The beloved yet infamous bassist and co-lead singer of the ‘hottest band in the land’ KISS, Gene Simmons, is well-known for being quite controversial. As such, he is also known for having his strong opinions on the current state of rock music on the whole. However, that’s not to say his contemporaries and fellow rockers agree with him most of the time.
Another name can be added to that list is Aerosmith bandmate Joe Perry, Perry who is best known for being the legendary guitarist of the group was recently asked by VWMusic what he thought about Simmons’ full remarks.
The guitarist would be quite bullish on the state of rock and roll by saying the following remarks. Credit to the outlet for the below.
“No, not at all… There are some great rock ‘n’ roll bands carrying the flag too, and one example is Brad’s [Whitford, Aerosmith, guitarist] son Graham, who plays with Tyler Bryant & The Shakedown. I think they’re like kicking ass, and the thing is, there’s a lot of guys who want to get out there and play rock ‘n’ roll guitar and play that kind of music. The issue is that there aren’t enough fans to hear it, so it’s only going to go so far, but there are still people there for them to build a following. These new bands, still headline places, they open up for other bands, and it’s the same thing. It’s not like they’re at the top of the Billboard charts or like the top of the pop charts, but that’s kind of how it was in the late ’60s too.
He continued: “All the rock ‘n’ roll that I liked, they didn’t even have a place at the Grammys for it, and there was nothing overly commercial about it. I mean, I saw The Who in a small club playing ‘Tommy’. It was only a club, but the place was packed, and it was still about the fans there who wanted to hear it. It’s the same now, those fans are still there, and that’s what’s keeping it alive. I mean, if it wasn’t ‘classic music,’ it wouldn’t be ‘classic rock,’ and it wouldn’t be as big as it is. I still see it, people are out there buying artists’ rock catalogs, and paying stupid amounts of money because they know that it’s going to keep getting bigger, and bigger, and bigger. So that tells me rock ‘n’ roll is not dead.”
