The Associated Press
Friday, July 14, 2006; 5:57 PM


PASADENA, Calif. -- By night, Gene Simmons goes to work wearing makeup and spitting blood in the rock band Kiss. By day, he's got some downright normal ideas about parenting.

Simmons, his partner Shannon Tweed and their kids _ 17-year-old Nick Tweed-Simmons and 14-year-old Sophie Tweed-Simmons _ let cameras into their home for the new A&E series "Gene Simmons Family Jewels."

"Our responsibility is to protect our kids, supply the money and the structure and the love," Simmons said this week at the Television Critics Association summer meeting.

"Their job is to do well in school and behave, period. This notion of parents having to go negotiate with their children who just learned to wipe their butts is out of the question."

Tweed isn't one of those mothers who nag about picking up clothes off the floor, either.

"We focused more on the important things in life, like your school work," she said. "The kids have their priorities straight _ staying sober and paying attention."

Simmons says he lives by the same rules he applies to his kids.

"I've never been high, drunk, never smoked in my life," he said.

"Can't say the same for me," Tweed added.

Kiss bassist Gene Simmons shows his favorite fit for cameras while a band mate Paul Stanley looks on before the start of a Tokyo concert as part of Japan tour, in this Friday, May 28, 2004 file photo.
(AP Photo/Junji Kurokawa)