Gene Simmons: "Rock Music Is Finally Dead & It Was Murdered"

KISS bassist Gene Simmons says that the rock industry is “finally dead” and it didn’t die a quiet death – it was “murdered.”

The 65-year-old, real name Chaim Witz, sat down with his son Nick Simmons for an interview about the music business for the US edition of Esquire Magazine.

As always, Gene didn’t pull any punches as he lamented what he perceives as the decline of rock music predominately at the hands of the industry and illegal file-sharing.

Referring to making it as a band, Gene said: “When I was coming up, it was not an insurmountable mountain. Once you had a record company on your side, they would fund you, and that also meant when you toured they would give you tour support.

“There was an entire industry to help the next Beatles, Stones, Prince, Hendrix, to prop them up and support them every step of the way. There are still record companies, and it does apply to pop, rap, and country to an extent.

“But for performers who are also songwriters - the creators - for rock music, for soul, for the blues - it's finally dead. Rock is finally dead.

“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. He will most likely, no matter what he does, fail miserably.”

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Gene continued: “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 neighbour, probably a friend of his.

“Maybe even one of the band mates 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.

“The masses do not recognize file-sharing and downloading as stealing because there's a copy left behind for you — it's not that copy that's the problem, it's the other one that someone received but didn't pay for.

“The problem is that nobody will pay you for the 10,000 hours you put in to create what you created. I can only imagine the frustration of all that work, and having no one value it enough to pay you for it.”

Reflecting upon the future, Gene added: “There is no record industry, unfortunately. Not like there was. There are some terrific bands out there - Tame Impala, which you turned me on to, and so on. And during the '60s and '70s they would've become big, I'm convinced.

“But, strangely, today, everything pales before Psy's "Gangnam Style." Look up the numbers on that song. He blows everyone else out of the water.”