Peace, love, and rock and roll ™
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Gene Simmons - the frontman for the glam rock band Kiss, has attempted to trademark the “devil horns” rock hand gesture.
The report states that Simmons filed an application to the US Patent and Trademark Office last week. The rock and roll star claims to have first popularized the rock and roll hand sign during a Kiss concert in 1974.
Simmons is apparently seeking to trademark the gesture for “entertainment, namely, live performances by a musical artist; personal appearances by a musical artist.” - that means that if a performer uses the rock and roll sign onstage, he has to pay Gene Simmons.
The problem is though, Simmons isn’t the first person to use the rock and roll sign. It has been noted that use of the hand gesture – or something similar – appears to predate way before Simmons claims he first used it. John Lennon, for example, is seen making a similar gesture on the cover of The Beatles’ 1966 single, ‘Yellow Submarine/Eleanor Rigby’.
Late Black Sabbath frontman Ronnie James Dio is also credited as popularizing the devil horn gesture. In a 2001 interview, Dio said: “I doubt very much if I would be the first one who ever did that. That’s like saying I invented the wheel, I’m sure someone did that at some other point. I think you’d have to say that I made it fashionable. I used it so much and all the time and it had become my trademark.”
What do you think? Let us know in the comment section below.
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