“I had a slight fender bender. It happens. Especially to those of us who are horrible drivers”: Gene Simmons rushed to hospital after reportedly losing consciousness and crashing his SUV into a parked vehicle

Gene Simmons is recovering at home after a car crash in Malibu, California, with reports saying the Kiss bassist/vocalist passed out at the wheel, swerving across several lanes of traffic on Pacific Coast Highway before plowing his SUV into a parked vehicle.

NB4 Investigates reports that Simmons crashed his car at 1pm on Tuesday, October 7. A witness made the 911 call, police and firefighters responded, and Simmons was rushed to hospital.

The Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department told NBC4 Investigates that Simmons said he “passed out or fainted” at the wheel. Simmons’ wife, Shannon Tweed, says the 76-year-old had just been prescribed new medication and he had been told to drink more fluids.

Simmons was driving a Lincoln Navigator at the time, which is just as well: the luxury SUV has a five-star safety rating.

But it would take more than that to stop the God of Thunder. In a somewhat sheepish message posted to X/Twitter, Simmons thanked well wishers and suggested that a career as an Uber driver now Kiss has played their last show might not be the best idea.

“Thanks, everybody, for the kind wishes,” wrote Simmons. “I’m completely fine. I had a slight fender bender. It happens. Especially to those of us [who are] horrible drivers. And that’s me. All is well.”

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Kiss might have called it a day, at least in the traditional sense of their physical forms putting on the stagewear, makeup and playing the music.

But Simmons has been keeping his chops up in 2025 playing with his solo band, with his May shows drawing heavily on the Kiss catalog as you would expect, but also including covers of Motörhead’s Ace of Spades, Van Halen’s House of Pain, Thin Lizzy’s Bad Reputation and the Beatles’ And Your Bird Can Sing.

And this string of dates made one Kiss superfan’s day (make that life), when he paid $12,495 to be Simmons’ roadie for a day. Dwayne Rosado said it was worth every cent.

“You only live once, and I want to experience life. I’m not going to die with a lot of money. I’m going to die happy,” he told the New York Times. “Nothing can beat tonight. It’s cemented in Kisstory now because it’s going to be on YouTube and everything else. So I’ll get to look back and see that moment forever.”

Twelve-and-a-half grand? Nice work if you can get it. It might make Simmons losing his no-claims discount on the Lincoln a little less painful.