Gene Simmons – HuffPost 8.18.14
Mike Ragogna: Gene, what advice do you have for new artists?
Gene Simmons: I’m sad for new artists because the next Beatles or the next KISS or the next Prince is not going to happen because there’s no record industry. It’s complete chaos. What you’re going to have is a lot of people who think the only thing they need to do is to be on American Idol or X-Factor and just sing, never mind learning how to play an instrument or learning how to write songs. You know that first freckle-faced college kid who was a law-abiding citizen and went to school and all that but decided to file share and download was a leak that eventually sank the whole boat.
MR: It’s horrible, but could it also be some of it is due to record companies abandoning maturing acts to keep hold of the eighteen to twenty-five demographic?
GS: Not really, because you always had Sub Pop and the other labels that launched Nirvana and other bands that the major labels didn’t, and that worked as well. But now you’ve got complete chaos, and that didn’t come because we were invaded by Martians. Our kids did that. They destroyed an entire support system for new bands. Nowadays, how do you launch a band? How do you become a professional musician and do it all the time?
MR: Then what in your opinion is good advice? Like, what would you tell your kid if he decided to become a musician?
GS: Good Lord. Well if you’re a pop act it’s different. My daughter Sophie is recording her first record, she writes, she sings, all of that stuff, Universal is involved, and Nick has got his band, but that’s not the only think they’re doing. She’s got the clothing line, the jewelry, she’s writing a book called I’m Not A Size Two and she wrote a script called Sh*t Girls Say, she also wrote a script called Boy Who Cried Wolf, Nick writes for The Huffington Post. When I started, I was just in KISS, because there was a support system. Nowadays, that’s not enough.
MR: Could it be that is the natural evolution of things?
GS: No, I don’t think it was natural at all.
MR: From the fifties to the seventies, there also were a few giant leaps that changed everything.
GS: I’m going to show you what I mean, and it’s pretty telling. From 1958, for twenty-five years after that, into 1983, name even just one hundred super stars that will stand the test of time. Okay, Elvis, The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, Motown, you can just go on and on and on. That also includes Madonna and Prince and everybody. AC/DC, Aerosmith, you can just go down the line in all genres of music. That also includes U2, by the way. Now, from 1984 until today, just give me ten stars that will stand the test of time. How about just one. You know what’s interesting? I was having a discussion downstairs and I said, “Kurt Cobain” and nobody in the room had a clue what I was talking about.
MR: Never thought of it like that, that is amazing.
GS: Why is it amazing? The masses have no idea what that is.
MR: They’ve moved on to other music? Maybe the pedestal went away?
GS: But everybody knows who Elvis and The Beatles are.
MR: But other than sports, a limited amount of TV stations and movies, wasn’t music the only other major entertainment back then?
GS: It’s not fair because the advantage that post-’83 had was MTV, VH1, digital age stuff, you had that imagery and that music much more in your face. The first generations were barely known because there was so little technology. If you became big, you were really big, because the masses decided you were big. You still have yet to give me one star that the world knows. Everybody. That means your mother, your grandmother, your candlestick maker, the garbage man … I’m not making a value judgment on it, I’m just saying it ain’t The Beatles and Elvis and Motown and all that. It’s just not, and I think it goes to the record industry. With a record industry, you have a mom and dad who give tour support and give you money. You never had to give back the money, even if the record bombed. Now you’re a new act and there are very talented bands out there that will never get a break. You have the same seeds every year, but without rain and sunshine, they’ll die in the ground.
MR: What do you think is the answer?
GS: The answer is to reinstate a commercial model. Anything that’s given away for free is worthless. Or make a distinction — this is charity, this is commerce. How do you expect a band to be able to write and record quality material if they also have to go work for a living, wash dishes, drive trucks and stuff? There’s just no time to devote to your craft.
MR: I guess. But to me it seems there was always an element of having to work and do the other stuff until you broke as a band even with a label involved in a lot of cases.
GS: Yeah, well I don’t see anything happening after ’83. Nothing.