Gene Simmons might rock 'n' roll all nite and party every day, but he isn't like most rock stars...sort of.
The Kiss bassist is known for his wild on-stage antics (and his extremely long tongue), but he's also known for being famously alcohol and drug-free (he cites his mother as the reason) and, even more importantly, a one-woman man (well, at least he's always come back to one woman). Simmons lived the sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll lifestyle, minus the drugs, pretty faithfully, but one woman has always been his rock since 1983, Shannon Tweed Simmons.
They waited 28 years to tie the knot, and Simmons often joked that he and Tweed were "happily unmarried" and also often quoted Groucho Marx by saying, "Marriage is an institution, and I don't want to live in an institution." Now, they're locked in that institution for better or worse. Being with a rock star couldn't have been easy all these years.
Who Is Shannon Tweed?
After leaving her family's mink ranch in Canada and getting breast enhancement surgery when she was 20, Tweed started participating in beauty pageants. In 1978, she won Miss Canada.
A wish-fulfillment TV show got her a photoshoot with Playboy magazine, and she was chosen as Playmate of the Month in November 1981 and eventually Playmate of the Year in 1982.
That same year, she started her career as an actress, starring in tons of roles in TV movies and series throughout the '80s and '90s, some more raunchy than others. She starred in the HBO series 1st and Ten, the soap opera Falcon Crest, and Days of Our Lives. She has a couple of erotica films under her belt too. In fact, she's regarded as one of the most successful erotica actresses, with Vanity Fair describing her as "one of home video's most rented erotic thriller goddesses."
Following her 14-month relationship with Hugh Hefner, she met Simmons at the Playboy Mansion a year after she started acting. Simmons and Tweed started dating, but their relationship was open. They later became one of the longest-lasting relationships in rock.
But how was being The Demon's wife?
She's Collaborated A Lot With Her Husband
Of course, having Simmons as a partner for as long as Tweed has, she knows what it's like being a rockstar's wife. It must have been painful saying goodbye to him when he went on tours with Kiss throughout the '80s and '90s, but she did have her own successful career to keep her busy.
Her career definitely didn't slow down after she met Simmons, and it certainly didn't slow or stop when she had her and Simmons's children, Nick (born in 1989) and Sophie (born in 1992).
Actually, her career in showbiz only got better and better over the years. She and Simmons have collaborated on a couple of projects while she accumulated over 100 acting credits. In 1999, she and Simmons starred in the film Detroit Rock City. From 2006 to 2012, she and the rest of the rock 'n' roll family starred in their very own reality show called Gene Simmons Family Jewels, similar to The Osbournes but way less dysfunctional (it's also worth noting both wives are named Shannon as well).
When Simmons finally decided to pop the question to his long-time girlfriend and mother of his two children in 2011, the proposal and wedding were both captured on the reality show. Although Tweed said Simmons' proposal was the "most shocking moment" of her life, it also shocked viewers when they found out that the proposal episode had been filmed months before it aired. When the couple should have been happily engaged, they were actually experiencing a rough patch in their 28-year relationship. They eventually got married in a ceremony at Beverly Hills Hotel.
Outside Gene Simmons Family Jewels, Tweed had an eight-episode reality show with the couple's daughter, Sophie, called Shannon & Sophie.
Tweed has even made a video game with the help of her husband. On the video game distribution service Steam, Tweed created the game Attack of the Groupies, where players play as Tweed, fighting off a groupie infestation who are after Simmons. The premise is simple. As Tweed, you have to protect Simmons against all the groupies.
In April, the Simmons' decided to put their $25 million Los Angeles home on the market. The same home where they shot their reality TV show and raised their children. The reason for the move, Tweed said, is because they want to leave L.A. for a quieter lifestyle. Now that they're empty-nesters, they want to downgrade.
It's just the two of them, but Simmons says that Tweed is still the rock of the family, holding everyone together, even if everyone is going their separate ways.
"Shannon has always been, and continues to be, the moral compass of this family, the soul," Simmons gushed about his wife. "We're just an empty body without her. She raised these two gorgeous, amazing kids who have grown up to be wonderful human beings ... as far as I'm concerned, she is more beautiful now than ever."
Opening up to Us Weekly, Simmons confessed that Tweed has always forgiven him for his mistakes.
"In the interest of full disclosure, I have been married for more than five or six years. For 29 years … I was a jackass," Simmons said. "And it’s a family show, and I don’t wanna say anything that moved. I don’t wanna say that. And the astonishing thing about women is … I don’t know why, but you forgive our trespasses over and over, every single day. Guys wouldn’t do that."
Simmons basically worships Tweed and says he "just works here" while she continues to be the captain of it all. "I am the most blessed guy, I think, whoever walked the face of the planet." So it seems as Simmons was made for lovin' Tweed, and she's no hard luck woman either.