The Real Reason KISS Changed Their Logo In Germany

The members of KISS have never been strangers to controversy or rumor, as millions of cool uncles patiently explaining that "Knights In Satan's Service" isn't a thing can attest. But the imagery in the logo is pretty on the nose, begging the question "How did a band with two famously Jewish front men wind up with something so close to a Nazi symbol on their albums?"

As the Huffington Post pointed out, the blame has generally been heaped on Ace Frehley, the band's original guitarist. He designed the band's logo, and Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons have been quick to throw him under the bus for it ever since. "Ace had a fascination with Nazi memorabilia, and in his drunken stupors he and his best friend would make videotapes of themselves dressed up as Nazis," Simmons wrote in his autobiography.

Frehley denies any intentional Nazi imagery and has publicly denounced antisemitism. In any case, the distinctive double S at the end of KISS, which Frehley said was meant to represent lightning bolts rather than genocidal fascist ideology, has traditionally been replaced with a flattened backwards Z design when the band plays the Dresden circuit, especially when it comes to selling sweet, sweet merch.

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