Roadrunner Records UK spoke with KISS legend Gene Simmons recently about a number of topics including his bass playing career, influences and set up. A few excerpts from the chat follow:

Roadrunner Records UK: So, Did you start playing the bass first, was that your first instrument?

Simmons: "No, my first instrument was guitar, self taught and I did it like anybody else in the prehistoric days- we took albums, which went 33 rpm, and we slowed them down. So grrrrrr rrrrr [sound of slowed down record],like that. But then I could pick up the notes and the chords and copy them, and then try to play along with them, but of course when the record sped up to full speed it changed, didn’t it, the tonality went up! Ha! But in either case that’s how I learned how to play guitar, and then of course meeting other guitar players who showed me voicings and Sus4 and so on. And then, I saw the BEATLES on the Ed Sullivan Show and thought 'gee, this is a good job, girls scream, you get to dress funny, wear your hair kinda kooky', and that was it it, it’s better than being a plumber. So I wanted to do that and then I noticed when I first went out meeting other guys in other bands, there were a million guitar players but no bass players. So I decided to pick up the bass, because I’d get into a band easier."

Roadrunner Records UK: So when you’re talking about going back and playing over records that you liked, trying to play those, what kind of artists were you trying to mimic back then and learn the parts to?

Simmons: "Gee there was a lot of stuff, a lot of R&B; records you know - OTIS REDDING, STAX VAULT, SAM AND DAVE records, things like that. Turned out to be a guy named Steve Cropper mostly, in the MAR-KEYS AND THE HOUSE BAND, BOOKER T AND THE MGS, was all Steve Cropper. Steve Cropper and OTIS REDDING actually co-wrote ‘Respect’ and first recorded it, and then it was recorded by ARETHA FRANKLIN. And when you hear ‘Soul Man’ [hums tune] that’s all Steve Cropper- before your time (laughs). And so those were the original guys that I learnt from, and then of course from listening to the British groups, to hear a major A chord from Pete Townshend (THE WHO) or somebody like that teaches you the basics of guitar, and learning to play guitar early on was actually a help in writing songs; of course you can be a bass player and write songs but by knowing guitar a little bit you can actually write the parts."

Roadrunner Records UK: You mentioned that you were self taught, did you ever have any theory lessons? Did you learn how to read music or any of that stuff?

Simmons: "No. I can’t read a stick of music, I’ve written hundreds of songs, I’ve had them covered by LENNY KRAVITZ, STEVIE WONDER, and CHER, and almost anybody that you care to mention, but I couldn’t tell you if you wrote it down on a sheet of paper, and neither could Lennon and McCartney or Jagger and Richards, or JIMI HENDRIX - they couldn’t read or write music. But they could write songs."

Roadrunner Records UK: What would you say are your top riffs ever, that you’ve heard and have just blown you away?

Simmons: "Well by some estimates, ‘Smoke On The Water’ is the most often played riff by all guitar players, new guitar players certainly...um...but I’m a major JEFF BECK fan. When he had his Truth and Beck-ola albums... Top riffs? Jeff Beck, ‘Plynth’. Uh, MOUNTAIN - ‘Never In My Life’, ‘Satisfaction’ by the STONES - it’s undeniable, as soon as it starts, the song’s there, it’s undeniable."

Read the entire interview here.