Gene Simmons Reckons He Started Devil Horns And Wants To Trademark It (UPDATED)

UPDATE: Gene Simmons has now withdrawn his trademark application for the ‘devil horns’ gesture, after filing an ‘express abandonment’ of his claim.

ORIGINAL STORY: Gene Simmons, who clearly believes he himself is rock ‘n’ roll, is reportedly attempting to trademark devil horns.

The Hollywood Reporter reports, the Kiss frontman has applied to the United States Patent and TradeMark Office to make the sign his own, as if he was the first person to figure out you could do that with your hands.

He claims that he started using the hand gesture on Nov. 14, 1974 which is interesting because it dates back to 5th century BC Buddhism. John Lennon also did it on the 1966 single cover for Yellow Submarine/Eleanor Rigby.

Ronnie James Dio is widely known for popularising the gesture too. He started doing it soon after he joined Black Sabbath in 1979 but even he doubts that he was the first one to do it as he told Metal-Rules in 2001.

The hand gesture also features on Kiss’ album cover for 1977’s Love Gun, almost a decade after The Beatles did it.

Simmons is claiming the hand gesture for, “entertainment, namely, live performances by a musical artist; personal appearances by a musical artist.” The means he’d get cash in the pocket everytime a rockstar used the devil horns.

Good luck Simmons. It’s likely he’s going to be in for a bit of a battle.

https://youtu.be/sOt_lUvQgXs