“We started doing that before there was a thing called ‘metal’ or the Seattle stuff, we just did it to save our voices. And then it became commonplace”: Gene Simmons says Kiss was one of the first bands to take downtuning into the mainstream

Gene Simmons with his new signature Gibson G2 Thunderbird bass.

While drop D tuning was originally introduced by classical and blues guitarists, early examples of its incorporation into the rock canon include The Beatles' Dear Prudence (1968) and Led Zeppelin's Moby Dick (1969). Tony Iommi continued to take things down a notch – sometimes as far as three semitones below standard guitar tuning – on 1971's Master of Reality.

Dropped and downtunings later became a defining characteristic of many ’90s guitar bands, but Gene Simmons recently stressed that Kiss was early to the detuning party.