Gene Simmons’ son, Nick Simmons interviewed his father for Esquire Magazine. Portions of the interview appears below.
Nick Simmons: You once said the music business isn’t dying — it’s dead. What would you say to young musicians and songwriters today trying to navigate this new terrain?
Gene Simmons: Don’t quit your day job is a good piece of advice. 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. There is no industry for that anymore. And who is the culprit? There’s always the changing tide of interests — music taste changes 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.
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.
It’s very sad for new bands. My heart goes out to them. They just don’t have a chance. If you play guitar, it’s almost impossible. You’re better off not even learning how to play guitar or write songs, and just singing in the shower and auditioning for The X Factor. And I’m not slamming The X Factor, or pop singers. But where’s the next Bob Dylan? Where’s the next Beatles? Where are the songwriters? Where are the creators? Many of them now have to work behind the scenes, to prop up pop acts and write their stuff for them.
Here’s a frightening thought: from 1958 to 1983, name 100 musical anythings that are iconic, that seem to last beyond their time.
NS: [How] does this bode for the industry of the future?
GS: 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.
Read more at Esquire.
source: esquire.com
186 Responses
Hey Gene
Ace Frehely has a Billboard Top Ten Alblum- please explain?
Top 10 with 17,000 copies sold, and it wont go much further than that. (The 1st week of release is all the hardcore rock fans) That’s all it takes now a days to get into the top 10 is 17000 copies. Back in the day it would’ve been a couple hundred thousand.
Im sorry but Gene is right on this one!
Sold 29000 and costs nothing to make on Ace’s laptop!!
Ace Frehley’s new album sold 29,000 copies and made it to the Top Ten..Thats how bad the music business is—second week Frehley’s album was at 49—its a shame. Then again it doesn’t cost $400,000 to make a album anymore
That’s 25,000 copies sold,with multiple editions purchased by the same people, giving you somewhere between 1`5-17,000 actual people purchasing the album. The fact that classic artist have to cannibalize their fanbase with 2-3 editions of each album just to make a dent in the charts sort of proves Simmons point.LOL
Ace’s album is #49 right now. Expected, sure, but people still anticipate an Ace record more than a Kiss record.
The last Kiss record sold more than Ace’s and started at #3 on Billboard 200. Ace is more anticipated than Kiss? Are you sure?
That sold 20,000 week one…your comment is absurd…And I love Aces album, so not knock on him at all…
Kiss is dead as a band! They have not had any talent since Vinnie Vincent left! Gene and Paul can’t keep their Fat mouth’s shut. the worst band musically that ever played! Terrible musicians , decent stage show though.
KISS is hardly a band of bad musicians– not too many fans show up to hear shitty music with fireworks going off
They just sold 600,000 tickets on their tour with Lep. That’s hardly dead. ACE IS FAT AND I TOLD YOU SO!
Just think, Def Leppard has a zillion hit songs and a fan base that will still go to see them. That being said, every 6,000 seat venue, about 4,000 of those people are there for Def Lep. Kiss is going full circle like they did in the early 90’s. They will be back in clubs again soon enough. Then put out another crappy record, then a reunion. Watch.
LOL! No Joe Pensanti–sounds like your dreaming again.
Joe’s an effing comedian. Gotta love it.
Maybe they would, but you forgot that they’re too old now for that kind of thing, it won’t happen. Let’s keep the memories.
With over a 14,000 show average for the last tour, what 6,000 venue would the uninformed be talking about ?????????????
You are delusional, beyond words
Hahaha ! i love that Ace quote!
First, I love the original KISS lineup. Nothing can touch that. Period. Ace is the reason I pickeed up the guitar. His leads were truly a song within a song. But to state that there has been no talent in KISS since Vinnie Vincent, I respectfully disagree. Vinnie definitely brought KISS back from the mire of the Elder and Unmasked with catchy song writing and a modern guitar sound. The right guy at the right time. I think all the drummers had their own style. But I think for sheer musical talent, Bruce Kulick was probably the best all around KISS ever had. He could play classic KISS riffs and leads. His original contributions to the new 80s and 90s albums demonstrated that he could play hard rock, speed weenie metal, grunge, acoustic. His original leads were distinctive too, unlike Tommy’s. Revenge is one of KISS’ best, and WAY better than Sonic Boom or Monster. He played whatever Paul and Gene wanted without complaining–a musical MVP really. He was loyal. The fact that Gene and Paul kept Eric Singer when they decided to put makeup back on (I agree they shouldn’t have folks in Ace and Peter’s makeup, but that’s a different issue) and ditched Bruce was unbelievable. I think he got the shaft. For thesereasons, Bruce will always be my favorite non-original member. BTW, what makeup character would’ve been good for Bruce? An eagle?
I agree with you. Ace is the reason I started playing guitar nearly 36 years ago. And I also agree with you that Bruce was great. He was the musical bright spot of Kiss from when he joined until he was out of the band. It’s hard for me to admit that because Ace was my very first guitar hero and he’s still one of my all time guitar heroes, but it’s true.
One more thing: “speed weenie metal”? That’s hilarious. Well put. I have just adopted a new musical term. Thanks.
I agree I like Bruce the 80s Kiss albums and Revenge is way better than Monster and sonic boom he did get the shaft but then may be his is a better musician and rather turn down a spot in kiss playing space ace rather than being Bruce Kulick
I have also always felt pity for him because he really helped Kiss to relatively stay on top in the 80s and early 90s. I saw him do a clinic in a very small club in Cologne in 1996 (incredible playing over files from Revenge, man he just blew me away) and there were members of the Dutch Kiss fanclub and they already knew what I didn’t know at the time, which was that Kiss would reunite and embark on a worldwide tour – a dream-come-true for me and many of my friends. He was asked by someone in the audience about it and he was polite and reluctant to remark anything bad, practically pretended he did not know much about it, just as you would imagine from seeing him in interviews, a very nice person it seemed. I wondered and still wonder how he must have felt? Sharing the stage in the MTV studio knowing that he was actually fired. The videos put out later (MTV Unplugged as well as Second Coming) made it look like it was more like a spontaneous idea that came up during the conventions but I doubt it, I would rather believe that Gene and Paul knew something had to happen if Kiss was to survive the next decade and that they came up with a plan to rescue the sinking ship. Still, to my knowledge Bruce never said a bad word in public, that is class. Apart from that, I do agree he was the most influential and crucial guitarist besides Ace. Also he could give Kiss that hair metal and dive bomb playing style that they needed to adapt to the musical development in the 80s when suddenly every rockband had a guitarist doing that Van Halen kind of thing. In that respect, he even might have been better fro Kiss than Ace with his classic rock approach could have been (even if that sounds like blasphemy and everyone here knowing I am a fan of Ace).
Character for Bruce? I’m thinkin’ Captain Boredom.
Joe you’re killing me today! Why was Bruce boring? Because he was humble? Because he didn’t have an ego? Because he wrote great licks and was his own original style? Because he incorporated his style of playing on the Kiss records he played on while not copying Ace unlike Tom Thayer? Come on Joe!
“spruce” kulick
“spruce Kulick” ?? LOL! OMG!! But I love that guy! Great guitar player and a truly humble guy. I miss Bruce from the Revenge days especially–the guitar playing on Revenge AND COS is awesome.
Awww. He’s such a nice guy. Maybe a tree or a giraffe? : )
Did they not actually call him the tree sometimes because he did not move much on stage at first?
Fair, but would you also agree that the makeup shouldn’t be sold ? Or are you one of the ones that just fuss about what the 2 that bought it do with it and make excuses for those that sold it ? Remember, they laughed when they sold it and had lawyers advising them.
I don’t negate the fact that the two who sold the makeup rights should not have. Drugs have a funny way of clouding good judgment. I do disapprove of the way the two who bought the rights have used the makeup on the new guys as part of a very well orchestrated plan to re-write KISStory to greatly diminish the contributions of their original partners. As a matter of fact I read a quote from one of G or P stating that now, most of the audience at their concerts aren’t even aware that Tommy and Eric aren’t the originals, as if it were a good thing. Kind of deceptive. KISS fans had always welcomed new makeup characters on Eric Carr and Vinnie Vincent, so why the need to use Ace and Peter’s now? It was after things got so bad after the farewell tour and they were/are so angry. Tommy and Eric wearing Ace and Peter’s makeup seems revengeful as well. If you haven’t noticed, Paul and Gene both seem to have an axe to grind. And Paul is grinding that axe into a nubbin…
I agree 100%. I still buy my music.
I usually don’t agree with Gene’s comments, or views on the world, but he’s spot on here. The music itself won’t die, but its support structure ($$ and corporate backing) and avenues of availability already are dying. I live in the NW Chicago suburbs and there is ONE decent record store (40 miles away) for all of the city and surrounding area. Sadly, what is considered big music news these days is whether Beyonce and Jay Z are staying together. Thank you Eddie, Dana and TMS for keeping the REAL music alive!
Shut up gene no one cares you piece of crap! Kiss has been dead since the farewell tour…there’s a lot of kick ass rock bands out there still
Hey Zack, He didn’t say there weren’t any good bands out there. You’re the piece of crap here.
Yet they just played to about 650,000 people over 42 shows. Guess your opinion doesn’t agree with the facts.
He wasn’t talking about no good bands, he said the music industry for putting out new music…read the article!!