Gene Simmons had a big part in getting Van Halen signed and turned into the one of the biggest bands in rock history. He could have had a much bigger role in that if it weren’t for Paul Stanly and KISS’ manager Bill Aucoin. In a soon to be released Eddie Van Halen biography called Unchained, (Eruption in the UK), the story of Paul and Gene hearing Van Halen for the first time is recounted from Paul’s point of view. KISS were in L.A. shooting some songs for a TV show and Gene and Paul wanted to spend a few more nights there to check out the nightlife and music scene of southern California. A local DJ invited them to the Starwood club specifically to see VH and another band. Both Paul and Gene were blown away, so much so that Gene offered to pay for them to record a demo and probably to add them to his management label at the time. And that’s what he did. Over the next couple of days after that one night gig, Gene booked a recording studio for the band and paid for them to lay down a demo that included Runnin’ With The Devil and Somebody Get Me A Doctor, 2 of Van Halen’s biggest hits early on.
But when Gene played the demo for Paul and Bill they said they didn’t hear anything special. But that was a lie. They both loved VH, but they knew that if Gene got involved with promoting another band on his own label he would essentially be dead to KISS at least for a long time, and through self preservation for their own band they lied so Gene would drop the band and return to working on KISS exclusively.
Its not all bad news though because obviously that demo did get Van Halen signed and much of the rest is history. A history that we’ll be able to learn more about when Unchained is released December 14th.