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
The Demon is 1000% correct. Anyone referencing Ace’s spot on the charts last week are delusional. Listening to rock and buying new rock music isn’t the same thing either. We bitch about a lot of the bands on this site, KISS particularly. But just wait, cause in a few years when KISS, AC DC, Priest, etc have packed it in, there will be absolutely nothing to look forward to. Bands I hated back in the 80’s seem more listenable to me now, cause at least it was from a rock era. I’ve listened to more Rainbow in the past 5 years than I did in the 80’s. Hate Simmons all you want for other things, but he’s spot on with this take.
Keep the faith DR, I have to disagree with you & Gene on this one. Yes, over the last 10-15 years rock music has been on the backburner, but we can’t give up on it now, no matter what! Like I said earlier, the cream always rises to the top. “ROCKS” don’t break! Parents, try harder to keep your kids away from Justin Beaver & Shitney Spears and the rappers, and encourage them as much as you can to listen to rock & metal, otherwise in the near future, Gene might be right, God forbid! 😉
I agree DR. Great post. And I LOVE Rainbow.
Live STILL I’M SAD from ON STAGE is my favorite song by RAINBOW. Similar to JUDAS PRIEST and considering all of the line-up changes, all of their albums are good no matter what. DIFFICULT TO CURE is the least good and RITCHIE BLACKMORES RAINBOW is the best but every single song on every single album has merit. Hard to do.
This is lame to admit because it’s a popular Rainbow tune, but Stone Cold still gets me going every time I hear it. It’s so basic and simple and I f’n love it still. Man on the Silver Mountian is a another overplayed classic but I love it. Dio’s best work was with Blackmore. God Richie where are you? Put down the lute and come back to us!!!!
Agree 100%…Rainbow is so different with Dio v.s. Joe Lynn Turner, or even Graham Bonnet..great band and love Stone Cold!
It’s great you guys are showing the love for Rainbow. All three Dio era Rainbow studio albums are classics among classics. The list of brilliant songs they created in such a short time is staggering! Songs like Temple Of The King, Black Sheep Of The Family, Man On The Silver Mountain, Stargazer, Tarot Woman, Gates Of Babylon, Lady Of The Lake, Long Live Rock And Roll, the list goes on and on. The great thing is we’ll always have great music like that to go back and listen to no matter what is being released today. Same thing for all classic bands and albums. I mostly listen to older stuff anyway, like 70’s era Rush, Deep Purple, Ozzy era Sabbath (the first 6 albums are required listening), Thin Lizzy, Pink Floyd (Animals!) Hendrix, as well as classic metal like Priest, Maiden. Honesty, I haven’t heard any albums in the last 10 years or more that I think will go on to achieve iconic status like the above mentioned bands albums have. There’s been some great music in recent years, no doubt about that, but the classic bands are on another plateau of brilliance altogether and are untouchable.
In all honesty what is there to look forward to from Kiss, AC/DC or Judas Priest? Seriously? I love every era of Kiss except for the current version. But the mystique is gone. It’s a watered down cover band whose lead singer has unfortunately lost the once incredible voice he had. You have two guys dressed and playing the part of Ace & Peter and the spitting blood and blowing fire stuff from the demon is yesterday’s news and there is zero mystique anymore. AC/DC? Great rock band, love em’, but what else can they possibly do to excite us about a new record and tour? We don’t need another AC/DC album because it won’t possibly too anything they’ve done before. JP? Again one of the best! Redeemer of souls is a classic priest record. It’s great but we’ve heard it already. Earlier I mentioned that in my opinion Alterbridge is arguably the best band on the planet right now. Case in point, listen to their records! Each one of them do not sound the same and they’ve grown and each album gets better and better! Fortress is an instant masterpiece and legendary! The title track from their second record blackbird is the modern day equivalent of stairway to heaven. These guys are awesome and haven’t made the same record twice and I’m already pumped for their next album because is like to see them try to top fortress. Kyng, great new band & it should be interesting to see where they go from here!
Frank I don’t listen to Alterwhateverthef–ktheyrecalled. You’ve missed my point completely. But carry on my wayward son.
Yes, because after all, all we are is dust in the wind. 😉
Certainly we cannot expect something “new” or groundbreaking from the classic bands you mentioned, but is that what the fans really expect? We expect them to deliver what we came to love them for, which most of they still do. This, the fact that they are still around putting out music or going on tour, is something of value because there will be a (biological) end to it. So I am looking forward to the next AC/DC album and tour BECAUSE I can only expect to get something in the vein of what I love about them and because I know I cannot get enough of that good thing, but one day there will be no supply anymore. Alterbridge, went to the concert, found it alright, but nowhere near the excitement I would feel seeing old Angus walk on stage. But maybe I am just too old. So like DR says, you missed the point completely.
Sad but true, of almost every band of which I would instantly buy a ticket to their tour, I must honestly say that the next tour will most probably be the last or second-last. I cannot e.g. imagine AC/DC doing more than the next tour with Brian being 66 or 67 now, and a world tour usually taking two years. Should Kiss come to Europe again next year I think it will be the last time. Same with Priest, Queen, Aerosmith, The Who, Motörhead etc etc. So I agree let us enjoy it until it is over because this “scene” of rock and metal bands that started in the 70s or 80s is dying/retiring, and there is no similar scene today. There are new rock bands, but the thing is, the music you grew up with will always be the music that touches your heart most, because you discovered it in a time of your life when you formed your own character most, the adolescence.
We’ve got maybe 6-7 years left before all of our metal gods are no longer playing…there is some good new music, but the live show has suffered from what it used to be. The only bands putting on great shows are the older bands. YouTube even kills the live experience for me…on one hand, I love YouTube to find old concert footage, but growing up, when you saw a concert it was as if no one on the planet knew what was going on in the arena unless you were there…think about the mystique shows used to bring…now it’s all recycled set lists and too sterile…70’s had everything in music from hippie folk, to disco, to Sabbath and Zepplin, very diverse…80’s too with different genres…90’s grunge ruled along with Rock, but what has music brought us recently?? The irony is that any kid that picks up a guitar today, is picking it up with the same influences as they would’ve had 30 years ago…Even though I like a group like Buckcherry, is their guitar plater influencing a generation of guitar players?? No way, so I don’t see any new band, as good as they may be, trailblazing rock any further than it already has gone. I’m 44, so I think most on this site are in their 40’s and 50’s based on commentary, so albums are what we know, not to mention “our bands” made albums…today’s bands make singles. My son will never know the fun of going to a local record store, buying an import from Japan of Kiss Killers and running home to put it on and listen to it front to back, whereas today it would be online a week before it’s out…Gene is right, Rock is dead as “we” the 40 and 50 something’s know it…
I agree with him for the most part, but there is one major factor that has my music buying at a virtual standstill.
Where are the truly excellent SOUNDING albums at? Nearly everything even from classic bands is compressed to death to make the entire thing AS LOUD AS POSSIBLE. That is not music, it’s simply background noise & I refuse to support it. I admit occasionally a new CD’s vinyl counterpart will have a bit of dynamic breathing room to sound decent when you really crank it up. (Accept’s Blind Rage is one).
That is worth buying but it’s a drop compared to my buying of yesteryear. The Remastering trend has pretty much killed it too. No one seems to understand that louder is NOT better.
It saddens me that if I DL a new album before I buy it, I end up deleting it & buying nothing simply because crap sound is not worth paying for. So really the labels have done it to themselves & there’s very little left to buy.
I find myself trying to discover some older band that is new to me & then buying their stuff at record shows or the used CD shops.
I really feel if younger kids were introduced to quality sound & heard it on a decent system (typical earbuds & bluetooth speakers DON’T count), then maybe they’d appreciate the value of music as an art & realize it’s worth supporting. Until then, the downward spiral will continue.
This trend of compressing music to death may be because of the fact that the younger generation will either listen to music on their phones and tablets or use these shitty blasters made in China at home that deliver nothing than bass frequencies. They will pay much for the newest cellphone but will not pay for a good audio sytem. The listening habits have changed due tho the changes in the use and rise of modern apparatus like iphones, tablets etc. I know not a single young person that is looking for a better hifi system like I was constantly trying to get better speakers when I was young to enhance the listening experience of my favourite bands. The daughter of my neighbours does not annoy me because she turns the music up so loud but because the only thing this music seems to have is bass and sizzle. Moreover, the advent of the digital age has replaced analog sound, a technician running a recording studio once told me: sound in-the-box (i,.e. in the digital world only) is like mixing and hearing voltages, mixing in the analog world is mixing curencies, something that is physical, the latter being real, the former being virtual. The real thing touches us, the virtual sound leaves us, who grew up in the analog world, cold or indifferent. He may be right. You can take your music anywhere today, and so to make it sound “alright” you have to mix and master a record as you said, by overcompressing and making it as loud as possible. So what it lacks is the dynamics, and dynamics is half of the thrill and quality of the music and thus half of our enjoyment.
yeah, in a way I agree with Gene. I want to form a band that does a song like this, that I wrote (lyrics forthcoming) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=786G6KQmts4&list=UUCWCp_Aj8lOKZoqAKOCiE1w
But the local musicians either want to do middle of the road country/rock (i.e. “safe”) or the kids just want to rip to the fastest non-musical metal that they can find to skateboard to. So I am stuck in between to old and too ambitious. Or, some have told me, that I am a substandard musician for what they want to do.
Frustrating, yes.
But screw it. I will raise the money to make my own CD (about 300 discs) and just give the stuff away to friends and anyone remotely interested. I’ve grown quite tired of trying to wade through the egos and flakes in my area. I can only depend on myself and that’s what I will do – it will take me a LOOOOOOOONG time though…screw it, it’s fun when I have the time to do it. Recording is fun. Mixing, not so much.
I tend to go underground and dig to find the really good stuff that everyone should know about but do not bother to seek. The #1 band in that category for me is the Canadian band SLOAN. Youtube “Losing California” and tell me that’s not rock and roll. But you know, Gene is right. It is sad. If Buckcherry is taking over for AC/DC and what have you, that’s pretty sad to me. They aren’t terrible, they just do not have “it” as far as I’m concerned.
We live in a period of the last 20 years where “rock” fans have called the following “rock”: Creed, Nickelback,. I don’t know how these groups sold the amount of records they sold, they are just horrible. The missing ingredient in hard rock, for instance, is the simple music with the vocal MELODY grabbing you. Listen to Iron Maiden. When Bruce sings, the music is simple. Between vocals they go nuts. How about the song “Lick it Up”? Genius. If it doesn’t stick in your head and it’s all about 100 different riffs in a song like these new metal bands do, it isn’t a song. It’s a mess.
I agree with you on this one Joe. It’s all about the hooks & melody! AC/DC, Kiss, Priest, Zeppelin and Maiden to name just a few have numerous memorable songs based on hooks & melody!
Ironically I am a huge Alterbridge fan but totally dislike most of Creed’s stuff. To me a lot of Creed’s music was depressing and Scott Stapp’s voice isn’t for me. However the incredible Myles Kennedy is one of the best living singers today and Alterbridge totally smokes Creed musically, lyrically and vocally. I’m also seeing a lot of love for Airbourne! They rock! Hooks & melody baby! I don’t drink or smoke anymore but Airbourne just has that sound that reminds me of being drunk, playing air guitar, smoking cigarettes and getting laid!
That’s the whole idea, LOL! AC/DC is very proud of their protégé! 🙂
Alter Bridge is a great band!! My favorite is blackbird.