Lost a Lot of Respect for One Gene Simmons Today

[Orange]

www.rollingstone.com/music/news/gene-simmons-depression-comments-anger-nikki-sixx-20140814

No one will ever accuse Kiss' Gene Simmons of not speaking his mind. One day after Simmons and his Kiss Army were ordered to surrender by the Black Lips, resulting in an ill-fated "learn English" jab by Simmons, the bassist made some irresponsible comments about depression that have angered Mötley Crüe's Nikki Sixx, Loudwire reports.

In an interview with Songfacts.com, Simmons essentially dismissed depression as a mental disorder. "For a putz 20-year-old kid to say, 'I'm depressed. I live in Seattle.' f*** you, then kill yourself. I never understand, because I always call them on their bluff. I'm the guy who says 'Jump' when there's a guy on top of a building who says, 'That's it, I can't take it anymore. I'm going to jump.' Are you kidding? Why are you announcing it? Shut the f*** up, have some dignity and jump! You've got the crowd," Simmons said. "By the way, you walk up to the same guy on a ledge who threatens to jump and put a gun to his head, 'I'm going to blow your f***in' head off.' He'll go, 'Please don't.' It's true. He's not that insane."

Mötley Crüe bassist Nikki Sixx chastised Simmons on his Sixx Sense radio show. "It's pretty moronic because [Simmons] thinks everybody listens to him, that he is the God of Thunder. He will tell you he is the greatest man on earth, and to be honest with you, I like Gene. But in this situation, I don't like Gene. I don’t like Gene's words," Sixx said. "There is a 20-year-old kid out there who is a Kiss fan and reads this and goes, 'You know what? He's right. I should just kill myself.'"

Sixx added, "For people who are depressed, there is a way out. There are many, many ways out. And I don't want people to listen to an interview from a rock star, who's telling you the only way out is out." Sixx is just the latest person to get mad at something Simmons has spouted. Previously, the Kiss bassist generated some controversy when he said he supported Donald Sterling in the fight over the Los Angeles Clippers, adding that while what Sterling said was "heinous," he shouldn't be castigated for remarks made in private.

To be honest, I've never been a huge fan of Gene, and shit like this definitely doesn't help mine or others' opinion on him. Nikki Sixx brings up a fantastic point about a vulnerable 20 year old KISS fan taking Gene at his word and killing himself, and hopefully nobody's stupid enough to listen to the dickhead.

Gene thinks he's smart and important enough to take on a lot of popular and controversial topics, and I don't understand it. I used to think his ego was just a gimmick to get a rise out of people, but I legitimately think he's delusional enough to believe he's as smart as he thinks he is. Comparing that to Paul Stanley, who has expressed negativity towards the idea of celebrities taking on social, political and religious topics, Gene comes across as that much more obnoxious, uneducated, ignorant and just overall f***ing stupid.

Congratulations, Gene. You've said a lot of stupid shit before, but you might've dug the hole just a wee bit too deep this time.

[Injustice45]

He's an asshole.

[Deleted]

....jesus f***ing christ

I lost respect for him around the reality show, but just DAMN...

[hisinsanity]

He hasn't been relevant musically speaking, in decades.

[Welfare Willis]

I thought everyone (even fans of KISS) knows Gene Simmons is just a giant moneygrubbing douche. Here's Gene just being a giant douche with NPR's Terry Gross:


link

[riseofsetian1981]

You know, I like KISS and to a degree I even like Gene. Gene is very outspoken and truly believes in what he says, with that said, I can respect any individual who speaks his mind and doesn't apologize. But there is a time and a place for comments such as this. I am not sure if Gene is truly delusional and in some cases, I believe he says a lot of things to get a rise out of people.

[fuzzywarble, squat cobbler]

I never had any respect for him or his crappy band anyway. But at least the other members of KISS seem to have a good sense of reality.

[riseofsetian1981]

Gene just strikes me as a guy who isn't as over the top as he pretends to be. I honest to God believe he uses the whole macho bullshit act to piss people off, because no one calls him out on it. Gene just says what's on his mind, has no filter, and in a way he's just a much more mellow version of Ted Nugent in my opinion.

What he said is no different than Bill Hicks saying "Anyone who kills him/herself over a song just means we lost another moron."

[Gravedigger's Biscuits]

It should be pointed out that these comments were before Robin Williams committed suicide.

Now that it makes them any better, it's just worth pointing out.

[Michael Coello]

Yeah, I heard Sixx mentioned this on the radio the other day.

It seems like Gene is totally in the camp, with a ton of people sadly, that thinks something like depression is something that is just a decision someone makes, where if you push them on it, they're going to have the right mind to avoid it because they can choose to not do it.

Whereas, more and more, it's not that an all and is something more akin to a disease.

I'm not mad at Gene, though, mostly cause I never took any of his musings at face value.

[Kevin Hamilton]

Gene's a persona. He's never not selling that persona.

[Deleted]

The reporting of this seems rather shady, if it was said before Robin Williams' suicide, because none of the reporting I've read is saying when the comments were made.

Shit comments, absolutely, no matter when he said it. But a bit deceptive on the part of the media (who, let's face it, have been pricks themselves this week - aerial shots of Williams' home on the night he died, ABC? complaining about details released about his death while excessively reporting those details to everyone, CNN and USAToday?) who are clearly playing this against the viewer & reader's emotions re: the week's events.

BTW, Nikki Sixx won the case in his tweet asking "What if this happened to your wife or kids, Gene?"

[Deleted]

Aug 15, 2014 14:13:52 GMT -5 riseofsetian1981 said:

What he said is no different than Bill Hicks saying "Anyone who kills him/herself over a song just means we lost another moron."

True but that was a long time ago (Bill's been dead for over 20 years). Times change and, as a stand up comedian, he was making that comment in a different context than in an interview.
That said, Gene's a persona at this point, as has been pointed out.

[Deleted]

Aug 15, 2014 14:25:37 GMT -5 @knapp said:

The reporting of this seems rather shady, if it was said before Robin Williams' suicide, because none of the reporting I've read is saying when the comments were made.

Shit comments, absolutely, no matter when he said it. But a bit deceptive on the part of the media (who, let's face it, have been pricks themselves this week - aerial shots of Williams' home on the night he died, ABC? complaining about details released about his death while excessively reporting those details to everyone, CNN and USAToday?) who are clearly playing this against the viewer & reader's emotions re: the week's events.

BTW, Nikki Sixx won the case in his tweet asking "What if this happened to your wife or kids, Gene?"

Gene said this at least two weeks ago.

Personally I think he can screw off regardless.

[Cela]

But everyone liked that video of that Chinese guy pushing that guy off the bridge into a crash net. I thought the internet collectively disliked people who make a public spectacle out of their suicide.

[Deleted]

Regardless of when Gene made those comments, he can go f*** off.

[The Unconquered Sun]

i always knew he was a douche bag but now he looks like a crazy old man screaming at kids to keep off somebody else's lawn.

[Orange]

Just got onto Kiss Online and saw this,

I want to make this statement about my views on depression for the record and to clarify my prior remarks.

To the extent my comments reported by the media speak of depression, I was wrong and in the spur of the moment made remarks that in hindsight were made without regard for those who truly suffer the struggles of depression. I sincerely apologize to those who were offended by my comments. I recognize that depression is very serious and very sad when it happens to anyone, especially loved ones. I deeply support and am empathetic to anyone suffering from any disease, especially depression.

I have never sugarcoated my feelings regarding drug use and alcoholics. Somewhere along the line, my intention of speaking in very directly and perhaps politically incorrectly about drug use and alcoholics has been misconstrued as vile commentary on depression. Unkind statements about depression was certainly never my intention. Fully, you will know that and I do not intend to defend myself here and now, by listing the myriad charities and self-help organizations I am involved with. Rather, I simply want to be clear that my heart goes out to anyone suffering from depression and I deeply regret any offhand remarks in the heat of an interview that might have suggested otherwise.

I'm honestly surprised he said anything, but I give him props for doing so. It doesn't change the fact that what he said was stupid, but it's something.

[xCompackx]

I never understand this whole mentality of "I can say something terrible, apologize for it and claim ignorance of my comments, and everyone will forgive me." that seems to be popular with famous people. Not saying people don't say something without thinking, but even Gene Simmons should've had some idea that it was a stupid thing to say.

[weaselboy]

Never thought I'd see the day when Nikki Syxx was the voice of reason but fair play to the guy for saying what needed to be said!!