The Backstory: The Origin of the Most Famous Tongue in Rock and Roll
Elvis Duran and the Morning Show ON DEMAND
Elvis Duran Podcast Network and iHeartPodcasts
4.7 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 20 March 2026
⏱️ 9 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
We all wonder where the larger than life rock and roll stars of the mid 20th century originated. But the demon of Kiss, Gene Simmons, has had an unbelievable journey. And he credits one person with his inspiration.
Feel free to DM me if you have a story you’d like me to cover . . on Facebook it’s Patty Steele and on Instagram real patty steele
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | So if you think about the wild rock stars of the 20th century, one guy has to be near the top of your list. |
| 0:07.7 | He's the demon of kiss, Gene Simmons, the most famous tongue in rock and roll. |
| 0:13.3 | But his backstory is a gut-wrenching, yet really inspiring story, representing a whole different life. |
| 0:23.6 | I'm Patty Steele. A poor but determined single mom helps her kid reach for the stars. That's next on the backstory. This is an I-Heart |
| 0:31.7 | podcast. Guaranteed human. Hey there, this is Josh from Stuff You Should Know with a message that could change your life. |
| 0:42.6 | The Stuff You Should Know Think Spring podcast playlist is available now. |
| 0:47.1 | Whether spring has sprung in your neck of the woods yet or not, |
| 0:50.4 | the stuff you should know, think spring playlist will make you want to get your overalls on, get outside, and get your hands in the dirt. You can get the stuff you should know think spring playlist will make you want to get your overalls on, |
| 0:54.7 | get outside, and get your hands in the dirt. You can get the stuff you should know think spring |
| 0:59.1 | playlist on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. |
| 1:06.0 | The backstory is back. We've all heard stories of folks who came from a hard-looked background only to make |
| 1:12.5 | it big, but some stories are just larger than life. Haim Witts was born in 1949 in Haifa Israel. By the time |
| 1:22.1 | she had Haim, Flora was only 24, but she had survived hell on earth. |
| 1:28.0 | When she was 18, she and her family in Hungary had been packed into cattle cars |
| 1:32.7 | and transported to Auschwitz-Burkenau, the Nazi extermination camps in occupied Poland, |
| 1:39.2 | where the regime had an industrial murder complex targeting humans. |
| 1:50.2 | Between May and July of 1944, almost 450,000 Hungarian Jews were taken to Auschwitz. Most were murdered within hours of arrival, including |
| 1:56.8 | Flora's parents, all but one of her siblings, and her aunts, uncles, and cousins. |
| 2:02.6 | Flora barely survived the starvation and the torture. Her brother Larry also survived, but everybody |
| 2:09.2 | else was gone. After she was rescued from the camps, Flora married. She had her little boy a few |
| 2:16.4 | years later, but pretty soon she was unhappy with the marriage. |
| 2:21.0 | So when Hiam was eight, his mom, searching for a better life, moved them to New York City. |
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