KISS bassist and co-founder Gene Simmons has once again sparked debate over the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame and its inductees. In a recent interview with Ben Weiss, host of the Legends N Leaders podcast, Simmons weighed in on musical relevance, genre distinctions, and the ongoing Hall of Fame controversies.
Simmons said (as transcribed by Blabbermouth): “I don’t care. You just brought up a subject I could give a f**k about… Well, there’s ‘popular’ and then there are words like ‘relevance’. Who determines relevance? Critics? What is that word? How do you [become] relevant? Who does that? Or is it the American ideal? Of the people, for the people, by the people. The first words are ‘we the people’. That’s relevance to me… The fact that, for instance, IRON MAIDEN is not in the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, when they can sell out stadiums, and Grandmaster Flash [one of hip-hop’s original innovators] is.”
Simmons referenced a debate he had with legendary rapper Ice Cube about the Hall of Fame’s genre inclusions.
“Ice Cube and I had a back-and-forth [on this subject], and he’s a bright guy and I respect what he’s done. It’s not my music. I don’t come from the ghetto. It doesn’t speak my language. And I said in print many times, hip-hop does not belong in the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, nor does opera, symphony orchestras. How come the New York Philharmonic doesn’t get [inducted into] the Rock And Roll [Hall Of Fame]? ‘Cause it’s called the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. But he shot back and said, ‘No, it’s the spirit of rock and roll.’ Okay, fine. So Ice Cube and Grandmaster Flash and all these guys are in the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. I just wanna know when LED ZEPPELIN‘s gonna be in the Hip-Hop Hall Of Fame. ‘Oh, you can’t do that?’ Oh, really?”
“Music has labels because it describes an approach,” Simmons explained. “By and large, rap, hip-hop is a spoken-word art. You put beats in back of it and somebody comes up with a musical phrase, but it’s verbal. There are some melodies, but by and large it’s a verbal thing — it’s rhyming and all that. And I know [rapper] Eminem can [rap really quickly]. I wish him more success. I really don’t give a f**k. It just doesn’t speak to me. With the genius of being able to put words and music and arrange it, it’s much more complex.”
Simmons’ comments arrive amid ongoing frustrations among rock and metal veterans over the Hall of Fame’s selections. Despite being eligible 25 years after releasing their first album, iconic bands such as IRON MAIDEN and MOTÖRHEAD have yet to receive induction. GUNS N’ ROSES, by contrast, were inducted during their initial year of eligibility.
In 2018, MAIDEN frontman Bruce Dickinson called the Hall “an utter and complete load of bollocks run by a bunch of sanctimonious bloody Americans who wouldn’t know rock and roll if it hit them in the face.”
Similarly, MAIDEN bassist Steve Harris told Rolling Stone he isn’t concerned about the band’s omission. “I don’t mind that we’re not in things like that. I don’t think about things like that. It’s very nice if people give you awards or accolades, but we didn’t get into the business for that sort of thing. I’m certainly not going to lose sleep if we don’t get any sort of award, not just that one, any award. I don’t think we deserve to have this or that necessarily. With what we do, whatever comes of it is great. Whatever doesn’t come of it is great, too.”
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