Simmons was born in Haifa, Israel, and emigrated to New York City at the age of eight, with his mother Florence Klein—a Jewish Hungarian immigrant and the only member of her family to survive the Holocaust. His father Feri Witz, also Jewish, had aba

Simmons was born in Haifa, Israel, and emigrated to New York City at the age of eight, with his mother Florence Klein—a Jewish Hungarian immigrant and the only member of her family to survive the Holocaust. His father Feri Witz, also Jewish, had abandoned his family years earlier. When Simmons was young, his mother's long absences while working two jobs in order to make ends meet left emotional scars that gave him a strong desire for wealth. After arriving in the U.S., he took the name Eugene Klein (later Gene Klein), Klein being his mother's maiden name. In the late-1960s, he changed his name again, to Gene Simmons.

Simmons became involved with his first band, Lynx, then renamed The Missing Links, when he was a teenager. Eventually, he disbanded The Missing Links to form the Long Island Sounds. While he played in these bands, he kept up odd jobs on the side to make more money, including making fanzines and buying used comic books. Simmons then attended Sullivan County Commu