KISS bassist Gene Simmons has doubled down on his “rock is dead” mentality, chalking the decline of the genre up to the rise of streaming services.
Simmons recently sat down with Consequence of Sound to discuss his new G² line of guitars with Gibson. During the interview, Simmons was asked about his at odds decision to launch a line of guitars when he feels that “rock is dead.”
“The point is, yeah, rock is dead because if we play the game from 1958 until 1988, which is 30 years, you had Elvis, The Beatles, The Stones, Pink Floyd, and on and on and on,” Simmons explained. “And you can go to the heavy part of it, which is Metallica, Maiden, if you want to put KISS in there, that’s fine. AC/DC, on and on and on. Even U2, Prince, Bowie, Eagles. And then you get to disco stuff, and Madonna, and that stuff, and Motown, of course. And then from 1988 until today, who’s the new Beatles?”
He continued, “I’ve heard a reaction of Foo Fighters, one of my favorite bands, but you’re kidding yourself. There’s also the boy bands: NSYNC, One Direction, BTS, and good for them that they’ve got success.
“Don’t kid yourself. As soon as those girls are gonna grow a little bit older, that’s going to go away. It’s like sugar: you taste it, it gives you that little energy boost, and then it’s gone forever and you don’t care. But don’t kid yourself, it ain’t The Beatles. They don’t write songs, they don’t play instruments, it ain’t that. And we all love Elvis, never wrote a song in his life. There’s just nothing that compares to The Beatles.”
Gene Simmons went on to suggest that streaming consumption has had a dire impact on budding rock musicians, “The reason for that is not because there’s a lack of talent, but because young folks, that kid living in his mom’s basement, decided one day that he didn’t want to pay for music,” he explained.
“He wanted to download and file share. And that’s what killed the chances for the next generation of great bands. The fact that the music was for free. So nowadays new bands don’t have a chance.”
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He continued, “You get what you pay for. So nowadays, if you download a song, the artist will get 1/100th of one cent. Even Spotify … the artist sees very little of that. So you get what you pay for.”
KISS will return to Australian shows for their farewell tour in November, you can find all the dates and relevant ticket information below.
KISS End Of The Road Australian Tour 2021
Tickets on sale from 12pm local time, Friday, March 5th
Sunday, November 14th
(Supported by Legs Electric)
RAC Arena, Perth, WA
Wednesday, November 17th
(Supported by The Superjesus)
Adelaide Entertainment Centre, Adelaide, SA
Saturday, November 20th
(Supported by Dead City Ruin)
Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne, VIC
Sunday, November 21st
(Supported by Dallas Crane)
Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne, VIC
Friday, November 26th
(Supported by The Poor)
Qudos Bank Arena, Sydney, NSW
Saturday, November 27th
(Supported by The Poor)
Qudos Bank Arena, Sydney, NSW
Tuesday, November 30th
(Supported by Wolfmother)
Brisbane Entertainment Centre, Brisbane, , QLD
Saturday, December 4th
(Supported by Wolfmother, Tumbleweed, and TBC local act)
Queensland Country Bank Stadium, Townsville, QLD
