In a new interview with Fail Better With David Duchovny, the podcast hosted by actor David Duchovny, KISS bassist/vocalist Gene Simmons reflected on the recent passing of BLACK SABBATH legend Ozzy Osbourne. Gene said: “That was heartbreaking, ’cause I knew him for decades and decades. And there was a unique human being, a giant who, no matter what anybody said, was always Ozzy and treated you and the next door neighbor exactly the same. ‘Hey, how are you? Nice to see you.’ No airs about him. No anything. And it’s a good lesson for idiots like me who sometimes — guilty as charged — get full of themselves and say, ‘Wow, I’m Gene Simmons.’ And if you would’ve met Ozzy, you’re on your best behavior, because it was a big deal. ‘Nice to see you. You know, I just bought Vermont,’ those sorts of stupid things which you just meant to impress. He was not about that at all. Just, ‘Hey, how are you? How are the kids?’ So it is humbling for someone like me who based my life on creating armor around me so that I wouldn’t be hurt — change my name, change my appearance, do whatever I have to do to survive and appear stronger and more successful than I am.”

Gene continued: “People think I’m much richer than I actually am. I mean, I’ve done okay, but they say, ‘Oh, you must have billions.’ No, I don’t. It’s just that thing. And I like that thing because it means you might not be hurt as much, ’cause there are a lot of people who are out to get you, because they have empty lives; I don’t know why. But humbling — it’s important for people like yours truly… It is important to meet somebody like Ozzy, who is just himself, whether — now, of course, when he gets up on stage, it’s more like scream therapy. You get out there and it’s just all energy coming, but strangely, the real Ozzy — he’s supposed to be the Prince Of Darkness, and yet in the shows he blows kisses to the fans and goes, ‘I love you.’ If you were the Prince Of Darkness, that’s like anti — that’s kind of like a good guy. He was a giant.”

Gene previously talked about Ozzy‘s death in late July during an appearance on Piers Morgan Uncensored. After host Piers Morgan noted that the debut SABBATH album was a “revolutionary” record when it came out in 1970, Gene concurred. “Well, when you first heard it… I mentioned this before elsewhere that I was reading Rolling Stone (magazine), and when you got to the back cover, there was an ad, a black ad with silhouettes of figures,” he recalled. “You didn’t quite know what it was. BLACK SABBATH. But the headline said ‘BLACK SABBATH — louder than LED ZEPPELIN‘. I went, ‘Oh my God. I’ve gotta check this band out. What’s this about?’ And in the early days, we found ourselves playing with SABBATH — three or four shows, 1974 I think it was. And it was not a big hall — 3,000 seats maybe — and on the way off the stage, Geezer (Butler, SABBATH bassist) was off stage, the great bass player, and with the heels on and everything, I was about seven feet tall, and Geezer is not; Geezer is regular height. And Ozzy tells the story of how Geezer goes back to Ozzy and starts talking, ‘What’s this band blowing up bombs and all? What’s that about?’ But I’ll tell you what happened is on the way off the stage, Ozzy was going on the stage and we were going by each other and I was aware, ‘Oh, this is the lead singer of BLACK SABBATH.’ And he walked over and he put his hand out. He says, ‘Hello, I’m Ozzy. Nice to see you.’ I was fully in my the stage thing. And he went just matter of fact, ‘Hi, I’m Ozzy. Nice to see you.’ I was so caught off guard. And then he went on stage and went crazy.

“What a giant,” Gene continued. “People have called me, people in the industry, but there were two fans who were on the phone together that I happened to know, and they couldn’t get the words out (because they were mourning Ozzy‘s death). They were just bawling. They were just crying. Kept crying. One would start talking about, ‘Remember when Ozzy…’ And then they would get back to crying.

“He was a giant,” Simmons repeated. “What a terrible, terrible loss.”

Asked how good of a singer Ozzy was from a technical standpoint, Gene said: “He’s never gotten the credit. Ozzy never tried to change his voice. When I sing in KISS or when (METALLICA‘s James) Hetfield or anybody gets up there, we put on the gruff tone, we put on the meat grinder in our voice to try to do that. Ozzy was always Ozzy; he sang melody.

“It’s funny,” he continued. “Ozzy and I ran into each other at an event, and we were sitting with each other and talking. And he said this in public, but he said it to my face. I said, ‘So what do you think? What kind of music you like?’ ‘Oh, I love THE BEATLES.’ ‘Oh, yeah. Me too. Me too.’ ‘Who else?’ ‘I love ABBA.’ ABBA?

“The rest of us are all trying to pick the right things to say to bolster our public image. Ozzy didn’t give a squat. He was Ozzy, and caution be damned. Take it or leave it.

“Maybe the Greeks were right after all,” Gene added. “To thine own self be true. Ozzy was always Ozzy, and he was not a made-up thing. We created our stage personas, with the makeup and sticking my tongue out and all that stuff. Ozzy just walked out on stage… and just let it all hang out. And the love and admiration, not just of the industry but the fans is unequaled. I know right now there are millions of fans — I’m getting choked up myself — there are millions of fans who are just devastated and crying. What a giant.”