Gene Simmons finally kisses his Benedict Canyon mansion goodbye

Glam rock legend Gene Simmons has sold his sprawling Benedict Canyon mansion nearly a year after listing it and for considerably less than its highest asking.

The Kiss co-founder and wife Shannon Tweed sold the custom-built property for $16 million, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The couple bought the two-acre property at 2650 Benedict Canyon Drive in 1986 for $1.3 million, according to the report. They demolished a relatively small home there, and built a 13,400-square-foot mansion. Simmons estimates they put about $12 million into the property.

Simmons listed the property last October for $22 million, but the listing expired without a sale. It reappeared on the market in March for $25 million. By mid-May, the price had dropped to $20 million.

Last fall, Simmons said he and Tweed were fed up with “unacceptable” taxes in Beverly Hills and were decamping to a 24-acre estate in Washington. More recently, he said the couple was leaving L.A. “for a quieter lifestyle,” and relocating to Lake Tahoe.

The Benedict Canyon home has seven bedrooms and eight bathrooms. There is also a tennis court and a pool.

Simmons filled at least two rooms with Kiss memorabilia — featuring everything from guitars to pinball machines to condoms — but remodeled those rooms when the property listed, according to the report.

“A family wants to move into a house, not a Kiss museum,” he said.

[LAT] — Dennis Lynch