Celebrity Mound

Ageing rocker Gene Simmons proposed to his longterm partner Shannon Tweed over the summer after deciding it was time for him to “grow up”.

The 62-year-old Kiss star has lived with the model since 1985, and after 26 years of dating they will exchange vows in Los Angeles on Saturday.

Simmons has opened up about his relationship with Tweed in a new interview with ET Online and the singer admits she is the only woman he has ever declared his love for.

He says, “It is time for me to grow up. I’m 62. I’ve been doing a lot of wacky stuff for an awfully long time… and there’s nobody I’ve ever said I love you to.

“I even find it difficult to say ‘I love you’ to my mother. But I love Shannon with all my heart and all my soul, and always will.”

The couple is parents to 22-year-old son Nicholas and daughter Sophie, 19.

KISS rocker Gene Simmons may want to rock and roll all night and party every day, but his long-term girlfriend Shannon Tweed may be ready to leave the party.  As the sixth season of the rocker’s reality series, Gene Simmons Family Jewels premiered, Tweed was sent over the edge by Simmons’ womanizing ways and famously stormed off the set during a recent interview with Joy Behar after Gene made jokes about the number of women he’s slept with.

Now, Simmons, 61, talks to Parade.com about his unraveling relationship with Tweed, the difference between men and women, parenting and so much more.  Here are some highlights:

On his unraveling relationship with his partner of 28 years, Shannon Tweed.
“Well, when you have a cut on your hand, it doesn’t heal overnight. It takes time, and if you don’t take care of it, it gets inflamed. We’re working on it. It’s not easy on the kids, Shannon, or myself.”

Men are from mars…
“Men are not reflective. What happened yesterday happened yesterday. We’re in the here and the now. Women are wiser. Women have a 30,000-foot viewpoint. They see the bigger picture, which is why they want to have kids and men don’t. Women want to get married and no man I ever met actually wants to. Women have the ‘Mr. Right’ image, men don’t. There are tons of brides’ magazines, I don’t know of a single husband magazine. We want to be left alone to do whatever we want to do whenever we want to do it without asking anybody. So the hair on our backs rise when the female species says, ‘Where have you been?’ That’s all part of being a kid and immature.”

Parenting 101 with Gene Simmons.
“We’re very strict. You behave well because you’re not allowed not to. It’s as simple as that. There are no drugs, no booze, and no cigarettes because you’re not allowed to. You don’t talk potty talk because you’re not allowed to. The idea that kids slam the door to their rooms on these TV shows is the height of lunacy. All that dribble that Dr. Spock was mouthing — he was basically farting through his mouth. Negotiating with your children? Absolutely not.”

This season, Simmons also visits a place near and dear to his heart: Fort Hood in Killeen, Texas.
“I’m an immigrant from Israel and my mother is a concentration camp survivor from Nazi, Germany, and America in a very real way saved my mother and my people. Other countries in the world don’t want to hear this, but it’s true. America not only saved the world, but also continues to save the world. Yes, we have allies, but without America, you’d have chaos.”

For more from Simmons’ Parade.com exclusive, including his thoughts on returning to his birthplace of Haifa, Israel, for the first time in over 50 years, visit http://www.parade.com/celebrity/celebrity-parade/2011/06/gene-simmons.html.

Prosecutors will not charge Kiss rocker Gene Simmons over an alleged attack on a couple at an upscale outdoor mall, while a new, separate civil lawsuit claims the musician sexually assaulted a makeup artist.

The district attorney’s office stated in documents Wednesday that there was not enough evidence the 60-year-old musician threatened Nathan Marlowe and his wife Cynthia Manzo at The Grove mall in Los Angeles last December.

Marlowe had said the musician choked the couple and took their video camera after they started filming the star, while Simmons told police that Marlowe shoved the camera in his face and that he feared for his family’s safety.

Simmons’ attorney Barry Mallen called the decision “completely expected.” The couple’s attorney, Matthew Nezhad, said Thursday that they would pursue the matter with the district attorney’s office.

“We don’t understand how there could not be a charge if he admitted to taking the camera,” he said.

Nezhad also said a civil lawsuit filed in December by Marlowe and Manzo against Simmons was still pending. The couple is seeking more than $25,000 in damages for claims of assault, battery and emotional distress, including damage to their sex life.

Simmons also faces a separate civil lawsuit, which was filed Thursday in Los Angeles by makeup artist Victoria Jackson, on allegations of sexual assault and battery. She is seeking unspecified damages.

In court documents, Jackson claimed she was working for ESPN Sports Center on Nov. 24, 2009, when she met Simmons wearing his Kiss costume. She alleged that Simmons said “in a lecherous and inappropriate manner, ‘I like you.’”

Jackson claimed Simmons then shook her hand, grabbed and hugged her, with his costume’s spiked chest plate jabbing her in the face.

After she resisted his embrace, Jackson claimed, Simmons started grinding into her, then finally released her.

Jackson described the alleged incident as “degrading, shocking and humiliating.” A phone message left for her attorney, Richard Kolber, was not immediately returned.

Simmons’ spokesman, Allan Mayer, said his client filed suit against Jackson last week.

In a statement, Mayer said Simmons “categorically denies” the allegations and Jackson is trying to get “compensation from him for nonexistent injuries.”

His claim argues that his costume is like a suit of armor and would have made it impossible for him to grind into Jackson because it covers his groin area with a cod piece.

“Mr. Simmons intends to defend himself aggressively and looks forward to refuting Ms. Jackson’s charges in the courtroom,” the statement said.

KISS star Gene Simmons says the best way to survive in rock is to avoid booze and drugs — and concentrate on sex. He told us as he prepared for tonight’s sold-out concert at the Garden: “The only way to do it is no booze, no drugs . . . If you are not clean, you don’t belong up there. I’ve never been drunk or high in my life. The only way to survive the long haul is to be straight-nosed. I’ve been here for four decades.” Simmons, who romanced Cher and Diana Ross before settling with former Playboy Playmate Shannon Tweed, said, “The only temptation I’ve had in my career is of the female variety. And that’s one you can enjoy.”

Sorry Gene I ain’t buyin that you never been drunk!