10 Most Embarrassing Onstage Moments In Rock
2. Gene Simmons Lights Himself On Fire
The KISS live show really has come a long way after being nothing more than a pipe dream in the minds of Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley in the mean streets of New York City. Compared to the thousands of moving parts that go into the setup of everything these days, a lot of the theatrical aspects of the show for these shock rockers were homemade in the beginning, from people pulling up Peter Criss' drums to club gigs where the band would go offstage and into the crowd. When it comes to flammable stuff though, things got dangerous pretty quickly.
Ever since meeting with their manager about bigger and better production, the idea of breathing fire was incredibly exciting for Gene Simmons to perform every night. Though the routine normally went over well with the crowd, the early stages of the trick once went south when Gene forgot to turn his head back far enough.
As Gene told it, he was so amazed at how well the fire breathing was going over with the audience that he didn't even realize that half of his head was on fire, after which a stage hand was brought in and quickly covered him with a towel. While the shock factor tends to go a long way in rock and roll, you've got to be really committed if you're willing to risk 3rd degree burns in order to get the crowd going.