Royal Oak Mom Dishes on Having KISS' Gene Simmons in Her Kitchen

A Royal Oak mother remembers the day Gene Simmons – the guy who wears makeup that makes him look like a demon and plays an axe-shaped bass for the hard-rock group "KISS" – played basketball in her backyard on Wilson Avenue with her children.

"They were pretty excited," said Laura Spern. "They knew his music from playing the video game Rock Band."

Simmons made the kids call him "Uncle Gene," she said.

In 2009, Simmons spent five days with Spern, a drummer for the punk rock band The Mydols, which also included Wensdy Von Buskirk, April Boyle and (ahem) Royal Oak Patch editor, Judy Davids.

While in Detroit for the KISS Alive 35 tour at Cobo Arena, Simmons rolled into Royal Oak to tape an episode called "Detroit Rock Mommies" with The Mydols for his A&E TV show Gene Simmons Family Jewels.

Here's A&E's synopsis of the episode: 

On the eve of the KISS' tour kick-off in Detroit, Gene decides to pay a visit to an all female band he is interested in signing to Simmons Records. Little does he know the rock band is comprised of middle-aged moms that will completely change his opinions about what is marketable.

Spern remembers it looking like "an invasion" when the TV production crew arrived at her Royal Oak home at around 10 a.m. to begin taping.

"I met Gene for the first time in my living room," said Spern, who admits to spending two weeks prior to Dr. Love's arrival painting walls and scrubbing every floor in her house.

Spern said between takes with the band, Simmons entertained her six children and marveled at the family's pets. At the time she had four cats, two birds, two lizards, a ball python snake and three dogs. Of the snake, Simmons noted his tongue was longer. 

"At one point he took a call on his cellphone in my neighbor's driveway," Spern said. "He's so tall, and with his big black hair, you could see him from miles away."

Spern was afraid Simmons would cause a riot in her quiet Royal Oak neighborhood but no one seemed to be bothered by the 6-foot 2-inch rocker, she said.

"He was very friendly. He didn't act like he was better than us," Spern said. "He's very educated and business-like."

The Mydols would later get to hang out with Simmons at Cobo Hall before he went on stage with KISS. 

"Ironically, KISS had just been nominated to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for the first time while he was here in 2009," Spern said. "I remember talking to him about it."

That year members of the Kiss fan club, the Kiss Army, were furious when the band was passed over on their debut ballot. (ABBA made it in that year.) Simmons would tell the press "there are disco bands, rap bands, Yiddish folk song bands in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but not KISS."

This week it was announced that Kiss, along with Nirvana, E Street, Hall and Oates and others, will be inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on Apr. 10 at Brooklyn's Barclays Center in New York City.

"For me, it's another tug of the shirt sleeve to remind me that the American dream is alive and well," Simmons told Rolling Stone.