Dee Snider has become the latest rocker to call out Gene Simmons for his much talked about remarks that rock is dead.
Gene Simmons first made these comments back in 2014 and has stuck by them ever since.
“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 much harder to earn a living playing and writing songs", he said back in 2014.
“For performers who are also songwriters – the creators – for rock music, for soul, for the blues – it’s finally dead. Rock is finally dead. It’s very sad for new bands. My heart goes out to them. They just don’t have a chance".
Back in February of this year, Simmons reiterated this claim, blaming "young fans" for the apparent demise of rock music.
“In all ways. And the culprits are the young fans. You killed the thing that you love”, he said. More on that here.
In March, Simmons explained these comments further, by claiming that bands have been unable to live up to the incredible impact of the Beatles in the 1960s.
“The point is, yeah, rock is dead because if we play the game from 1958 until 1988, which is 30 years, you had Elvis, The Beatles, The Stones, Pink Floyd, and on and on and on”, he said.
“And you can go to the heavy part of it, which is Metallica, Maiden, if you want to put KISS in there, that’s fine. AC/DC, on and on and on. Even U2, Prince, Bowie, Eagles. And then you get to disco stuff, and Madonna, and that stuff, and Motown, of course".
These comments have been dismissed by the likes of Billie Joe Armstrong, Ozzy Osbourne and Alice Cooper. Well, you can now add Dee Snider to that list.
Speaking to the Consequence website, Dee Snider dismissed Simmons claims.
"He makes me crazy", he said. "I mean, I love him, I love Kiss, but I wish he would just shut the hell up with this. And he doubles down on it. This statement of ‘rock’s dead, there are no rock stars,’ all that shit, it’s so self-serving and self absorbed. It’s selfish!”.
He also added, "It’s like, ‘It’s not doing it my way, it doesn’t have value. It’s not the way it was when I was coming up, so it’s not rock ‘n’ roll anymore.’ Anyway, that’s bulls**t!”.
Dee Snider released his new solo album, Leave A Scar back in May. He is also promoting his latest single "I Gotta Rock Again". More on that here.
It is also the former Twisted Sister frontman's second collaboration with Jamey Jasta of Hatebreed. It is available via Napalm Records.
He also claimed that he recently contracted Covid-19 despite being fully vaccinated. He said that he got the virus from his grandchildren following a trip to Disneyland.
