Wikipedia's first sentence called it “best known as the blood spitting”. Today it says “israeli and american musician and songwriter”. The one-line description Wikipedia serves to search engines and AI systems read “American rock musician”. It now reads “Israeli-American musician and songwriter (born 1949)”.
Measured, not asserted. Every count, date and revision on this page was taken from Wikipedia's own history and checked against the live article. The words quoted are theirs.
Machine-checked against the full current article on 2026-08-03.
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The opening as it read in 2005
Gene Simmons (born Chaim Witz on August 25 , 1949 in Haifa , Israel ) is best known as the blood spitting, fire breathing, tongue-wagging egomaniacal bass player for the rock band KISS . In 1958 , he emigrated to New York City as a child with his mother after his father, Feri Witz, abandoned his family. After immigrating to America, he took the name Gene Klein ; he felt that 'Gene' was more American than 'Chaim', and under ancient Jewish law, he was permitted to take his mother's maiden name (Klein), since his father had left the family. In the late 1960s , he changed his name again, to Gene Simmons , as he simply felt that "Gene Klein" didn't have enough of a ring to it. Simmons formed the rock band Wicked Lester in the early 1970s with Stanley Eisen (a.k.a. Paul Stanley ) and recorded one album, which was never released. Dissatisfied with Wicked Lester's sound and look, Simmons and Stanley went looking for other musicians and eventually joined up with drummer Peter Criscoula and lead guitarist Paul Frehley—who would become Peter Criss and Ace Frehley , respectively. Simmons and Stanley then attempted to fire the other members of Wicked Lester and bring in Criss and Frehley; when the other members refused, Simmons and Stanley immediately quit Wicked Lester and formed a new band with Criss and Frehley, which they soon dubbed KISS . KISS released their first self-titled debut album in February of 1974 . Simmons is the driving force behind the marketing of KISS . Simmons is also a movie producer and actor who has appeared in a number of movies including Runaway , Wanted Dead Or Alive , Trick Or Treat , Red Surf , Detroit Rock City , The New Guy . He also created the animated television series called My Dad The Rock Star , by the Canadian animation company Nelvana , about the mild mannered son of a Gene Simmons-like rock star who wants to live a normal life, with his wealthy and eccentric father making such a life nearly impossible. Simmons has also appeared on two episodes of Family Guy as himself. In the story of one of the episodes, he had sex with Lois Griffin ("Loose Lois") back when he was still known as Chaim Witz. In 1990, he produced Doro Pesch 's second solo album Doro at Fortress Recorders in Hollywood, California ( United States ). In 2004, Simmons released his first solo album in 26 years, Asshole with a remake of Prodigy 's Firestarter .1
This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 17975122.
The opening as it stood in 2010 16 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear
Musical artist Gene Simmons (born Chaim Witz [they, ] on August 25, 1949) is an Israeli-American rock bassist , vocalist , actor , and businessman .He is well known as "The Demon", the blood-spitting, fire-breathing, and tongue-wagging bassist and co-frontman and lead vocalist in the hard rock band Kiss , a group he co-founded in the early 1970s.Simmons was placed twenty-ninth by Hit Parader on their list of the 100 Greatest Heavy Metal Singers.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 371088141.
The opening as it stood in 2015 2 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear
Musical artist Gene Simmons (born Chaim Witz ; ; August 25, 1949) is an Israeli - American rock bass guitarist, singer-songwriter, record producer, entrepreneur, actor, and television personality.Known by his stage persona The Demon , he is the bass guitarist and co-lead singer of Kiss , the rock band he co-founded in the early 1970s.With Kiss, Simmons has sold more than 100 million albums worldwide.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 669436698.
The opening as it stood in 2020 2 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear
American musician Musical artist Gene Klein (born Chaim Witz on August 25, 1949), known professionally as Gene Simmons , is an Israeli-born American musician, singer, songwriter, record producer, entrepreneur, actor, author and television personality.Also known by his stage persona The Demon , he is the bassist and co-lead singer of Kiss , the rock band he co-founded with lead singer and rhythm guitarist Paul Stanley in the early 1970s.Simmons has a baritone singing voice which contrasts with Paul Stanley and Peter Criss ' tenor voices.There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or templates on this page, but the references will not show without a template or template (see the help page ).
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 963482079.
The opening as it stood on October 6, 2023 3 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear
American rock musician For other uses, see Gene Simmons (disambiguation) .Musical artist Gene Simmons (born Chaim Witz ; ; born August 25, 1949) is an American musician.Also known by his stage persona "The Demon", he is the bassist and co-lead singer of the hard rock band Kiss , which he co-founded with Paul Stanley , Ace Frehley and Peter Criss in the early 1970s.Simmons was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2014 as a member of Kiss.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1177682238.
The opening as it stood in 2025 1 passage from the previous snapshot no longer appear
Israeli-born American musician (born 1949) For other uses, see Gene Simmons (disambiguation) .Gene Simmons (born Chaim Witz ; Hebrew : חיים ויץ [χaˈim ˈvits] ; born August 25, 1949) also known by his stage persona " The Demon ", is an Israeli-born American musician. He was the bassist and co-lead singer of the hard rock band Kiss , which he co-founded with Paul Stanley , Ace Frehley , and Peter Criss in the early 1970s until their retirement in 2023. Simmons was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2014 as a member of Kiss.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1297710922. This is our newest snapshot; the live article may have moved again since.
Today
Wikipedia's first sentence called it “best known as the blood spitting”. Today it says “israeli and american musician and songwriter”. The one-line description Wikipedia serves to search engines and AI systems read “American rock musician”. It now reads “Israeli-American musician and songwriter (born 1949)”. Read the current article and compare.
2005
2010
2015
2020
Oct '23
2025
Counts in the opening at each snapshot. Green: the word gained ground. Red: it was cut. Grey: no change.
What Wikipedia says this is
Every article opens by defining its subject. This one was redefined since 2005, and today's defining sentence is their current revision.
Then
best known as the blood spitting
Now
israeli and american musician and songwriter
Struck red text is no longer in the article; dotted amber text was rewritten. Every revision id links to Wikipedia's copy; the text shown is our own saved copy. Data: /data. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA; quoted for the record; not affiliated with Wikipedia.
