Kiss frontman Gene Simmons claimed that "rock is dead" back in 2014 and we've been talking about it ever since. Now in a new interview on The Zak Kuhn Show, Simmons doubled down on his claims and let me tell you, it's a little ridiculous.
Simmons starts off with his usual "who are the new Beatles" defense and frankly, it's bullshit. One of the major reasons the world doesn't have a new Beatles isn't because people aren't writing good and memorable songs – it's that nobody hears them anymore. Streaming services are a nightmare, social media algorithms push garbage, and artists can't make enough money to actually dedicated their lives to their craft anymore. Anyway, Simmons starts off as such:
"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, 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?"
Kuhn then mentions that Nirvana is one of the biggest bands in the world, and falls into the category of the last 40 years, and of course Simmons shoots it down. Simmons comes one step short of being the "I saw your band shirt, name three songs" guy and then goes off on a tangent about a girl wearing a Rolling Stone shirt despite not knowing who the band is. At this point if you're feeling like maybe Simmons simply wants rock to be dead and is trying to rationalize it in any way possible, yeah – I'm getting that sense too.
"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."
Oh, and then things get a little… questionable when Simmons can't think of another rapper other than Snoop Dogg and comes up with the name "M.C. Criminal." This is all in an answer to why Pearl Jam and Foo Fighters aren't the next Beatles, by the way. Because nobody is. The Beatles were The Beatles. But it seems that if you're not The Beatles, you're not shit.
"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].
"You and I are blinded because we're very close to it. So here's something the rest of the world knows, but we don't. Who's the prime minister of England? Tell me who the prime minister of France is. Tell me who the prime minister of Canada is. And by the way, next to Pearl Jam and Nirvana, strangely, Dave Grohl has become far more popular. They may know Dave because he's done TV commercials and sort of rubbed shoulders with people outside of guitars and concerts. That's how you get to be iconic. So if I say Snoop Dogg, everybody knows who that is, but if you mention other rappers who might actually be bigger rap stars — M.C. Criminal or whatever; I just made that up — the masses wouldn't have any idea. It's because Snoop plays in media — he had a TV show with Martha Stewart, and that kind of thing. So the masses have no idea who's in Phish, one of my favorite bands, or Pearl Jam. They wouldn't have a clue, unless you're a fan."
So… is rock dead? Probably not. And if it is and Simmons knows why, he's sure as hell not articulating it in any significant way. This interview is a mess.
