UPDATED: Wednesday, May 11, 2016 12:59 P.M. EST
Following his distasteful comments concerning the almighty Purple One, Gene Simmons has issued an apology:
“I just got such sh*t from my family for my big mouth again. I apologize – I have a long history of getting very angry at what drugs do to the families/friends of the addicts. I get angry at drug users because of my experience being around them coming up in the rock scene. In my experience they’ve made my life, and the lives of their loved ones, difficult. I was raised in a culture/crowd where drug addicts were written off as losers, and since that’s the narrative I grew up with, it’s been hard to change with the times.” Gene continued on Twitter, “Needless to say, I didn’t express myself properly here – I don’t shy away from controversy, and angry critics really don’t bother me at all. If I think I’m right, I’ll throw up a finger and dig my heels in and laugh. But this time, I was not. So, my apologies. PS: What I will say is that there is part of this that is journalists quote-mining things lve said in the past and applying it to new situations. This, too, happens often, and not just to me. So, quote mining, too, is wrong. It doesn’t make my past quotes any more tactful, but still – be wary of click bait. The uglier they can make it seem, the more views they will get.”
Thoughts?
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Gene Simmons, of K.I.S.S. fame, made headlines a month or so ago for his comments about N.W.A. being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, Simmons went off on the entire genre. “I am looking forward to the death of rap,” he said. “I’m looking forward to music coming back to lyrics and melody, instead of just talking. A song, as far as I’m concerned, is by definition lyric and melody … or just melody.”
As one can imagine, those comments weren’t very well received. None of that seemed to bother Simmons, whose return to the forefront includes his thoughts on Prince’s death via an interview with Newsweek:
“His drugs killed him. What do you think, he died from a cold?” He added Prince was a huge talent who “was heads, hands and feet above all the rest of them. I thought he left [Michael] Jackson in the dust.” Still, Simmons criticized the late legend. “How pathetic that he killed himself. Don’t kid yourself, that’s what he did. Slowly, I’ll grant you…but that’s what drugs and alcohol is: a slow death.” Simmons continued by telling the interviewer, “I’ve never been high or drunk in my life.”
One can imagine this won’t go over well with the rest of the music community. As of now, the cause of Prince’s death is unknown, although Percocet was said to have been found in his system. The DEA has recently joined the investigation into the icon’s death.
SOURCE: Complex, Minnesota CBS | PHOTO: Getty
