‘Climate change is real, despite the fact there are people who believe the Earth is flat’: Gene Simmons

Kiss star Gene Simmons has lauded Aussie billionaire Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest over his progressive climate change agenda, with signs the pair could be planning a future business venture.

Gene Simmons is braced for “Kissteria” and a 100,000-strong rock-out and singalong at the MCG before the first bounce at the AFL Grand Final.

But the Kiss bassist has done some fan-boying of his own this week, mainly in the direction of friend and potential business partner, Australian mining magnate, Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest.

“He’s become a friend and I’ve grown to really admire the man,” Simmons told Page 13. “Anybody would be honoured to be in his presence. He’s amazing.”

The rock star and Fortescue boss first met through mutual friends, but the bromance elevated when Simmons accompanied Forrest on a tour of National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Denver, Colorado, last December.

Andrew Forrest at Fortescue Metals’ new Iron Bridge magnetite project.

Forrest, who is worth $27 billion, is reportedly betting the farm on “green hydrogen” — a superfuel theoretically capable powering jet aeroplanes, large machinery and electricity plants without any carbon footprint.

“Twiggy is making sure Fortescue is going to be carbon free,” Simmons said. “His humanism is above and beyond the tens of billions of dollars he’s worth. And he’s committed to leaving a good imprint.

“We like to say everybody should put it on themselves to leave the planet a little bit better than when you came into it. But he’s going to make sure of that.”

Simmons said his Denver mission with Forrest was impressive. “Climate change is real, despite the fact there are people who believe the Earth is flat, and all the other hoaxes,” he added.

Asked about a potential business partnership with Forrest, Simmons suddenly bit his world-famous long tongue. “I’m not going to comment,” he said, coyly.

However, in a wide-ranging interview Simmons and Kiss frontman Paul Stanley, opened up about the brewing emotions around the band’s final shows, and thoughts about the day after Kiss takes its last bows.

The band, 50 years strong and doing a farewell lap of the globe, will retire permanently after two shows at New York’s Madison Square Garden on December 1 and 2.

Kiss is ready to rock the AFL Grand Final.

Their MCG show on Saturday will mark their last goodbye to Melbourne. The band and their long time Australian tour promoter Andrew McManus stepped in to save the AFL Grand Final entertainment program after last-minute declines from Kylie Minogue and Crowded House.

Kiss also performs in Sydney on October 7.

“When you come to grips with the fact it’s almost over, and what that means, it elicits all kinds of feelings. The closer we get, the more real it becomes,” Stanley told Page 13.

“There is a night coming up where it will be the last time we play these songs. That’s a lot to contend with. Intellectually, we can say ‘Yes, we’re stopping because nobody can do what we do forever.’ But emotionally, it’s going to be something to wrestle with.”

Stanley imagines he will have “swollen eyes” on December 3, “from all the crying.”

“It will be surreal — the calm after the storm — but it’s a new day,” he added. “We’re so blessed. We’ve worked our butts off. And we will continue to feel that our lives have been blessed by a lot of hard work.”

Simmons said the end of the road for Kiss, at Madison Square Garden, will be close to where in it all began in 1973.

“We’re going to finish touring 10 blocks from where we started. We started rehearsing at 10 East 23rd St in a rat-infested loft. I saw everything. New York cockroaches have saddles; you can ride them. We’d rehearse there for so long, I moved my bed in, and slept there.”

Stanley said: “There was no shower or bath.”

Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley. Picture: Wayne Taylor

Simmons replied, laughing: “What’s a shower? Showering is for losers. Be a man and stink it up a little.”

Stanley: “I drove a cab. I do remember driving people to Madison Square Garden to see Elvis Presley. I was in the front seat of that cab thinking, ‘One of these days, people are going to come here to see me. A few years later, they did.

“It’s full circle for us in so many ways,” Stanley said. “To end where we began, in essence, is the right way to do it.”

Simmons: “We’ve all seen bands who stayed on stage too long. You’ve got to have pride and respect the fans and know it’s time to leave. If you’re a surfer, go out on that tsunami.

“When you’re the champion of the world in the ring, gracefully thank everybody, and walk away. Don’t wait to get knocked out by a chump,” Simmons said.

“That’s what we’re doing. We don’t want to be a bloated, sorry-ass band on stage. We want the fans to be proud.”