![‘Married With Children’ Star Katey Sagal Says Gene Simmons Laughed at the Idea of Marrying Her](http://townsquare.media/site/295/files/2017/03/simmonsSagal.jpg?w=630&h=420&zc=1&s=0&a=t&q=89&w=980&q=75)
‘Married With Children’ Star Katey Sagal Says Gene Simmons Laughed at the Idea of Marrying Her
Actress Katey Sagal has revealed that she had an on-and-off relationship with Kiss icon Gene Simmons in the ‘70s – and says it ended when she discussed marriage and he laughed at her.
Sagal, 63, rose to fame in the '80s sitcom Married … With Children and is also known for her work on Futurama and Sons of Anarchy. But she’d started out as a singer-songwriter, and recorded backing vocals for Simmons’ debut solo album, which was released in 1978.
In her memoir, Grace Notes: My Recollections, Sagal writes about meeting Simmons in a bar in Santa Monica, where she worked as a singing waitress. “At first, I thought Gene was really weird,” she said. “I took him home with me that night because he was quite persuasive, and I like men.”
Their affair continued in bursts for a number of years, but it came to an end when Sagal told Simmons that she was going to marry bassist Freddie Beckmeier of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band unless Simmons proposed to her instead. When Simmons laughed at the suggestion, she married Beckmeier in 1977. They divorced three years later.
Sagal’s musical career also includes stints with Bob Dylan, Molly Hatchet, Bette Midler, Olivia Newton-John and others. She released her debut album in 1994, and later contributed to the Sons of Anarchy soundtrack. She put out her fifth LP, Covered, in 2013.
Sagal’s memoir is described by publisher Gallery Books as a journey “from the tragic deaths of her parents to her long years in the Los Angeles rock scene, from being diagnosed with cancer at the age of 28 to getting her big break as the wise-cracking Peggy Bundy on Married … With Children.” It’s on sale now.
After years of publicly mocking the concept of marriage -- to such a degree that his bandmate Paul Stanley refused to invite him to his 2005 wedding -- Simmons tied the knot with longtime girlfriend Shannon Tweed in 2011.
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