“He came up to me after the show and said, ‘Mate, you can give John Entwistle a run for his money’”: Gene Simmons recalls the moment Jimmy Page complimented his bass playing – and turned out to be a KISS fan

Gene Simmons has recently revealed that Jimmy Page is a fan of his bass playing. In an interview with Adam Carolla, Simmons waxed lyrical about the moment Page gave his seal of approval, describing it as the most iconic moment of his entire life.

“He came to see us quite a few times, and we became, you know, friendly. Page came to see us the first time when we played Wembley, and he came to see us some other times when we were there.

“And he came up to me after the show, my hand to God, and – without doing an English accent – he says, ‘Mate, you can give [John] Entwistle a run for his money,’ and I'm just about ready to pass out,” recalls Simmons.

For Simmons, that was one of the highest compliments he could have ever received. “The only higher one might be McCartney coming over and saying, ‘You're doing a good job,’ because nobody played bass the way McCartney does,” he continues. “You can hear a song and remember the bass parts.”

The KISS bassist is gearing up for a European tour with his solo project this summer, just a few months after KISS completed their mammoth End of the Road World Tour.

As for whether KISS will tour again, Simmons gave his answer in a 2019 interview with Guitar World.

“People might not believe it. But let’s just call it for what it is – it’s the final tour. Because you want to go out on top. I’m 69. Still strong. Still look good. Still have hair on my head… although I have a lot more on my back now.

“But by the time this tour finishes I’ll be 72. We all love Jagger and Bono, but if they put in the amount of work we put in, they’d drop dead in a half hour.”