Gene Simmons’ Newest Flap

Simmons spoke with journalist Roger Catlin on Songfacts.com. He was asked if he keeps in touch with KISS members who have left the band over the years and responded with a tirade.

“No, I don’t get along with anybody who’s a drug addict and has a dark cloud over their head and sees themselves as a victim,” he said. “Drug addicts and alcoholics are always: ‘The world is a harsh place.’ My mother was in a concentration camp in Nazi Germany. I don’t want to hear f**k all about ‘the world as a harsh place.’ She gets up every day, smells the roses and loves life. And for a putz, 20-year-old kid to say, ‘I’m depressed, I live in Seattle.” F**k you, then kill yourself.”

The article was put online July 31. He had more to say:

“I always call them on their bluff. I’m the guy who says ‘Jump!’ when there’s a guy on top of a building who says, ‘That’s it, I can’t take it anymore, I’m going to jump.’ Are you kidding? Why are you announcing it? Shut the f**k up, have some dignity and jump! You’ve got the crowd.”

Williams died Aug 11 by apparent suicide brought on by severe depression. Simmons tweeted his condolences and retweeted a post that included info for a suicide prevention hotline, but the fallout was starting, beginning in Australia.

Mike Fitzpatrick, who runs radio networks Triple M & LocalWorks Network, pulled all KISS tunes from the airwaves with the following statement:

“Gene Simmons’ recent comments are misguided and insensitive,” Fitzpatrick said. “Depression and suicide are not topics he should be using to further his notoriety or sell records. His desperation to use mental health issues to find relevancy in a modern age is sickening. I can only put it down to a brain fade on his part. The Triple M Network can’t and won’t be playing or supporting this dickhead’s music. I put the challenge out to other stations across Australia and North America to also drop any of this nudnik’s songs until such time as he reconsiders his thoughtless and insensitive position.”

Next up was Nikki Sixx who wrecked Simmons during Sixx’s radio show.

“It’s pretty moronic because [Simmons] thinks everybody listens to him, that he is the God of Thunder,” Sixx said. “He will tell you he is the greatest man on earth, and to be honest with you, I like Gene. But in this situation, I don’t like Gene. I don’t like Gene’s words, … There is a 20-year-old kid out there who is a Kiss fan and reads this and goes, ‘You know what? He’s right. I should just kill myself.’”

This comes in the wake of the Black Lips crashing Simmons’ Q&A on HuffPo. The band called out the KISS bassist on what they deemed to be misogynistic comments.