Gene Simmons shares his choice for ‘The 10 Songs I Can’t Live Without’

LONDON, ENGLAND - JULY 04: Gene Simmons of US rock group Kiss performs live on stage, for a one-off Independence Day show as a fundraiser for the Help for Heroes charity, at The Kentish Town Forum on July 4, 2012 in London, England. (Photo by Jim Dyson/Getty Images)

What’s more important, the lyrics or the feeling you get while listening to a song? For Gene Simmons, nonsense lyrics are perfectly fine if the music moves you.

The KISS frontman shared his top 10 songs on the inaugural episode of SiriusXM VOLUME (Ch. 106)‘s new show The 10 Songs I Can’t Live Without. This is the first VOLUME show to play full songs. Each week an artist or celebrity spends an hour sharing the 10 songs that mean the most to them, with no rules or formatting limits. Any genre of music is welcome, any artist big or small invited. The host is the DJ each week; it’s their show, their songs and their stories.

For Simmons, “All The Young Dudes” performed by Mott the Hoople made the list. Most people know the song as a David Bowie track, but before Bowie released it, he gave it to Mott the Hoople in an effort to save the band from breaking up. The song was a hit, and the band went on to release followup albums in the 1970s before disbanding in 1980.

Hear Simmons share an imagined conversation between Bowie and Mott bandleader Ian Hunter while extolling the song for giving meaning to obscure lyrics.