Gene Simmons Says Rock Is Dead. He’s Clueless

Tony Soprano as soon as famously mentioned, “’Bear in mind when’ is the bottom type of dialog.” This by no means dawned on Kiss’ Gene Simmons, whose current “rock is lifeless” rant amounted to little greater than waxing nostalgic in regards to the days when his band dominated the roost — and revealed his ignorance and disinterest within the present state of the style.

Simmons made his newest proclamation on an episode of The Zak Kuhn Present. When requested if he believed rock was nonetheless lifeless, Simmons replied: “It’s. And other people do not perceive how I can say that once we all have our favourite songs and we love our favourite bands, you and I and all people else. However what I imply is that — properly, let’s play a sport, and I’ve carried out this earlier than. From 1958 till 1988, that is 30 years. Thirty years. So what got here throughout that interval? Effectively, we had Elvis, we had the Beatles, the [Rolling] Stones, Jimi Hendrix, all that, Pink Floyd, the solo artists, David Bowie and simply music that lasts eternally, we would wish to assume. Within the disco world, you had Madonna, extra heavy guitars, you had — oh, God — AC/DC and all people else, Aerosmith and on and on. And also you had Motown on the similar time. You had Prince. It was a really, very wealthy musical menu. It might go up and down. You had prog bands, you had Sure, Genesis, Mild Big, and also you had the heavy bands, Led Zeppelin and so forth. And from 1988 till at this time — it is one thing like nearly 40 years, actually 35 years — who’re the brand new Beatles?”

When Kuhn instructed Nirvana, Simmons interjected: “Cease. We’re blinded. I am a serious fan. When you walked down the road and requested a 20-year-old, ‘Who’s the bass participant in Nirvana?’ they would not know what you are speaking about. Or, ‘Are you able to sing a Nirvana track?’ No, no. The Beatles — and, to a barely lesser extent, the Stones and Elvis — all people knew the Beatles. When you hated rock music, you knew about them. By the best way, I am delusional sufficient to imagine some market reviews about how the Kiss faces are probably the most acknowledged faces on the planet. And I’ve tried this earlier than: You stroll down the road, randomly ask individuals, ‘Who’s on Mount Rushmore?’ They’re going to say, ‘Uh, Elvis.’ They will not get it, however they know these 4 faces anyplace you go. They could hate the band, however you possibly can’t deny that.”

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It was a sometimes meandering and self-aggrandizing response from Simmons, and one which failed to supply any tangible proof that rock is lifeless. As a substitute, it revealed that Simmons’ thought of a “thriving” rock scene might be commodified and bought on division retailer T-shirts world wide. Simmons is speaking about rock as a company monolith that appears, sounds and acts the identical because it did in 1977. There’s nonetheless a marketplace for that, as evidenced by the numerous legacy rock artists who’ve introduced huge excursions for 2025, in addition to younger acts like Greta Van Fleet who’ve debuted contained in the Billboard Prime 10 and stuffed arenas off the energy of their traditional rock cosplay. However this slim, antiquated view of rock barely scratches the floor of the style’s wealthy, albeit embattled, present-day ecosystem.

Simmons’ “Who’re the brand new Beatles?” chorus is a lazy and irrelevant response to the dialogue of rock’s present standing. For one, the Beatles have been a one-of-a-kind sociocultural phenomenon that may merely by no means be replicated. (Taylor Swift could have made an identical world influence, however she operates in a music enterprise and a world that’s unrecognizable from that of the Beatles’ heyday, so it’s an apples-to-oranges comparability.) Secondly, the 30-year interval Simmons is referencing, when labels had countless cash to blow on fostering up-and-coming expertise, is a mere blip on the radar within the scope of music as commerce. It wasn’t thought of such a profitable enterprise enterprise earlier than that, and it in all probability by no means can be in the identical means once more, save for the 99th percentile of pop superstars. The streaming financial system has concurrently democratized entry to music, fragmented listenership and bankrupted small-to-midsize artists to the extent {that a} rock band slicing their tooth at this time has nearly no probability of reaching a whiff of the identical success. They may very well be writing the following “A Day within the Life” as we converse, but it surely’s not going to promote 20 million copies, and it’s going to take some digging from avid music listeners to seek out. That’s a significant issue in its personal proper, but it surely’s not the issue Simmons purports to spotlight right here.

Moreover, Simmons’ fast dismissal of Nirvana on the premise that no informal fan is aware of Krist Novoselic’s identify rings hole, contemplating the identical informal fan could be hard-pressed to inform you who performed alongside Simmons and Paul Stanley in Kiss for the previous 20-odd years. His related rejection of Pearl Jam, one other one in all Kuhn’s recommendations, ignores the inconvenient reality that each Nirvana and Pearl Jam outsold Kiss by not less than five-to-one while you evaluate their highest-certified albums. (Pearl Jam’s Ten: 13 million. Nirvana’s Nevermind: 10 million. Kiss’ Destroyer: 2 million.)

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Kuhn additionally supplied up Foo Fighters for instance of a modern-day rock large, to which Simmons argued that Dave Grohl has eclipsed each Nirvana and Pearl Jam’s recognition by changing into a Hollywood socialite, not primarily based on his music. This, he claimed, is identical purpose that Snoop Dogg stays extra common than “different rappers who may really be greater rap stars — M.C. Legal or no matter, I simply made that up.” That is, um, ignorant at finest and racist at worst, but it surely makes Simmons sound bafflingly out of contact at a time when rapper Kendrick Lamar’s new shock album GNX reigns atop the Billboard 200 and he occupies your complete Sizzling 100 Prime 5 — a feat beforehand completed by solely Swift, Drake and, that’s proper, the Beatles.

If Simmons needs to lament the dying of rock ’n’ roll as monoculture, he has some grounds to take action. However to proclaim your complete style lifeless throughout the board reveals that Simmons has no real interest in wanting exterior his insular world. If he did, he may discover that Inexperienced Day — whose major-label debut Dookie was not too long ago licensed double diamond for gross sales exceeding 20 million — is headlining Coachella subsequent yr. He may notice that My Chemical Romance simply bought out a complete U.S. stadium tour. He may see that Linkin Park and Pierce the Veil have hefty area excursions booked for 2025. He may marvel that genre-bending psych-rock weirdos King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard have develop into one of many greatest cult bands on the scene, packing theaters and amphitheaters world wide. And if he actually needed to do his homework, he may have the benefit of the rock/punk/metallic hybrid of bands just like the Soiled Nil or White Reaper, who’re dutifully making the rounds on the membership and theater circuit the best way old-school rock bands used to do. (For the document, both of those bands might have made nice openers on Kiss’ farewell tour if the band didn’t take the straightforward means out and handed the gig to Amber Wild, led by Paul Stanley’s son, Evan Stanley.)

However Simmons doesn’t wish to do this. He would somewhat complain that he and his retired boomer cohort now not run the present, and in the event that they’re not in cost, then no person ought to be. He’s properly inside his rights to lament the dying of rock to anyone who will pay attention — however he must realize it’s the bottom type of dialog.