KISS bassist Gene Simmons has described his previous behaviour with women as “arrogant” and “sexist” in a new interview with Channel Seven‘s Andrew Denton.

Appearing on Denton’s Interview program on Tuesday night, Simmons — who claims to have slept with over 5,000 women — said he wasn’t proud of his past behaviour.

Asked about an interview from over a decade ago in which he said women should welcome him with “open legs”, Simmons said some of his comments were “ethically and morally wrong”.

“But you also have to recognise — and this is not a defence, just the observation — it was a different time,” Simmons said.

“So there’s no excuse for that kind of language, but it was also a different time. Cocksmanship, and the more arrogant and sexist you were the cooler you were to your fans.

“I’ve made lots of mistakes. You’ve got to move on and become better. It’s time all of us woke up — and I’ll be the first to one to admit I’ve been an arrogant, sexist pig.”

Simmons also acknowledged his “hedonistic lifestyle” had led him to “hurt” his family, his children and his mother, but described his longtime partner Shannon Tweed as “my Jesus”.

Simmons said he was once scared of marriage, as he didn’t want to become like his father.

“My father ran out on myself and my mother. I was about six or seven, and I didn’t want to become my father,” he said.

“I didn’t want to get married, have children and walk out. And I also had ambitions far beyond playing guitar in a band and all that. A ‘rule the world’ kind of thing.”

During the interview, Simmons also mentioned KISS are “gearing up for something really big”, which is most probably the “spectacular” three-year world tour he recently described to a Swedish newspaper.

Simmons is due to tour Australia with his solo band between August and September.

Watch snippets of his interview with Andrew Denton below, and the full thing right here.