The guitarist Gene Simmons said “means the world” to him: “He’s got the goods”

Gene Simmons said Ritchie Blackmore “means the world” to him, crediting the Deep Purple guitarist with showing him what a compelling rock performer could be. Blackmore’s stage presence helped shape Simmons’s ambitions and offers a glimpse of an influence behind Kiss’s own theatrical style.

Simmons recalled that audiences take in a concert visually as well as through sound, and praised Blackmore’s appearance, stance and movements on stage. As a teenager, Simmons watched Deep Purple during the band’s late-1960s and early-1970s peak, seeing Blackmore as the “real deal” and a model for his own path into rock.