KISS bassist/vocalist Gene Simmons has once again reiterated his earlier claim that rock is dead.
Simmons discussed rock’s allegedly declining status during a recent interview on “The Zak Kuhn Show.”
When asked if rock and roll is “still dead”, Simmons responded (as transcribed by Blabbermouth): “It is. And people don’t understand how I can say that when we all have our favorite songs and we love our favorite bands — you and I and everybody else. But what I mean is that… Well, let’s play a game, and I’ve done this before.
“From 1958 until 1988, that’s 30 years. 30 years. So what came during that period? Well, we had Elvis [Presley], we had THE BEATLES, THE [ROLLING] STONES, Jimi Hendrix, all that, PINK FLOYD, the solo artists, David Bowie and just music that lasts forever, we’d like to think. In the disco world, you had Madonna, more heavy guitars, you had — Oh God — AC/DC and everybody else, AEROSMITH and on and on. And you had Motown at the same time. You had Prince. It was a very, very rich musical menu. It could go up and down. You had prog bands, you had YES, GENESIS, GENTLE GIANT, and you had the heavy bands, LED ZEPPELIN and so on. And from 1988 until today, it’s something like almost 40 years, certainly 35 years. Who are the new BEATLES?”
When host mentioned NIRVANA, Gene said: “Stop. We are blinded. I’m a major fan. If you walked down the street and asked a 20-year-old, ‘Who’s the bass player in NIRVANA?’, they wouldn’t know what you’re talking about. Or, ‘Can you sing a NIRVANA song?’ No, no. THE BEATLES and, to slightly lesser extent, THE STONES and Elvis, everybody knew THE BEATLES. If you hated rock music, you knew about them. By the way, I’m delusional enough to believe some market reports about how the KISS faces are the most recognized faces on the planet. And I’ve tried this before. You walk down the street, randomly ask people, ‘Who’s on Mount Rushmore?’ They’ll say, ‘Uh, Elvis.’ They won’t get it, but they know those four faces anywhere you go. They may hate the band, but you can’t deny that. So NIRVANA, one of my favorite bands. If you ask somebody who’s 20 or something, there’s a generation gap, ‘Name a song,’ they wouldn’t be able to tell you. ‘Who’s the bass player?’ No idea. And by the way, I know that because one of the other samples is my son, who’s no longer that age when he was a little bit over 20. He saw a cute girl — he’s telling me the story — he saw a cute girl, so he’s trying to open up the conversation, and she’s wearing a ROLLING STONES t-shirt that’s got the tongue on it, and on top of the t-shirt it actually says, ‘THE ROLLING STONES.’ And he walks up, and his first line is, ‘Oh, so you’re a fan, huh?’ And she says something like, ‘Yeah. Of what?’ And Nick, my son, says, ‘You know, THE STONES.’ She goes, ‘THE STONES?’ He goes, ‘Yeah, THE ROLLING STONES.’ She goes, ‘THE ROLLING STONES? What’s that? A band?’ Nick says, ‘Are you kidding? You’re wearing their t-shirt.’ And he was telling me she looked down — upside down, I guess, because it’s facing [him] — and she goes, ‘Oh, oh, I just like the shirt. I just like the t-shirt. And Nick said, ‘You must know THE ROLLING STONES. You know ‘Satisfaction’.’ [hums riff] ‘Nope. Never heard it.’ He went through a few other songs. Never heard those songs. And he said, ‘You’ve never heard of Mick Jagger?’ And she said, ‘Mick Jagger? Oh yeah, yeah. I heard…’ What I’m about to tell you, my hand to God, is true. No exaggeration. She goes, ‘Mick Jagger. Oh, yeah, the serial killer.’ Anything you think is commonplace that the masses know, they don’t. Very few things everybody knows.
When Simmons asked host to name two bands that could be the next BEATLES, he mentioned PEARL JAM and FOO FIGHTERS, leading Gene to respond: “Not on your life. Of course, I love FOO FIGHTERS. I love those bands. Mike McCready told me he was growing up with those KISS records. In fact, one of his solos … he took note for note from Ace Frehley. But that’s not my point. My point is if you randomly walk down the street and you ask the first young person you meet, a 20-year-old, and you say, ‘Name me anybody in PEARL JAM,’ good luck with that. ‘Name me or tell me a song. Hum a song.’ They [can’t].
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