Gene Simmons wasn’t too happy with Rolling Stone’s new, revised list of “who sings better than who.” Gene didn’t hold back when a TMZ journalist inquired about his thoughts on the group’s omission from this year’s list.
“Oh, I don’t give a f*ck. Really,” Gene responded when asked where he thought he would rank if the Rolling Stones had included him. If people should be concerned about such lists, Simmons firmly responded, “No, they shouldn’t. If you’ve got success, that’s enough.”
He went on to say that fame and crowd adoration were the only things that counted for an artist. He stated:
“Accolades and all that, you get that when you do a concert or when fans come up. That’s the best thing. To be on a poll by a magazine by people in the backroom; I don’t know how much that means.”
KISS’ omission from this year’s list was acceptable, according to Simmons. He sarcastically remarked,
“Well, that’s okay. I was thinking of buying Rolling Stone. Well, it’s skewed. You have to consider who’s popular and who’s not. But if you really think about it, how good somebody sings may be part and parcel of what they do.”
The KISS bassist alluded,
“For instance, if Jimi Hendrix, who had a long, well, actually a short career, but he was very famous, would he make it on ‘American Idol?’ How about Bob Dylan… And I wrote songs with Bob Dylan; I know the guy. Would he make it on ‘American Idol?’ How well you sing is not the most important thing. It’s, do you have style? Do you have a fingerprint that says, ‘I know that voice immediately?’”
Ozzy Osbourne’s ranking as the 112th was then disclosed by the reporter, which enraged Simmons once again. He remarked,
“That’s a crime. Look, somebody sits in a backroom, Jann Wenner and those guys, they sit in a back room, and they decide things. Nobody asked me. Did they ask you? Apparently not.”
Gene thought that because Hendrix and Dylan didn’t go under the modern interpretation of “talented musicians,” they would not succeed in the mainstream music scene or on popular TV shows. In the end, having a distinctive identity was more important than making lists or singing effectively.
Watch the entire discussion below: