KISS star Gene Simmons says he’s proud to be among the One Percent of the world’s richest people – and insists everyone else owes him a debt of gratitude.
The bassist believes the world would descend into “chaos” if it wasn’t for him and fellow millionaires.
Simmons tells UTSanDiego.com, “The one percent pays 80 percent of all taxes. 50 percent of the population of the US pays no taxes. The one percent provides all the jobs for everybody else. If the one percent didn’t exist there would be chaos and the economy would drop dead.”
He adds, “Try being nice to rich people. I don’t remember the last poor person who gave me a job.”
Describing his 30 years of extreme financial security as “fantastic” he continues: “You know how I spell ‘shameless?’ P-r-o-u-d.”
He explains, “People often confuse my pride and self-confidence with arrogance. I’m like an animal in the jungle that pisses on the ground and doesn’t ask permission. That’s full disclosure before the facts – others hold their opinions to themselves and never say who they are. You will always know who I am. You don’t have to like it.”
KISS recently announced, KISS Rocks Vegas residency, starting November 5th at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Las Vegas. The band is currently on tour with Def Leppard.
additional source: classicrockmagazine.com
125 Responses
All I can say is wow. These guys (both him and Paul) pretty much are a$$holes. They are rich because ‘poor’ people saved their money to buy KISS’ albums, tickets and merchandise. Well this is one ‘poor’ person who won’t be contributing to any more of their empire. I’m done. Loved KISS from 73-96 but this is the last straw. Will I still listen to Alive? Damn right but they won’t get another dime from me.
Okay………..I love capatalism and all but it’s not about the rich profiting from a successful product, it’s about the consumer who enjoy the product and give you money in exchange of the product. Consumer wants the product more than the money and the innovator wants the money more than the product. It’s a two way system and what douchebags like gene simmons don’t realize is that no one owes this a$$hat anything especially since he has profited off of millions for years. We owe him something even after he has a giant mansion and luxuries from our profits? What a delusional freak with no grasp of reality.
Also he can’t remember the last poor person who gave him a job? How about numerous poor kiss fans who scraped up money to see kiss over the years? What about the poor kiss fans that scraped up money for kiss merchandise and albums? They gave you your job dufus! Man what a detestable piece of sh!t this guy is!
Not defending Gene, but don’t forget he WAS a poor person! What Gene seems to be forgetting, if we are assuming that he’s not being misquoted (sometimes its hard to tell), is everyone plays an important role in this country–someone has to be a grocery clerk, an office worker, a heavy equipment operator, a janitor, etc…Business owners are often in the right place at the right time. Then there are those who really worked their way to the top, and with some luck found their rightful place as CEO or whatever. Not everyone can be a CEO, and not everyone is meant to be a janitor, but all those who are not part of the one percent (as Gene is) are who made his position possible. Without people to do the jobs the rest of us do, there would be no possibility for there to be a one percent. I think he must have temporarily forgotten that many of his fans are ordinary, hard working people. He may pay more taxes but he isn’t hurting because of it. For that, I do wish he would find a balance in his views about rich people.
Very well stated. I see a lot of socialist bums saying the rich don’t pay fair share of taxes which is a complete farce, joke and nowhere near the truth! Gene needs to think about what he says before he spouts off!
…also, I did skip the KISS/Def Leppard show this time around. Hard to scrape up enough cash (as you said) to go see KISS play a shorter set on a Thursday night. But, I know I missed a great show. Saw them with Motley Crue and its hard to tell who was better. They both were awesome! I got my moneys worth!
Preach, brother, preach. Gene is a great American.
Mr Simmons is on target 100%!!