Gene Simmons: ‘Rock Is Finally Dead’

As the subject of an Esquire Q&A conducted by his son, Nick Simmons, the KISS bassist tore into today’s Internet, file-swapping culture, saying today’s budding musicians don’t stand a chance making a living when “free” is the new standard.

“I am so sad that the next 15-year-old kid in a garage someplace in Saint Paul, that plugs into his Marshall and wants to turn it up to ten, will not have anywhere near the same opportunity that I did,” Simmons said.  “He will most likely, no matter what he does, fail miserably.  There is no industry for that anymore.

“And who is the culprit?  There’s always the changing tide of interests – music tastes change with each generation. To blame that is silly.  That was always the exciting part, after all: ‘What’s next?’ But there’s something else.  The death of rock was not a natural death.  Rock did not die of old age. It was murdered.  And the real culprit is that kid’s 15-year-old next-door neighbor, probably a friend of his. Maybe even one of the bandmates he’s jamming with.  The tragedy is that they seem to have no idea that they just killed their own opportunity – they killed the artists they would have loved.  Some brilliance, somewhere, was going to be expressed, and now it won’t, because it’s that much harder to earn a living playing and writing songs.  No one will pay you to do it.”

Simmons isn’t optimistic about the recording industry, either, saying the system that provided backing for bands like KISS is no more because of Napster and other file-sharing applications.

“What is the next Dark Side Of The Moon?  Now that the record industry barely exists, they wouldn’t have a chance to make something like that.  There is a reason that, along with the usual top-40 juggernauts, some of the biggest touring bands are half old people, like me.”

Click here for the entire interview.