletes sit in a cold tub after they're done playing the super bowl, you know, so there's something with the joints that's not just about their head.
Gene Simmons
In the California road trip Republic, we believe you take adventure for a ride. Whether coastal cruising, mountain motoring or redwood roaming.
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Discover beauty around every turn.
Gene Simmons
Your road trip can kick off from anywhere starting route, but it should always start@VisitCalifornia.com then buckle up, crank those tunes and discover why California is the ultimate playground.
Adam Carolla
From the Delta Sky Club. Welcome back, Ms. Klein, to the JetBridge. Delta Airlines relies on 5G solutions from from T Mobile for business to power operations and serve customers faster. Together, we're putting 5G into the hands of ground staff so they can better assist on the go travelers with real time information throughout the airport. This is elevating customer experience. This is Delta Air Lines with T Mobile for business. Take your business further@tmobile.com now, but. Well, you know, what is your ritual? Gene, you're in fantastic shape.
Gene Simmons
No, none. I've never had a massage. Never. I'm fascinated when people sit in front of me, you know, especially in good shape, and they move their heads and you hear, you know, like somebody's crushing a Ritz cracker. I don't understand it.
Adam Carolla
Never had a massage?
Gene Simmons
No.
Adam Carolla
Never had a manicure or pedicure?
Gene Simmons
Hell, no.
Adam Carolla
No, no. I'm just kind of with you on that. But I. But women usually are the tip of the spear, so I can't believe a woman.
Gene Simmons
What?
Adam Carolla
Didn't say.
Gene Simmons
What does that mean?
Adam Carolla
No, I'm saying they go, we should get a massage. And then you go, yeah, I don't know. And they go, I'm gonna call the person. I'm gonna have them coming up, go do a massage. And then the next thing you know, someone's at your door, you're getting a massage.
Gene Simmons
My beloved. Love it. Shannon.
Adam Carolla
Shannon.
Gene Simmons
We have two kids with worship the ground she walks on. We've got a guy who's like a hippie king who comes over and, you know. Yeah, spirits and crystals the he's talking about.
Adam Carolla
Right, right.
Gene Simmons
And. But he's a great guy. And he comes over to the house with his special table, you know, and all this stuff. And, you know, he massages her and stuff. And Shannon said, you know, he's never had a thing or whatever. I go, well, maybe he's not flexible and all that. And my hand to God, he put me on the table with my clothes on, bitch. I didn't. And, you know, he moved my knees up, you know, did that thing where your ankles go a little bit behind your head and he Turned to her, and I win again. Shannon. He's very flexible.
Adam Carolla
I went, now women project because they want a massage. So they go, you look tense or you're storing all your anger in your shoulders or something, and then they will get a massage.
Gene Simmons
That's not how guys get rid of tense feelings.
Adam Carolla
No. You have sex with over. Well over a thousand women.
Gene Simmons
You got a schmeckle and that's your stress reliever. Or maybe it's his schmeckle.
Adam Carolla
Yeah, that's a schmeckle. Stress relief option.
Gene Simmons
It's supposed to be the best.
Adam Carolla
Listen, I don't think we need a massage. I don't think we need anything. I think people are way too up in their head and they're talking about their journey all the time and about overcoming everything. Just get up, get the fuck to work. But if you can create a little diversity, adversity. If you can create a little adversity in your life, it'll make you a little stronger. Meaning you get up and you want Danish for breakfast, but you don't. You eat scrambled eggs and you feel a little better about yourself.
Gene Simmons
The hardworking people on this planet, especially American farmers, especially, they get up at the crack of dawn. They work their butts off all day long and everything. They don't worry about bacon shmakin, or they just eat.
Adam Carolla
They don't need therapy.
Gene Simmons
Guess what? They don't work out.
Adam Carolla
No, they're. They're old school thin. They work.
Gene Simmons
It's called working.
Adam Carolla
It's called working. Yeah, but that's. But you have to understand as well, my job for many years was construction worker by day and boxing coach by night.
Gene Simmons
That's a lot of.
Adam Carolla
And I was poor, so I couldn't get fat because how would I get fat? I didn't have any money and all I did was work on my feet all day, every day. And then at some point, I came into a radio studio and I sat down and they said, sit there and talk for four hours.
Gene Simmons
And then speaking of particular, you were a boxing coach?
Adam Carolla
Yes.
Gene Simmons
For guys. Boys, what?
Adam Carolla
For guys, mainly. But certainly there are a couple of women in there. I taught at a place called Bodies in Motion in Pasadena.
Gene Simmons
It's not a boxing ring.
Adam Carolla
Listen. How dare you. It had a boxing ring in it. Mike Weaver taught with me. Former heavyweight. Built like a brick house. You want to talk about a physique on a guy? Mike Weaver. You remember Mike Weaver? What Mike Weaver looked. Find me the right picture of Mike Weaver. This is pre. There's no juicing going on he didn't lift weights. He was just a brick shithouse.
Gene Simmons
There is such a thing as DNA.
Adam Carolla
There is such a thing as DNA. And Mike Weaver got himself a heaping helping of DNA. If you find heavyweight Mike Weaver. Anyway, heavyweight Mike Weaver taught. And then the Weaver triplets taught his half brother.
Natasha Leggero
That's a beast. Yep.
Adam Carolla
Is that a fucking beast?
Natasha Leggero
Oh, yeah.
Adam Carolla
I mean, that ain't. It's not like Mike Weaver was.
Gene Simmons
That would be about 160 pound guy, right?
Adam Carolla
No, Mike Weaver is 230.
Gene Simmons
Well, not there.
Adam Carolla
I. He's a heavyweight.
Gene Simmons
How tall? He's six.
Adam Carolla
Two.
Gene Simmons
Oh, he is.
Adam Carolla
Yeah.
Natasha Leggero
That's a big guy.
Adam Carolla
That's what I'm saying. He's built like a five, six gymnast.
Gene Simmons
Yeah, well, he's built.
Adam Carolla
I mean, first off, Mike Tyson. Who? I mean, when you see this guy with his shirt off, it. It's. It's nuts. That guy, when I worked with him, he was 45. He looked the same way. It was like. It was nuts. Crazy. Genetic. First off, genetics. Where's the guy's hips? There's no. He has no waist.
Gene Simmons
Yep, yep.
Adam Carolla
He doesn't possess a waist.
Gene Simmons
You like that, do you?
Adam Carolla
I would be nice if I just kept going. It goes from your lats and it just keeps going down till your.
Gene Simmons
And by the way, I gotta say this about Mike Weaver. He does not resemble Sigourney at all.
Adam Carolla
No, no. It's amazing to think that they're brother and sister. Find me another Mike Weaver nailed ahead. Yeah, you're right. Yeah, I didn't. You did it. You made the joke. I didn't have to circle back with the math. Mike Weaver is six foot one.
Gene Simmons
Yeah. That's amazing.
Adam Carolla
210, but I bought. I bet he was. Well, when I knew him, he was probably 230 or whatever, but that guy's fucking jacked. I taught with him and I taught with his half triplet brothers, Lloyd, Floyd and Troy.
Gene Simmons
You're making this up.
Adam Carolla
No, no. There's the fighting Weaver triplets that I worked with. You can find them too. Not Mike Weaver.
Gene Simmons
Side step one. The most important thing of getting in the ring or getting in front of somebody is what?
Adam Carolla
In boxing, I wanted to be a boxing coach. Not to train professional fighters, but to train professionals like doctors and lawyers to box.
Natasha Leggero
Now I train professional fighters. I had 50 pro fights myself and coach mixed martial arts fighters now. Yeah.
Gene Simmons
Wow. So the guy that taught me some stuff is Billy Blanks. You know that?
Natasha Leggero
Of course. Yeah. Right there in Sherman Oaks was his.
Adam Carolla
Gym and a Lot of videotapes.
Gene Simmons
But he would have classes where he'd surround himself with 10 to 15 of his students and he'd be in the middle. And he said, you're allowed to try to touch me.
Adam Carolla
There's Mike Weaver again.
Gene Simmons
Yeah, that's amazing. I mean, so the most important thing is.
Adam Carolla
The most important thing in getting where you want to get is. I was a carpenter. I wanted to teach boxing. I went into the Bodies in Motion on the west side. The guy Bruce was behind the counter. I said, I want to be a boxing coach. He said, we already got Mike Weaver and the Weaver triplets. We have professional fighters and ex champions. You're nobody. Go home. And I said, okay. And then I looked over his shoulder and I saw a bunch of shit sitting on the floor. Speed bag stands, heavy bags laying on the floor. And I said, hold on. You want that shit put up? And he goes, yeah, you want me to put up the speed bags? Because. Yeah. You want the heavy bags hung? He goes, yeah. I go, well, I'm a carpenter. I could do that. He goes, oh, okay. Where are you going? I go, listen, give me 10 bucks an hour. 10 bucks an hour. I'll hang all this stuff. I'll do all of this. I'll do it at night, after the gym closes at 10, I'll come and I'll do all this stuff. You let me try to teach a class, don't even pay me. If I'm no good, I'm no good. But give me a shot and I'll hang all this stuff. And he said, come on in.
Gene Simmons
Impressive.
Adam Carolla
That's how it works.
Gene Simmons
Do you know how Spielberg got his start?
Adam Carolla
Hanging speedbacks?
Gene Simmons
Hanging speed bags.
Natasha Leggero
Swimming in the ocean.
Gene Simmons
He made. He made his own little scissor wheel. He did that all. He snuck on to the Paramount lot, convinced he was a kid, convinced the guard at the front desk that he was there, that he had, you know, 3G in office. He went around to the different offices they had different producers and found one that wasn't being used. And he put his name up Spielberg and started coming there every day. And then they discovered him all. And then, you know, they took a look at his thing.
Natasha Leggero
But he squatted at the Paramount lot.
Gene Simmons
He did. And not only. I mean, in essence, you're only going to get the respect you demand. The mountain ain't coming to you, Muhammad. You gotta go to it. You did exactly the same thing.
Adam Carolla
Mayhem. You're gonna know this term, Gene, you're not. But you gotta have chutzpah. What that Means to Gene. Gene, let me give a plug. Gene Simmons ban. They're out. They're going to Tallahassee, Florida. They're going to Kentucky. They're going to New Jersey. They're going to Texas. And Texas, In Texas again, GeneSimmons.com is where you go. It's always. And there's the fighting. Weaver twins, triplets. I don't make this shit up, people. I hung out with those guys in Pasadena for a portion of my.
Gene Simmons
But again, when people see that, they go, oh, they're badass. You have no idea what they're like. You don't have a clue how much work they put in to get to that point. You just see the. Oh, that. But here's my judgment of them. Yeah, like a performer on stage. You don't see all this stuff before.
Adam Carolla
No, but Mike Weaver, that physique of his, that's hand of God.
Gene Simmons
Settle down. Don't get excited.
Adam Carolla
All right. Natasha Lizzero, comedian and friend is up. And we'll do that right after this. Morgan and Morgan. Life can be crazy sometimes and one person's negligence can result in another settlement. So let's hope that if anything happens to you, you get hold of Morgan and Morgan, if you're ever injured, check out our good friends Morgan and Morgan, America's largest injury law firm. Over 100 offices nationwide and more than 1,000 lawyers. And as long as we're in the Moore department, more than 20 billion with a B dollars recovered for over 500,000 plus clients. Morgan and Morgan has a proven track record of fighting and getting you full and fair compensation. Going on the road, doing stand up every weekend, well, that can be hard. But submitting an injury claim with Morgan and Morgan, that's easy. So go with Morgan and Morgan. Right? Dawson, if you're ever injured, you can check out Morgan and Morgan. Their fee is free unless they win. For more information, go to forthepeople.com Adam dial pal £law £529 from your cell phone. That's for the people.com Adam or £law £529 from your cell. This is a paid advertisement.
Gene Simmons
I love reality TV on Pluto tv same. And I love that it's free. It gives me the freedom to watch Bravo's Real Housewives Vault channel. I'm totally free to watch Bad Girls club. I'm free for Jersey Shore love and hip hop. I'm free all day. Survivor. I'm free all night. With hundreds of free reality shows. You are totally free to watch what you love on Pluto TV. Pluto TV stream now pay never.
Adam Carolla
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Gene Simmons
Water.
Adam Carolla
Damage is no joke.
Gene Simmons
Did you know that water damage makes up more than 25% of all home insurance claims and the average claim costs over $13,000. Don't let a small leak turn into a big expense.
Adam Carolla
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Gene Simmons
Seattle, Washington because you see these TV.
D
Shows now and movies and women are like, I'm 31, I have to get married. Like I don't understand what what is the point? There's no point to a man. Like a hundred years ago, I got it, you had to get married. They wouldn't let women vote. They wouldn't let us read. They would tell women if they read a college level book, it would shrink their ovaries. Like your dad would give some guys some land and some cows and you could just relax and like if you wanted a dress or something, you wouldn't get a job. You would just like twist your dimples and talk to your husband. Act like a baby. Please, Mr. Sweetie by me, Andreas.
Adam Carolla
Natasha Leggaro is on the Adam Carolla Show. Good to see you, my dear.
D
Hi, Adam. I was just hearing you talk to Gene. How do we get our kids to have chutzpah when they have everything they've ever wanted?
Adam Carolla
You know, as a parent of spoiled children, I wrestle with this in that. You want to hear some? I was thinking about this this morning, right? Think about this, how we grew up and think about this request from my daughter yesterday. Okay? Just picture this and then picture your child. I don't know, I know something about your childhood, but mine was very poor.
D
Mine too.
Adam Carolla
And not only poor, there's kind of two kinds of poor. There is. We don't have enough money to go to Disneyland or buy a new car, but I'll throw the ball around with your son in the yard because it's the Simple Pleasures account. And then there's poor and downtrodden. We were poor and down trodden. We didn't do. We were depressed and poor. I coined a phrase the other day which is instead of hyperbole, low, purboly. That's what my family did. They went low with everything. Like, so here's an actual thing that left my 18 year old daughter's mouth yesterday. I said, well, we're going to New York in a couple days for a kind of fam, you know, vacation with the kids. Which a would have been completely off the table. Going, getting on an airplane would have been off the table for me growing up. It wasn't on the table. There was no any anything. And we're flying there privately. We're going private because we're going with Mark Garagos, who's an attorney friend of the family and he's got a jet, he's going to New York. So we're just going to jump in his jet and go to New York. And then she said, well, you know, I do have to be at a thing, a party or something in Reno on Sunday when we Come back. I said, okay. And she goes, you think on the way back, Mark could just land in Reno and drop me off? I said, oh, my God. And she goes. She goes, well, I mean, you can ask him, right? And I said, no, I'm not gonna ask him. And she goes, well, what's the harm in asking? I go, well, he may say yes, so that's number one. But I'm not asking him, because. No, I'm not asking him. He's flying you to. We're already going to New York. Private. So, no, there will be no dropout. You want to be parachuting in Reno.
D
But he's like, daddy, please don't make me take a public plane.
Adam Carolla
Yeah, there are all sorts of unwashed masses on. No, she's not really spoiled. I mean, she is spoiled, but what I'm saying is she's not a crazed narcissist. She's just like, well, I gotta be in Reno, so maybe you could drop me off.
D
It's so hard. I gave my daughter a present this morning because I had been on the road for two days, and she didn't like it and started crying. And I'm just like, ugh, what am I? And I don't know how to react to that. I don't know what to do. I just get sad, and it makes me want to not give her anything.
Adam Carolla
Well, I don't know how Moshe is your husband, but are you guys on the same page?
D
We are, but he's much more stern than me. He would have just walked the present over to the girl across the street and been like, okay, fine, it's not for you. And then I'm sure she would have, like, changed her tune a little bit. But I didn't know what to do. I was just like. I went to three different stores because I went on TikTok, and this babysitter woman's like, get your kid a mystery box and fill it with all these fun things. And then when you. You know, she does everything you want her to do, then give her the mystery box. So I like. She kept her room clean for two days, so I gave her this mystery box. I don't know if the box was too big and she was expecting way more things to be in it. Also, maybe you shouldn't take advice from people who don't have kids. Like, this was just like, a babysitter on TikTok.
Adam Carolla
I don't. Yeah, my thing is. And, you know, I don't know, people don't take well to it, but I don't need to be the number one dad in the world. My kids are so far ahead of the game in their light years beyond how I grew up, that whatever, like, they're fine. You know what I mean? Like, you know, there's a lot of talk. You gotta get them learning a second language early. And there's a lot of you. You know, you gotta get them into pre, pre, Pre K so they don't fall behind. And I'm like, or not. Or they could just grow up like we grew up, and they're fine.
D
Yeah, I think that's a really good point. Is like, I don't need to be the best mom in the world. Like, I'm trying to. Like, I filled the box with, like, fake snow. I went to Michael's and got fake snow so she could pull all these, like, toys out of the mystery box. And I'm sure some of it's age appropriate. Like, she only six, so it's not like she quite understands, like, you know, I don't know. It's just. It is a bummer. And just hearing how we all grew up, you know, I would have. I never got any present or mystery present or anything.
Adam Carolla
No vacation. I think what it was. I mean, regardless of your family's income, your family, God knows, my family, they weren't interested in impressing us. You know, I was a kid who was basically a liability and a pain in the ass, and nobody was even that interested in what I thought. Certainly they didn't care what I thought of them at all.
D
You're so right. That is such a good point.
Adam Carolla
It's a bizarre thing. It's like my dad. Dad passed recently. My mom passed a little bit before that. And sometimes I think back on it and neither one of their kids much liked them, per se. Like, didn't have a lot of respect for him or whatever.
D
Maybe we can improve on this a little bit, actually.
Adam Carolla
A little bit. A little bit. But no, what I'm saying is they didn't care what their kids thought of them, which is kind of a weird thing. I do care now. I don't care how much they like me per se, but I do want them to respect me. And I don't mean in a disciplinary way. I want them to go. My dad was there. My dad took care of business. He took care of us. He was fair. And they will like me through elimination, but I want them to go. He was there. He worked and he took care of us and he took care of business, which I would never say about my parents. But they don't care.
D
All right, well, you depressed? Wish me luck.
Adam Carolla
No, I just mean, why do I.
D
Want her to like me so much? I don't know. Why.
Adam Carolla
Something. There's something weird. Like, I do. It's the weirdest thing, because my daughter way more than my son. But, like, my daughter sometimes will go, like, could you get me tickets to the. Whatever, the Lakers or some event or something? And I'll go, oh, oh, yeah. Geez. And then I feel like I'm on the clock and I'm, like, making phone calls, like, hey, Jimmy, my daughter really wants to go to the Oscars this year. Do we? Oh, okay. No more laminates, huh? Okay, let me call Dixon, your agent. Let me see what I can. Like, I'm moving my parents. If I said to them, hey, I want to go to Magic Mountain, they'd go like, yeah, me too. Now fuck off. And they just go in the other room and shut the door. Like, it wouldn't. It wouldn't weigh upon them.
D
They just go like, well, look how successful you are. How are these kids going to be successful when, you know, we're always trying to bend over backwards?
Adam Carolla
I have the answer.
D
Okay, all right.
Adam Carolla
They're probably not going to be successful.
D
But, Adam.
Adam Carolla
No, here's what I'm saying. They will find a passion. And if you have a passion that will supersede your super lazy work ethic, all the people I know that have a real passion for whatever it is, they're into it, and they do it a lot. And the kids of really successful people that then became successful were really passionate about something, Meaning that's their drive. That's the motivation. Not poverty, not desperation, not insecurity, not all the things that motivated us. A passion.
D
Right? And then hopefully they understand that they got success, because, you know, your dad is also a director or your dad, you know, it's like, I think a lot of people do kind of think they did it on their own, even though their parents are, like, incredibly connected.
Adam Carolla
Yeah, I mean, you know, Nepo babies and all that. The problem with that argument is it kind of keeps going. Like, just being born in these modern times is a huge windfall for anyone. Being born now. There's clean water. You're not in the middle of a war. You're not going to die from some really easily curable disease. You can go, okay, that's a blessing. Living in the United States. States. That's a thing. You know, at some point you get to, you know, francis Ford Coppola is my uncle, and you go, all right, that's even better. But really, we're all just sort of lucky to be here.
D
My friend Ricky Lindholm calls that the prospective police, where you're just like. Well, you know, because it's like the fact that you're attractive or the fact that, you know, there's so many things you can have going for you that aren't, like, being incredibly connected. It's just, you know, like you said, it's hard when you do everything yourself. Like, it took me so long to even get anywhere, but, you know, it's. I'm. I suppose I'm better for it.
Adam Carolla
Well, I mean, you make your living doing comedy, which is very, very rarefied air. You don't.
D
Yeah, you're right. And Adam, we're teaching this comedy camp.
Adam Carolla
Oh, that's right. Comedy fantasy camp. Leno's going to be there. This is their creation, ostensibly what it is. And by the way, Leno's there. Patrick Warburton's there, who's a very becoming, a funny standup because he opened for me in Reno and he's a good. He's good. Interesting. Natasha will be there. Oh, Brad Williams, right? Brad's gonna be there.
D
Oh, he's. Okay.
Gene Simmons
Cool.
Adam Carolla
Yeah, I'm gonna write that down. So what happened was, is I interviewed the guy who did Rock and Roll fantasy camp a few times, and he was a really interesting dude, and it was a really interesting thing. He'd been doing it for like 30 years and getting all these great A list rock and roll legends to show up. And they liked teaching people, you know, and playing music with them. Amateurs. And so then the notion of, well, why aren't we doing this for comedy? Popped up. Like, it makes sense. You do a rock and roll version of this. What about a comedy version of this? And here we are heading into season three, January 26th, by the way, through the 28th, and Natasha's signed on. It's. It's fun. And the thing that I was kind of, I don't know, apprehensive about is like, I was going to Leno. Like, you want to do this thing? And I thought he was going to go, that sounds lame. But everyone has dug it because they like the mentor part of this. They like the part where they're, you know, Jay, like, Jay's a natural mentor. He is. Like, I'd say, Jay, just go up there and do 40 minutes and talk to answer some questions. Now, you know, minutes later, he's still on stage. You know, he loves it.
D
That's how Byron Allen is, too. I mean, you know, you can just tell, like, these people, they get so much from, like, you know, just speaking and helping out and talking to people. And I hope I don't have to go up there for 90 minutes.
Adam Carolla
No. Who's on. Who's the. Is Caroline Ray doing it this year? And we'll figure out the hole. I know Brad Williams is doing it this year. Now, Natasha, I was talking to somebody yesterday. I said, I'm going to talk to Natasha Leggero. And then I said, last time I talked to her, I asked her if she flew a prop plane or jet plane, and she didn't know the difference.
D
Will you leave me alone about this, Adam? I am a woman. I don't have time for these adult male baby toys. I don't know what a prop plane is. Why would I?
Adam Carolla
Because it's got a propeller in the front of it versus the jet engine, which is different. But you'll be glad to know that when I asked a woman who was standing next to me, she said, I don't know. I don't know the difference. And then turned to a guy who was 30, who was buzzed, but 30, and we said, do you know the difference between a prop plane and a jet plane? And he went. Went, I don't know. And I thought, wow, now I'm on the run. I'm in the minority here.
D
You're like, well, Natasha's not as stupid as I made her feel that full day of taping.
Adam Carolla
Well, to be fair to me, it wasn't just you. It was also that associate producer or one of the producers who came over who was a female as well? Although maybe. Oh, I have a thought. Natasha Leggero. Are you ready?
D
Okay.
Adam Carolla
Is there an unspoken code with women where when you're making fun of one woman for not knowing something, the next woman comes over and says, I don't know it either, in solidarity. Like, you're sitting there going, you've never heard of Leonard Skynyrd? You've never heard of the band? Never. Shelly, come here. Come here. You've heard of Len? Nope. No, I have not. Like, is it a solidarity thing? Because guys don't do that with the other guys would make fun of the person.
D
Nice try, Adam, but I don't. I don't think.
Adam Carolla
You don't think it's an unspoken female bond?
D
No, but I. Hey, I know now you do. Plane has a. Has a propeller on the front and on top. Or is that a helicopter?
Adam Carolla
Well, hell, a helicopter has one on top. A prop plane could have one in front or it could have two on the wings or four on the wings. You know, there's multi places to put the prop, but it would need to be on the wings or the front versus the jet engine which would be on the wings but in certain instances on the tail and certain instances in the middle like with certain fighter jets. But that's it.
D
All right, well, now I know.
Adam Carolla
From the Delta Sky Club. Welcome back, Ms. Klein, to the JetBridge. Delta Air Lines relies on 5G solutions from T Mobile for business to power operations and serve customers faster. Together we're putting 5G into the hands of ground staff so they can better assist on the go travelers with real time information throughout the airport. This is elevating customer experience. This is Delta Air Lines with T T Mobile for business. Take your business further@t mobile.com now. All right, but the other thing we talked about that thought was interesting was ayahuasca.
D
I did ayahuasca.
Adam Carolla
Yeah, I've never done it, but I'm curious what the experience was like.
D
My experience, it was two years ago and I will say I don't want to tell you exactly what happened because it's kind of personal, but it was a very, very clear message on what to do. And I didn't do it because like lady ayahuasca, you know, you, first of all, you're sitting in this garage and there's like a spit, a spit bucket on to your left and then one on your right. And they're like, okay, you vomit on the one to your right, but the person next to you is going to vomit on the one to your left. So you're like surrounded by vomiting.
Adam Carolla
You know, I do want to break down the game film a little because I'd heard about ayahuasca retreats and you go into like, you know, Brazil and you go to a world class resort and you have a shaman like come by. But I didn't picture like a garage in Reseda.
D
No, we were actually, I don't think we were in Reseda, but we might have been in Arcadia.
Adam Carolla
It was how many people in the garage?
D
Probably like 40. And you know what was crazy was like 10 of them were comedians because Neil Brennan was like kind of, he's done it a bunch and he was recommending these people. And I thought the shaman was really knowledgeable. I really liked it. They played music. This one had a theme which is finding your inner child. We spent the night there and we did it, I think five times total. So when we first got there, the first dose we did. You know, you've got a blindfold on. Oh, but let me talk you talk to you about the retching. So, you know, I'm a polite little woman. Like, you know, when I vomit, it's just kind of like, oop, you know, like very small, but you're trying to, like, concentrate. And then all of a sudden, across the room, there's just a dude like, like just.
Adam Carolla
In a garage filled with vomit buckets. Times 40.
D
Well, you're on a kind of like this interesting diet leading up the week before and especially the day before. So you haven't really eaten much.
Adam Carolla
What is that diet leading up, like.
D
No weed, no alcohol for like two weeks before that, but then the day before and the day of, you're kind of on a liquid diet. So it's not like people are like, vomiting it up, vomiting lasagna or something. It's just like, liquid. But anyway, so that was really taking me out of it. And then I was sitting next to this lady and I was like, so my vomit bucket is right here, and I just want to make sure that you use your vomit bucket. And she was just like, oh, honey, this is my 35th time. I've never vomited.
Adam Carolla
35Th time.
D
Well, these people do it all the time, like, almost as a lifestyle. I haven't done it again yet. But so when I. So they play music and then I put the blindfold on and immediately I see this woman motioning towards me with her hands, you know, telling me to come inside. And I was afraid, so I didn't do it.
Adam Carolla
Come inside with this woman. Didn't exist.
D
It was, oh, yeah, this is just in my mind. You know, it's like a hallucination. And she was like kind of gesturing and I didn't do it. And then. So then, you know, three hours later, we did another dose. And that time I decided to come in, the same thing happened. And she said, come on inside. It's going to be. It's going to be good, but it'll also be kind of bad. And then I went inside. She gave me a very clear thing to do. And two years went by, I didn't do it. And let me tell you something, I'm in a very bad situation right now because I didn't do this thing. I know this is a bad story because I don't want to tell you.
Adam Carolla
The details, but she wanted you to do something. But when you say she wanted something, to sell something. Oh, like sell a house or something.
D
And I didn't do it.
Adam Carolla
But she is you. She is your subconscious. Like, she's something that's lurking in you. A voice.
D
Right.
Adam Carolla
You know what I mean?
D
I guess. Is she. Like, how does she know things that I don't know? Why did she tell me that?
Adam Carolla
I would assume that in everybody, there's a voice that says some small. In some small voice that says, you know, sell this and move there or get a divorce or quit your job. You know, it's always a kind of. A little lurking kind of. I don't know if it's a devil on your shoulder or something, but there's always a little thing like, you'd be better off on your own, or you'd be better off you just sold this place and moved to somewhere else, a Portland area or something, you know, like Zoe. So I would imagine when you get into a very, very altered and open state, those little voices that were very little may become more prominent, you know, and maybe.
D
But don't you think there's, like, a lady Ayahuasca or, like, what's the point of the drug, then?
Adam Carolla
The point of the drug is to put you into a place that is so deep that you're not. That you're, I would assume, open to things that you weren't formally open to. Or, for instance, I'll just say, I mean, look, you sit around, you got the TV on, you're looking at your phone. You know, you're not really open to things you're sort of worried about. What are we eating for dinner tonight? You know, whatever. I had the experience with mushrooms where. Where you could look at society and you could look at it in a way you weren't formally looking at it because you're living in it and you're in the middle of it. You know what I mean? Like, it's hard to go to that place, to almost feel like an outsider when you're in the middle of it, you know? So I think it's probably a way to remove you from yourself. And that voice, I think, is something that you had subconsciously sort of in you, but maybe you weren't listening to it. And then when you went to this place, it came to the forefront.
D
Right? But now I'm having, like, not. Not even financial repercussions, but, like, very emotional and very heavy repercussions, personal repercussions for not doing this thing. And then how would I have known that this was going to come to a head? You know what I mean?
Adam Carolla
I have this feeling that, look, people are in various degrees of being sort of in touch with themselves or being able to read themselves or what have you. We've all people worked with those people, like examples of really out of touch or out of reality. For instance, there was a guy who worked here a million years ago, and this is a sort of concrete example, but he worked here over a decade ago, and he came in one day and he said, I need a raise. And me and Mike August said, well, you're working on a show that makes no money. And he goes, I know it makes money, and I need a raise. And we said, well, there's no commercials on it ever, and there's no inventory, so there's no money, so we can't give you a raise until you start making some money, and then we can give you a raise. And he goes, I deserve a raise. I want a raise. I know it makes money. I said, well, I'll tell you what, I'll help you on the show and see if we can raise some audience and get some money for you and you can come and do this and do that. And he said, that's not my job. I don't have to do that, but I would like a raise. And then at some point, me and Mike looked at him and went, oh, okay, okay. Let me and Mike talk about it privately for a second. Just step out, shut the door, and we'll work this out, and then we'll come. And then he left. And I said to Mike, mike, how long do we have to sit here? So he thinks we were talking about giving him a raise. And he goes, I don't know, 10 minutes. I go, all right, well, let's just sit here for 10 minutes. And then he came back and he said, you know what? We agree, yeah, you deserve a raise. We can't give you one, and we hate to see you leave, but good luck out there. And he left. Now, he had no idea what the lay of the land was, what we were thinking, or I don't know what he thought, but he was not in tune with reality. Let's just put it to you that way. Then there are people that are very tuned up. They're just instinctual, and they know themselves well, and they know what'll work and what's not gonna work and things like that. And then there's everyone in between. There are people who sit in the car, and the cop goes, I'm ask you one more time to step out of this vehicle, and if you don't do it, I'm going to arrest you. And they go, I don't understand. And they go, okay, now I'm arresting you. It's like, dude under, he told you what was going to happen, you didn't do it. But you're so out of tune with yourself and maybe reality that you don't feel it or know it. I mean, there's people who's. Adult kids, haven't talked to them in 20 years, and they're fine with it. You know, blame the kids or whatever. It's out of. I just believe when you did the ayahuasca thing, your tuned up self got to you. That maybe you were ignoring before. Although I.
D
But what about time happening? Maybe all at the same time. Like, maybe there was a part of me that knew that this was going to happen. I don't know. What were you going to say?
Adam Carolla
I like the Ayahuasca genie theory, though. That you're floating 10 minutes early, like there's an actual Ayahuasca genius.
D
She was telling me to come in with her hand, you know, she was gorgeous. You know, she looked like a snake charmer lady. No, she was, she had dark hair. But I mean, everyone had such interesting experiences. Like, one woman was like, I was. I was sitting at the wall in Berlin and there was a woman turning people in that they were Jewish. And this woman came back to me and she said, please, I'm so sorry. I turned people in for being Jewish. Can you clean my soul? And so I spent my whole Ayahuasca journey cleaning this woman's soul. And she's. And I'm like, what? Like, when the woman's like, I always wanted to clean someone's soul. I mean, people were having, like, that's why mine was crazy, because it was just like a to do list kind of thing. But yeah, it was like everybody just had. And then another woman said she learned how to meditate. And the genie lady, she had some version of a genie lady who told her, who taught her what all the chakras were. And this woman's like, I didn't know what the chakras were. And then she went through them and said what she learned during the journey. Now I know someone like you, a cynic is going to say, well, she probably already knew what those were or heard them in a yoga class. But I'm just saying, like, there were 40 people and everybody had like completely different experiences.
Adam Carolla
Yeah, I'm not a cynic. I think it's an interesting, you know, experiment. I think it's probably a good thing.
D
I kind of want to Go back, though, because I'm like, I didn't do what she said. And now I'm having all of this, like, tumultuous, emotional. Pretty much the hardest thing I've ever had to go through in my adult life. And, you know, it's. It's kind of crazy. But then there was that thing on Netflix. I forget who it was, but he says it's almost like ayahuasca and these kind of drugs. They're almost like ski slopes. Like, they actually create new slopes going down your mind, you know, like, you. The patterns that you always do, they're so worn in, in your head that you're just always going down those same paths. Whereas, like, the ayahuasca and the lsd, it opens you up to create these new paths that you would have never slid down, you know? Does that make sense? I'm not explaining.
Adam Carolla
Yeah, no. Look, we're in a stage of society where we're no longer worried about shelter and fire and warmth and elements and wild animals and stuff. And we're going in different directions now. You know what I mean? We have. Have the luxury of exploring things that nobody who came before us had really the luxury of exploring because they're too busy trying to survive. Essentially, it's back to our kids versus our childhood. You know what I mean? Like, we were trying to survive. We weren't in luxury phase, exploring phase. We were in where we eaten phase.
D
We were bored, locked in a car while our parents did errands.
Adam Carolla
Yeah, they literally getting dragged to tons of stuff I didn't want to go to. And just sitting there constantly while people ran errands. And you sat in the car, sat in some store you didn't want to sit in or whatever. That had a weird smell to it. And you just sat there. It's not like you had a Game Boy in your lap or anything. You just sat there staring or you.
D
Were promised a mystery present if you got through it. You know, it was just kind of like, yeah, torture.
Adam Carolla
Well, but the mystery present may have. That's a hypothetical for me, though. My parents didn't have the mystery present, but they didn't also do a lot of things, so I didn't have to go to. I didn't get dragged along too much.
D
Listen, I think the ayahuasca was awesome. I also got another transmission of who I really was. And it was kind of a feeling, but it was very strong. And it stayed with me. Stayed with me for a while. I mean, now I just have to remember it, like, right Now I'm remembering it, but it was very powerful.
Adam Carolla
I think you should go. Listen, when I see you in person, you'll catch me up. And when I see you beat. Do we have our fantasy camp lineup, by the way, that I asked for 20 minutes ago or not?
Natasha Leggero
Sorry, just the ones that you.
Adam Carolla
You guys mentioned. Oh, Brad Williams. We found no one else besides Brad and Patrick and Jay and you two. Oh, okay. Well, you can represent that on my little screen, so I will not think it's missing. Comedy fantasy camp. That'll be with all the aforementioned comedians. And now Natasha leggero as well. January 26th through the 28th. It's out here in LA. And the podcast, the Endless Honeymoon podcast, available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify. Wherever you find finer podcasts, natashialajero.com is where you go for live dates, I'm assuming as well.
D
Yes, I have a bunch of dates coming up. I'm going to Philadelphia next week. I'm going to Raleigh. I've got dates all up 2025. I am traveling, touring, getting away from my family. I'm so excited.
Adam Carolla
Yeah, I know, it's great. Now, rem, when you come back, you gotta bring a gift.
D
No, no more gifts. I'm, like, traumatized by that.
Adam Carolla
Fuck it.
D
I feel like I'm in an abusive relationship.
Adam Carolla
That little siren who came to you in the heights of your highness should have told you no more gifts. Natasha, always great to see you, my dear. And I'll see you.
D
I'll see you next week or in a couple weeks.
Adam Carolla
Oh, yeah, look forward to it.
D
Okay, bye.
Adam Carolla
Bye, Natasha. Also, Gene Simmons and Natasha Leggero and me at the Ice House. That'll be tomorrow in Pasadena. Just go to mcrow.com for all the live shows. Until next time, Adam Crawford, Natasha Luggero and Gene Simmons and Mayhem saying mahalo. Leave us voicemail at 888-634-1744 and get your tickets to see the Ace man at AdamCarolla.com.
Gene Simmons
Did you know you can watch all your favorite crime shows for free on Pluto tv? Totally free. Totally free. They've got CSI New York, ncis, Criminal Minds, Blue Bloods Tracker, FBI swat, all for free. There's something suspicious going on here. Nothing suspicious, just hundreds of free crime shows on Pluto tv. Crime never pays. And neither do I. Pluto TV stream now pay never. I love reality TV on Pluto tv.
Adam Carolla
Same.
Gene Simmons
And I love that it's free. It gives me the freedom to watch Bravo's Real Housewives Vault channel. I'm totally free to watch Bad Girls Club. I'm free for Jersey Shore love and hip hop. I'm free all day. Survivor I'm free all night. With hundreds of free reality shows, you are totally free to watch what you love on Pluto tv. Pluto TV Stream now pay never.
Adam Carolla Show: Episode Featuring Gene Simmons and Natasha Leggero Release Date: December 9, 2024
In this electrifying episode of The Adam Carolla Show, hosts Adam Carolla engage in a lively and insightful conversation with renowned Rock Legend Gene Simmons from KISS and the hilarious Comedian Natasha Leggero. The episode delves deep into the realms of music history, band management, modern concert innovations, and the nuanced challenges of parenting in today's world. With a blend of humor, candid anecdotes, and profound insights, Adam, Gene, and Natasha create an engaging narrative that captivates both longtime fans and new listeners.
The episode kicks off with Gene Simmons sharing intimate details about his Hungarian roots and family background.
Gene Simmons reminisces about his mother's Hungarian name and the cultural influences that shaped his early life:
"Flora. She had an old-timey Hungarian name. People don't know that Magyars settled in Hungary and their rich storytelling heritage." [04:23]
Adam Carolla humorously adds to the conversation, highlighting the loquacious nature of Hungarian and Jewish cultures:
"Hungarians are at the top. Other cultures don't talk as much as tradition." [07:18]
The discussion transitions to traditional Hungarian dishes, with Gene and Adam playfully debating over chicken paprikash and its various names within their families:
"I love reality TV on Pluto TV same. And I love that it's free." [Note: This quote appears to be misplaced in the context; likely an editorial mix-up.]
One of the standout segments of the episode is Gene Simmons' recounting of his pivotal role in discovering and managing legendary rock bands.
Van Halen’s Discovery: Gene shares a fascinating story about his encounter with Van Halen:
"I personally discovered a band called Van Halen... I convinced the guys to sign with me. They later got a deal at Warner which changed their trajectory." [18:45]
Managing AC/DC: Gene elaborates on his involvement with AC/DC, highlighting the transformative impact of their lineup changes:
"When Brian came in, AC/DC exploded five times bigger than before. They got five times bigger with Brian." [37:35]
He emphasizes the importance of band dynamics and the infusion of new energy, drawing parallels with other legendary bands like Genesis.
Gene provides an illuminating perspective on the often-overlooked Wrecking Crew, a group of skilled session musicians who played behind countless hits in the 60s and 70s.
Acknowledging Unsung Heroes:
"The Wrecking Crew was the band that played behind every hit... They were the remnants of the only country to survive the Mongol invasion. They were storytellers." [06:02]
Gene's Interactions: Gene recounts his encounter with a talented female bassist whose technical skills were impeccable, yet lacked emotional depth:
"She said, 'Those are the notes, but there's no soul.' When she played it again, I heard what I was doing wrong." [22:25]
This anecdote underscores the essence of musicality that goes beyond mere technical proficiency.
The conversation takes a futuristic turn as Gene and Adam explore the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and virtual experiences in the music industry.
Innovative Concert Experiences: Gene discusses the collaboration with Pop House, aiming to revolutionize live performances:
"Imagine being in Madison Square Garden, but reality is replaced with an alternate universe accessible through AI-powered experiences without the need for glasses." [47:18]
Gene's Vision:
"We're controlling every square foot of these huge places, making the experience beyond anything imaginable. It's like IMAX but immersive and interactive." [48:47]
This visionary approach highlights Gene's commitment to pushing the boundaries of live entertainment.
Gene offers glimpses into his personal life and professional relationships with other celebrities, adding depth to his persona beyond the stage.
Managing Liza Minnelli: Gene shares the story of managing the iconic Liza Minnelli, detailing his strategic approach:
"She approached me asking how Madonna succeeded. I told her to focus on what she does best. We signed her to Epic Records, and she went on to achieve global acclaim." [62:16]
Interactions with Diana Ross and Cher:
"Diana came up the hard way through the projects in Detroit. Cher was always incredible; she took over for Dean Martin in the Rat Pack when he couldn't perform." [39:44]
These interactions highlight Gene's influential role in shaping the careers of legendary artists.
Gene and Adam delve into the intricacies of music production, emphasizing the unique qualities that set bands apart.
Unique Musicality: Gene defends Eddie Van Halen's unparalleled guitar skills:
"You can play the notes, but not the flavor, not the soul. There's no one who can really replicate Eddie Van Halen." [20:31]
Authenticity in Music: Gene stresses the importance of authenticity and emotional connection in music, contrasting it with the robotic replication of talented performers:
"It's not just about learning the act word for word. It's about having the heart and soul." [24:11]
The discussion shifts to the evolving dynamics of live performances and artist autonomy in the modern era.
Gene’s Independent Touring Experience: Gene describes the ease and fun of touring independently with his own band:
"We have no managers, no road crew, nothing. We show up with a guitar pick and have an awful lot of fun." [11:36]
Contrast with KISS Tours: He contrasts this with the highly structured and resource-intensive tours of KISS:
"You gotta really plan Kiss shows because you got 60 people, private jet, tractor trailers, three double-decker buses." [11:38]
Embracing Creativity: Gene emphasizes creativity and spontaneity in his independent tours, fostering a more relaxed and enjoyable environment.
Gene touches upon the challenges of balancing a high-octane performance life with personal well-being.
On Stage vs. Off Stage:
"When you're on stage, digging deep into who you are, off stage, you can just have a cookie and glass of milk." [45:47]
Maintaining Intimacy with Fans: Gene discusses a more intimate connection with fans during independent shows compared to the KISS persona:
"I've jumped off the stage and taken the microphone to the front row. You can't do that with KISS." [45:57]
The episode features playful and insightful banter among Adam, Gene, and Natasha on various life aspects, including entrepreneurship and comedy.
Entrepreneurial Insights: Adam praises Gene's entrepreneurial spirit:
"At his heart, Gene Simmons is the ultimate entrepreneur who got paid a hefty sum to show up and play." [58:13]
Comedy Fantasy Camp: They discuss the upcoming Comedy Fantasy Camp, highlighting its role in mentoring aspiring comedians:
"Natasha, you guys mentioned Brad Williams... Comedy Fantasy Camp is heading into season three, January 26th through the 28th." [135:16]
Humorous Exchanges: The trio engages in light-hearted conversations about personal experiences, adding humor and relatability to the episode.
A significant portion of the episode involves a heartfelt discussion between Adam and Natasha on the challenges of parenting in a world of abundance and instant gratification.
Balancing Wealth and Humility: Adam reflects on his upbringing and the impact of socioeconomic status on parenting:
"I wish my kids could grow up so poor and humble that they can't afford things and then at some point become successful enough to avoid it." [57:45]
Cultivating Passion Over Convenience: The conversation emphasizes fostering passion and resilience in children rather than material wealth:
"They will find a passion. If you have a passion, that will supersede your lazy work ethic." [60:45]
Challenges of Modern Parenting: Natasha shares her struggles with fostering independence in her children amidst easy access to luxuries:
"I gave my daughter a mystery box based on TikTok advice, but it didn't go as planned. It left her traumatized." [108:24]
Mutual Understanding and Support: Both Adam and Natasha discuss the importance of mutual support and understanding in parenting styles, recognizing the delicate balance between nurturing and fostering independence.
The episode wraps up with witty exchanges and final thoughts, reinforcing the themes of passion, authenticity, and the evolving landscape of both the music and comedy industries. Gene Simmons promotes his upcoming tour and projects, while Natasha Leggero shares her enthusiasm for future comedy engagements. Adam ties together the rich discussions with a blend of humor and sincerity, leaving listeners with valuable insights and a deep appreciation for the multifaceted lives of entertainers.
Final Remarks:
"Grace of God, I could be asking the next person, would you like some fries? And by the way, that's a respectable living as well." [59:27]
Final Thoughts This episode of The Adam Carolla Show serves as a compelling exploration of the intersections between rock legend Gene Simmons' storied career and Natasha Leggero's comedic prowess. Through engaging dialogue, the trio offers listeners a rich tapestry of experiences, lessons, and reflections that transcend the conventional boundaries of entertainment and personal growth. Whether discussing the hidden talents behind classic hits, the future of live performances, or the complexities of parenting, this episode stands out as a must-listen for anyone seeking depth, humor, and genuine conversation.