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
New Ace album is damn good!!! Unfortunately, it won’t sell for crap. John Bon Jovi was right…. ITunes played a huge role in killing rock music. People can now just download a track and move on. Going to the record store as a kid and browsing thru all the vinyl, picking up something new and going home to listen to ALL the tracks will be a live long memory….
I have one record store left and it’s like 30 min away Vintage Vinyl has everything from all metal cd to punk and contemporary and used cd and records! I stared buying cd again
Even the Sun Set Strip Metal Bands are coming back!!! Tom Keifer’s last cd killer, Jason Newsted’s band last cd bombast!!!! Accept is proof that Metal still procreates and survives in 2014 and beyond!!!! Half KISS should retire!!! Overkill,Megadeth,Motorhead,etc……. Metal Dead never always under the radar though!!!
LOL, Tom Keifer with a great CD playing bars just sort of proves the point. So does every other band you mentioned.
Rock is very much alive where the established bands and their fan base are concerned. However, Gene is right on concerning new bands trying to catch a break in this day in age. Being good, or even great, doesn’t cut it anymore to become the sort of major label act that will be around long enough for people to remember their name and to have enough support for a run any kind over the long haul.
For the hard rock/metal genre, a band would have to show the sort of promise that Pantera did on Cowboys From Hell to defy the incredible odds, like they did in the 90’s when this sort of music really was pretty much dead. I’m just glad Eddie with TMS and even those guitar oriented video games helped bring back classic hard rock/metal at least to the level we enjoy today.
Since KISS is supposedly bigger than ever why aren’t they taking out some of the great young bands as support acts to give them some exposure instead of co-headlining like KISS has been doing for the last few tours? Granted, its a drop in the bucket but if all of the big acts that can still pull huge crowds would do it things might be a shade better. Not casting blame on anyone, just throwing the thought out there
They have! Cobra and the Lotus and Dead Daisies…
Completely off subject, but this same picture of Gene is on every news post about him and I hope it always is because I laugh each time I see it. He looks like he’s putting on a false front to appear like he’s trying to keep his cool even though he just sat on a nail. The picture of Paul that’s always posted is just as funny.
James,
It’s because it is the only picture of Simmons that I currently have uploaded into the backend and I have not had the impetus to get another one, crop it, etc. So, your wish to continue to see it, maybe granted.
Ditto with the picture of Stanley that a poster commented looked like Mercedes Ruehl.
D 🙂
Any opportunity you can get to put in an insult. The fact that you guys already admitted that you put in the Kiss articles (which are just re-posts) to get traffic, speaks volumes. There is barely any original content going on here, it’s all a vehicle for Eddie to promote…himself. That’s not wrong. It’s business. But don’t try to appease the kiss haters. There really shouldn’t even be a comment section here. Eddie is not the only one “keeping rock alive” (LOL). He’s a DJ.
Also, I love when Eddie talks about where he’ll be “performing” next. He’s not a comic or an actor he’s a journalist.
May I ask why you even bother to read and comment if you don’t like the site? I really don’t get it. I don’t waste my time and energy on things that I don’t like and I certainly don’t go out of my way to complain about it either.
Also, I have never insulted KISS. I was simply responding to a poster and repeating a comment that another had made about one of the other photos.
While I have readily admitted that I am not a fan of the band, that doesn’t mean I dislike them either. The best description for my feelings would be apathetic. So, put that in your KISS pipe and smoke it. Oh wait, they don’t have one of those yet? Trust me, they will 😆
talktopete: I actually love Kiss. I just think the pictures posted are funny looking, that’s all, no big deal. They are funny looking. Lighten up, man! Even if Kiss articles do drive traffic, this is not a Kiss only web site, not even close. This is Eddie Trunk.com, the home of all things hard rock and heavy metal and a place we all can go to for information not only on our favorite bands and artists but also all Eddie’s got going on in his career. I’m as big of a fan of Eddie as I am of any of the bands featured every week on this site. If I wasn’t, I probably would go to another site. Kiss articles bring in so many posts and debates because they are probably the single most loved and at the same time hated band there is right now. It just shows how passionate people are about that band. But it’s not just the Kiss articles that drive such lively and sometimes heated debates. The Bruce Dickenson article not too long ago got as many posts as any Kiss related article has. Ted Nugent, same deal. It’s not so much the band as it is the fact that something is being said that divides people and gives way to so many posts and debates, both positive and negative. So it’s no need to get upset and it’s definitely not cool to put any blame or throw negative attacks at Dana and Eddie. Have you ever stopped to think about how that once these types of articles are posted that it’s Dana who has the daunting task of having to sort through and mediate all these posts? You can be mad at me, I don’t care, just show respect to Dana and Eddie or go to some other web site, simple as that. When I’m on this site I look at it like this is Eddie’s house and I’m a guest and I will show him and Dana nothing but respect.
James,
My knight in shining armour 🙂 Thank you!
I also find it funny that “fans” criticize this site for carrying the same news as Blabbermouth, Classic Rock, Noisecreep, etc.
D 🙂
“…the picture of Stanley that a poster commented looked like Mercedes Ruehl.”
Bwahahahahahahahahaha!