KISS bassist Gene Simmons recently made an appearance on the Pillow Talk Podcast, during which he remembered the time he noticed he could earn money from everything about himself.
Apart from playing with the iconic band KISS, Gene Simmons also owns several trademarks and has attempted to register over a hundred other ones. Surprisingly, one of them is the trademark of the money bag logo. Recently, the bassist released his own vodka brand named MoneyBag. According to Simmons, who doesn’t drink alcohol, his vodka is five times distilled, making it a superior beverage. Besides, its logo is the money bag.
During an interview on the Pillow Talk Podcast, the hosts Ryan and Dark asked the musician to talk about his new vodka brand MoneyBag. As a response, Simmons revealed the story of the money bag logo. Simmons stated that back in the 1970s, KISS was signing their autographs and putting them in their album ‘Alive.’ He then noticed many fans wanted to buy these, so they made necklaces of their signature.
The bassist decided to trademark his signature around 1978 and started using it everywhere. Soon after that, Simmons got curious whether anyone trademarked the money bag logo and trademarked it himself. So, apparently, Simmons noticed he could sell everything with his signature on it after seeing fans were quite interested in buying those necklaces.
During the interview, the hosts asked Gene Simmons the following:
“Gene, how do you come up with MoneyBag? Obviously, you don’t drink; everyone knows that. And now, you have your own vodka. Tell us about that.”
Gene Simmons then responded:
“Well, the story of this logo is, in the ’70s before anybody on this show was born, the band I’m in, KISS wore more makeup and higher heels than the females on the show. That’s a statement of fact. That is actually true.
You know, we all signed our autographs and whatever, and put it on a live record called ‘Alive.’ There were a lot of fans who wanted to buy those, so we made necklaces of our signatures. It was at the time I was signing my name Gene and then Simmons with the two slashes in the S, just because I’m full of myself.
So because of that, I trademarked my actual signature in about 1978. Years later, I started to use the trademark in all kinds of things. And then I was curious and wanted to find out if anybody had actually ever trademarked this logo. And the answer was no.”
You can watch the full interview below.
