Gene Simmons Explains Why Eddie Van Halen Was Rejected From Kiss in 1982

Kiss bassist Gene Simmons turned down Eddie Van Halen when the guitarist asked to join the band in 1982. The rejection happened during recording sessions for the album Creatures of the Night, after tensions between Van Halen and singer David Lee Roth reached a breaking point.

In the summer of 1982, Kiss was working on their first album following the departure of lead guitarist Ace Frehley. Simmons remembered that Van Halen drove to the Los Angeles studio in a doorless Jeep to talk about joining the group.

"Eddie told me, 'Roth is driving me nuts. I can't take it. I gotta leave. I know you're looking for a lead guitar player. Do you want me in the band?'" said Simmons to MusicRadar.

The Kiss member explained that the guitarist's style wouldn't fit within the band's structure. He compared adding Van Halen to Kiss to putting Jimi Hendrix or Jeff Beck in AC/DC. It wouldn't work.

"There wouldn't be room for Eddie in Kiss," Simmons said. "Hendrix would suck up all the oxygen. Eddie was like Hendrix in that sense. He needed a lot of room."

Simmons told Van Halen to work through the problems with his band rather than leave. He pointed out that the guitar work formed the foundation of Van Halen's sound and couldn't be replicated in Kiss without changing everything about the group.

"I said, 'Eddie, a band is worse than a marriage. You're going to have ups and downs and stuff. But with Van Halen, everything begins and ends with you — it's all about the guitar,'" Simmons said.

Van Halen released the album Diver Down in 1982 amid rising friction between band members. The group made one more record with Roth in 1984, which included "Jump", "Hot For Teacher", and "Panama," before the singer left in 1985. Sammy Hagar replaced Roth, and the band continued to grow its audience through the late 1980s.