Gene Simmons has dec lared it's better to be "rich and miserable"

During an appearance on the UCR Podcast, Gene explained: "It's funny, I'm an only child to my mother and I grew up with the hard knocks of not being very romantic about what it all means.

"I developed a harder skin and for myself, realized that everything was about the search for power and money, which is not a very romantic notion. But I didn't want to be poor, because I know what that felt like.

"My mother worked at a sweat factory six days out of the week and survived the Nazi concentration camps of Germany. You know, life is tough, so the romantic hippie dippie notation about life never worked for me.

"All I ever did was try to figure out how to become powerful and make lots of money, for survival. The only thing money ever does, really, is give you the freedom to do stuff you actually like doing.

"It's what it's really about and also to keep you safe, pay for your hospital bills, create jobs, give to charity, all of that stuff."

Gene went on to add of being in a rock band: "Throughout KISS, fame was nice, but there are a lot of famous people who are relatively poor, that's not a lot of fun.

"But on the other side, there's a lot of industrial types whose names you don't recognize who are filthy rich. It's better to be rich than poor, it really is. And if you're a miserable f***, it's still better to be a rich, miserable f***. That's all I ever tried to do."

During the interview, Gene also opened up about life on the road as a solo artist now KISS have retired from touring - admitting he actually enjoys travelling without a private jet and three tour buses.

He said: "I can say that I'm having more fun now in ways I never thought I'd have without 60 people on the crew, without a private jet, without three triple-decker buses, without 20 tractor trailers - without a small city setting up with more firepower than some third world countries, just getting up on stage and rocking out."