Gene Simmons: 'Rock music is still dead'

'Rock music is still dead'

Photo: © AVALON

Gene Simmons still considers rock music to be "dead".

The KISS legend, 75, continues to profess that no one has come close to the likes of The Beatles, Elvis Presley, The Rolling Stones, and Pink Floyd.

Appearing on 'The Zak Kuhn Show', Gene was asked if rock is "still dead", to which he replied: "It is. And people don't understand how I can say that when we all have our favourite songs and we love our favourite 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 [Presley], 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?"

Host Zack then suggested grunge pioneers Nirvana, but Gene insists most young adults wouldn't be able to name any of the other members of the 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' group – except perhaps late frontman Kurt Cobain and drummer Dave Grohl.

He reacted: "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."

Gene blamed it on a “generation gap” and recalled his son Nick being in his early 20s and talking to a girl wearing a Stones t-shirt and her having no clue who the legendary rock ‘n’ roll band are.

The 'Rock and Roll All Nite' rocker also quipped that he is "delusional enough" to believe KISS are "the most recognised faces on the planet".

Gene insisted fame has a lot to do with the success of rock stars and that the likes of Foo Fighters' Dave Grohl are "more popular" because they engage in media appearances.

He added: "Not everybody loves Jesus either. That's not the point. Fame itself is the ultimate reward."