KISS - Gene Simmons - AXE Guitar Signing/Meet & Greet - Phoenix 2010

KISS - Gene Simmons - AXE Guitar Signing/Meet & Greet - Phoenix 2010
Rock musician Gene Simmons is to be credited with the "axe" design. In 1978, Gene was searching for a new bass guitar that would either "blend in" or "stand out from" his garish make up and costume, would be a good trademark, and would show his philosophy of how a bass should be handled - like a weapon. After garnering enough wealth from touring with his band KISS, Gene went to renowned luthier Steve Carr to build the first prototype of the axe bass and then the popular bass itself. Since then, the axe bass has been a running trademark for KISS.

In 2012, Gene Simmons commissioned Jim Cara of Original Cara Hot Rod Guitars to develop a chrome and gold plating process for the AXE and Punisher project. As of 2013, the Chrome models are available for purchase by high-end Kiss collectors.

The AXE Bass is a bass guitar which is visually designed in similarity to that of an axe. This design is (though rare) highly prized among bass players usually in hard rock and heavy metal music. Some electric guitars have also sported the axe design though they are moderately popular and sometimes discredited. Since its creation, the axe bass has been highly desired, very expensive, and a very rare prize among guitar shops and music stores.

Gene Klein (born Chaim Witz on August 25, 1949), known professionally as Gene Simmons, is an American musician, singer, songwriter, record producer, entrepreneur, actor, author and television personality. Also known by his stage persona the Demon, he is the bassist and co-lead singer of Kiss, the rock band he co-founded with lead singer and rhythm guitarist Paul Stanley in the early 1970s. Simmons has a baritone singing voice which contrasts with Paul Stanley and Peter Criss' tenor voices.

Kiss (often stylized as KIϟϟ) is an American rock band formed in New York City in January 1973 by Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons, Peter Criss, and Ace Frehley. Well known for its members' face paint and stage outfits, the group rose to prominence in the mid–late 1970s with its shocking live performances, which featured fire breathing, blood-spitting, smoking guitars, shooting rockets, levitating drum kits, and pyrotechnics. The band has gone through several lineup changes, with Stanley and Simmons being the only members to feature in every lineup. The original and best-known lineup consists of Stanley (vocals and rhythm guitar), Simmons (vocals and bass), Frehley (lead guitar and vocals), and Criss (drums and vocals).

With their make-up and costumes, the band members took on the personae of comic book-style characters: the Starchild (Stanley), the Demon (Simmons), the Spaceman or Space Ace (Frehley), and the Catman (Criss). Due to creative differences, both Criss and Frehley had departed the group by 1982.

In 1983, Kiss began performing without makeup and costumes, thus marking the beginning of the band's "unmasked" era that would last for over a decade. The band experienced a commercial resurgence during this era, with the Platinum-certified album Lick It Up successfully introducing them to a new generation of fans, and its music videos received regular airplay on MTV. Eric Carr, who had replaced Criss in 1980, died in 1991 of heart cancer and was replaced by Eric Singer. In response to a wave of Kiss nostalgia in the mid-1990s, the original lineup re-united in 1996, which also saw the return of its makeup and stage costumes. The resulting Alive/Worldwide Tour was highly successful, grossing $143.7 million, making it the band's most successful tour to date. Criss and Frehley subsequently left the band again, and have been replaced by Singer and Tommy Thayer. The band has continued with its original stage makeup, with Singer and Thayer using the original Catman and Spaceman makeup, respectively. In September 2018, Kiss announced that, after 45 years of recording and performing, it would be embarking on its ongoing final tour, the End of the Road World Tour, which started in January 2019 and is currently set to conclude in 2022.

Kiss is regarded as one of the most influential bands of all time, as well as one of the best-selling bands of all time, having sold more than 75 million records worldwide, including 21 million RIAA-certified albums. Kiss also holds the title as America's No. 1 Gold record award-winning group of all time, having earned 30 Gold albums. Kiss has 14 Platinum albums, with three albums being multi-Platinum. On April 10, 2014, the four original members of Kiss were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Kiss was ranked by MTV as the ninth "Greatest Metal Band of All Time", and placed tenth on VH1's "100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock" list, as well as being ranked as the third "Best Metal and Hard Rock Live Band of All Time" by Loudwire magazine.

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