Kiss frontman Gene Simmons has been banned from both of Fox’s news channels following a series of alleged bizarre behavior while he was at the cable news company’s headquarters.
Simmons, 68, was at the Fox News offices in New York City on Wednesday to appear as a guest on Fox News’ Fox & Friends and the Fox Business Network’s Mornings with Maria.
His on-camera appearances, during which he promoted his new book, On Power, seemed to go without a hitch — he delighted meteorologist Janice Dean when helping to read the weather and offered up some words about the Harvey Weinstein sexual assault allegations.
On Wednesday, Simmons was a guest at Fox & Friends, promoting his new book, On Power. He was banned from the network afterwards for allegedly insulting female staffers during the visit to the network’s Manhattan offices
The problems began after his TV appearances, when he had gone up to the 14th floor, where Fox News’ offices are located, a source told The Daily Beast, which was also confirmed to DailyMail.com by a Fox News source.
Simmons was on the 14th floor to tape an interview about his book for FoxNews.com’s entertainment team.
Rather than do that, however, he reportedly crashed a staff meeting by shouting, ‘Hey chicks, sue me!’ before pulling open his shirt to expose his chest and belly.
Making matters worse, according to The Daily Beast’s source, Simmons then started tossing off pedophile jokes about Michael Jackson and tapped two Fox News employees on the head with his book, leading to jokes about their relative intelligence based on the sound their heads made.
Simmons delighted meteorologist Janice Dean when he jumped in to help with the forecast
Simmons (left in a 2011 appearance on the network) was a frequent guest on Fox News and Fox Business Network shows over the years. His appearances promoting his new book, ‘On Power,’ on Wednesday will be his last ever on the cable news networks follow his permanent ban
Simmons, 68, (pictured on Thursday) has not addressed the Fox allegations
Simmons also asked a black employee if he was Al Roker, a source told BuzzFeed.
Complaints about Simmons’ behavior made it all the way to Fox News’ EVP of Human Resources, Kevin Lord, leading to Simmons being permanently banned from appearing on both the Fox news channels, in addition to giving him persona non grata status at the News Corp building on Sixth Avenue itself — the ban goes so far that his picture was said to have been given to security along with a ‘do not admit’ alert.
Earlier in the day, Simmons had told host Mornings with Maria host Maria Bartiromo that, ‘The lunatics have taken over the insane asylum when respected business entities such as yourself ask guys that like to stick their tongues out, what I think of Harvey Weinstein.’
Simmons added that he was ‘deadly serious’ when he said that ‘Men are jackasses. From the time we’re young we have testosterone. I’m not validating it or defending it.’
Simmons has appeared on Fox News and Fox Business Network multiple times as a guest over the years. Although it was taped, his interview with FoxNews.com will not be posted on the website.
DailyMail.com has reached out to Simmons’ representatives for comment.