Tony Soprano as soon as famously mentioned, “’Keep in mind when’ is the bottom type of dialog.” This by no means dawned on Kiss’ Gene Simmons, whose current “rock is lifeless” rant amounted to little greater than waxing nostalgic in regards to the days when his band dominated the roost — and revealed his ignorance and disinterest within the present state of the style.
Simmons made his newest proclamation on an episode of The Zak Kuhn Present. When requested if he believed rock was nonetheless lifeless, Simmons replied: “It’s. And folks do not perceive how I can say that once we all have our favourite songs and we love our favourite bands, you and I and all people else. However what I imply is that — properly, let’s play a sport, and I’ve accomplished this earlier than. From 1958 till 1988, that is 30 years. Thirty years. So what got here throughout that interval? Properly, we had Elvis, we had the Beatles, the [Rolling] Stones, Jimi Hendrix, all that, Pink Floyd, the solo artists, David Bowie and simply music that lasts without end, we might prefer to suppose. Within the disco world, you had Madonna, extra heavy guitars, you had — oh, God — AC/DC and all people else, Aerosmith and on and on. And also you had Motown on the similar time. You had Prince. It was a really, very wealthy musical menu. It might go up and down. You had prog bands, you had Sure, Genesis, Mild Large, and also you had the heavy bands, Led Zeppelin and so forth. And from 1988 till right now — it is one thing like nearly 40 years, actually 35 years — who’re the brand new Beatles?”
When Kuhn steered Nirvana, Simmons interjected: “Cease. We’re blinded. I am a serious fan. In case you walked down the road and requested a 20-year-old, ‘Who’s the bass participant in Nirvana?’ they would not know what you are speaking about. Or, ‘Are you able to sing a Nirvana track?’ No, no. The Beatles — and, to a barely lesser extent, the Stones and Elvis — all people knew the Beatles. In case you hated rock music, you knew about them. By the best way, I am delusional sufficient to consider some market studies about how the Kiss faces are essentially the most acknowledged faces on the planet. And I’ve tried this earlier than: You stroll down the road, randomly ask folks, ‘Who’s on Mount Rushmore?’ They will say, ‘Uh, Elvis.’ They will not get it, however they know these 4 faces anyplace you go. They might hate the band, however you’ll be able to’t deny that.”
READ MORE: Kiss Albums Ranked Worst to Finest
It was a usually meandering and self-aggrandizing response from Simmons, and one which failed to supply any tangible proof that rock is lifeless. As an alternative, it revealed that Simmons’ concept of a “thriving” rock scene may be commodified and offered on division retailer T-shirts around the globe. Simmons is speaking about rock as a company monolith that appears, sounds and acts the identical because it did in 1977. There’s nonetheless a marketplace for that, as evidenced by the various legacy rock artists who’ve introduced huge excursions for 2025, in addition to younger acts like Greta Van Fleet who’ve debuted contained in the Billboard Prime 10 and stuffed arenas off the power of their basic rock cosplay. However this slim, antiquated view of rock barely scratches the floor of the style’s wealthy, albeit embattled, present-day ecosystem.
Simmons’ “Who’re the brand new Beatles?” chorus is a lazy and irrelevant response to the dialogue of rock’s present standing. For one, the Beatles have been a one-of-a-kind sociocultural phenomenon that may merely by no means be replicated. (Taylor Swift might have made the same international impression, however she operates in a music enterprise and a world that’s unrecognizable from that of the Beatles’ heyday, so it’s an apples-to-oranges comparability.) Secondly, the 30-year interval Simmons is referencing, when labels had countless cash to blow on fostering up-and-coming expertise, is a mere blip on the radar within the scope of music as commerce. It wasn’t thought-about such a profitable enterprise enterprise earlier than that, and it most likely by no means will probably be in the identical manner once more, save for the 99th percentile of pop superstars. The streaming economic system has concurrently democratized entry to music, fragmented listenership and bankrupted small-to-midsize artists to the extent {that a} rock band slicing their enamel right now has just about no likelihood of attaining a whiff of the identical success. They could possibly be writing the subsequent “A Day within the Life” as we converse, nevertheless it’s not going to promote 20 million copies, and it’s going to take some digging from avid music listeners to search out. That’s a major problem in its personal proper, nevertheless it’s not the issue Simmons purports to spotlight right here.
Moreover, Simmons’ fast dismissal of Nirvana on the idea that no informal fan is aware of Krist Novoselic’s title rings hole, contemplating the identical informal fan could be hard-pressed to let you know who performed alongside Simmons and Paul Stanley in Kiss for the previous 20-odd years. His related rejection of Pearl Jam, one other one among Kuhn’s options, ignores the inconvenient fact that each Nirvana and Pearl Jam outsold Kiss by no less than five-to-one while you examine their highest-certified albums. (Pearl Jam’s Ten: 13 million. Nirvana’s Nevermind: 10 million. Kiss’ Destroyer: 2 million.)
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Kuhn additionally provided up Foo Fighters for example of a modern-day rock big, to which Simmons argued that Dave Grohl has eclipsed each Nirvana and Pearl Jam’s recognition by turning into a Hollywood socialite, not primarily based on his music. This, he claimed, is similar cause that Snoop Dogg stays extra in style than “different rappers who would possibly truly be larger rap stars — M.C. Legal or no matter, I simply made that up.” That is, um, ignorant at greatest and racist at worst, nevertheless it makes Simmons sound bafflingly out of contact at a time when rapper Kendrick Lamar’s new shock album GNX reigns atop the Billboard 200 and he occupies the complete Scorching 100 Prime 5 — a feat beforehand achieved by solely Swift, Drake and, that’s proper, the Beatles.
If Simmons needs to lament the demise of rock ’n’ roll as monoculture, he has some grounds to take action. However to proclaim the complete style lifeless throughout the board reveals that Simmons has little interest in wanting outdoors his insular world. If he did, he would possibly discover that Inexperienced Day — whose major-label debut Dookie was lately licensed double diamond for gross sales exceeding 20 million — is headlining Coachella subsequent 12 months. He would possibly notice that My Chemical Romance simply offered out a whole U.S. stadium tour. He would possibly see that Linkin Park and Pierce the Veil have hefty area excursions booked for 2025. He would possibly marvel that genre-bending psych-rock weirdos King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard have change into one of many largest cult bands on the scene, packing theaters and amphitheaters around the globe. And if he actually needed to do his homework, he would possibly benefit from the rock/punk/metallic hybrid of bands just like the Soiled Nil or White Reaper, who’re dutifully making the rounds on the membership and theater circuit the best way old-school rock bands used to do. (For the report, both of those bands might have made nice openers on Kiss’ farewell tour if the band didn’t take the straightforward manner out and handed the gig to Amber Wild, led by Paul Stanley’s son, Evan Stanley.)
However Simmons doesn’t need to do this. He would reasonably complain that he and his retired boomer cohort not run the present, and in the event that they’re not in cost, then no person must be. He’s properly inside his rights to lament the demise of rock to anyone who will hear — however he should understand it’s the bottom type of dialog.
Kiss Solo Albums Ranked Worst to Finest
Counting down solo albums launched by numerous members of Kiss.
Gallery Credit score: Matthew Wilkening
