Gene Simmons (born Chaim Witz (pronounced Haium) on August 25, 1949) is an Israeli-born American hard rock bass guitarist and vocalist. He is best known as "The Demon," his blood-spitting, fire-breathing, and tongue-wagging persona in the hard rock band Kiss, an act he co-founded in the early 1970s. Simmons also contends that he has "never been high, drunk, or smoked in [his] life.".