Gene Simmons Nonetheless Insists Rock Is Useless however Can Survive Reside

Gene Simmons repeated his well-known assertion that “rock is lifeless” however offered an argument for a way the reside music scene may nonetheless survive.

The Kiss cofounder made headlines with the soundbite in 2014, though it wasn’t the primary time he expressed an analogous viewpoint. The model of his clarification eight years in the past turned a regular matter of dialog amongst artists and observers and stays a staple of interview questions.

“I stand by my phrases: Rock is lifeless,” Simmons instructed Metallic Hammer within the newest version. “The those that killed it are followers. Followers killed the factor they liked by downloading and file sharing without cost. How do you count on someone who loves the guitar to return into this inventive course of? You’ve obtained to invent your self. And so, rock is lifeless.”

He argued that, between 1958 and 1998, “lots of of bands” together with the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, the Rolling Stones, Prince and David Bowie had shaped and created “everlasting music” however that since that interval, music hasn’t had the identical lasting high quality. “Influential bands – that make someone wish to decide up a guitar, learn to play songs and be in a band – do not exist, as a result of you’ll be able to’t make a residing,” he stated.

However Simmons praised the reside music scene, such because the U.Okay.’s Obtain competition, the place Kiss will take their closing bow in Britain this summer time. The explanation these occasions may survive, he stated, was “you got a fucking ticket. You paid for it in order that the those that set the stage up can receives a commission in order that the [drivers] that introduced the gear can earn a residing and feed their household.”

Nonetheless, he issued one other warning, noting that “should you don’t purchase tickets and it’s all free, how does anyone make a residing? … The those that work with us as an alternative of for us, they should feed their households. How do new bands survive? How have they got roadies? How do you pay for gasoline? No, no. Rock is lifeless. And the followers are accountable. You all harm the one you’re keen on. Unhappy however true.”