Gene Simmons, the legendary bassist of Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame act Kiss has a tendency to open his mouth and declare things just to get a reaction. Gene was interviewed by his song Nick for Esquire Magazine when he dropped the bomb that Rock is dead. In the interview he explains his side of the story as to why he claims that and he offers advice to young artists everywhere. He says, “The death of rock was not a natural death. Rock did not die of old age. It was murdered. 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. 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 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.” Gene will go on to talk about how he feels about a so-called “Lost Generation” when he says, “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?”
I can’t say that I completely disagree with everything that he said in the above paragraph, but it’a kind of an overstatement to say don’t quit your day job because everyone knows that your money is made touring today. There was however one band that has stepped up to disagree with Mr. Simmons and it’s the Foo Fighters. The band simply responded to Gene Simmons statement with a simple tweet, check it out below and ask yourself whether you believe that everything Gene says is true or not!
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