During a recent interview with Planet Rock’s Wyatt Wendels, Kiss bassist Gene Simmons shared some thoughts about how to handle critics, at one point even saying, “[…] not everybody likes Jesus and you’re just never going to be able to appeal to everybody.”
Kiss are currently on the road for their farewell tour, and one of their stops involves the rock/heavy metal festival Download. For a good portion of the interview, Simmons reflects on the band’s legacy; at one point in the interview, Wendels says, in a playful manner, “Well on behalf of the fans, thank you for the last 50 years, and on behalf of your fiercest critics, thanks for calling it a day.”
Simmons responds with the following:
“Oh, I’ve got quite a few homes and things that the fiercest critics…
“You have to take things with a grain of salt – not everybody likes Jesus and you’re just never going to be able to appeal to everybody. And who wants to appeal to everybody? You want to stay true to what you do.”
To further speak to his point about how not everyone needs to be a fan of the band, Gene Simmons used his son’s partner as an example.
“My son Nick, who is out here, who’s got his own successful career going with music – they’re on TV shows and all that, soundtracks.
“So, his girlfriend Keltie, lovely girl, [I asked] ‘Do you want to go to Download?’ [She responded with], ‘No, the music’s too loud.’ Kiss! It’s Kiss! She likes quieter pop stuff, and that’s great, everybody should have whatever they want.”
Everyone has their own preferences when it comes to music and it is cool that Gene Simmons is understanding of that.
When it comes to other subjects though, Simmons can have a very strong opinion that he will not budge on. One such opinion is his stance regarding “rock being dead.” Sometime ago, we wrote an op-ed in response to that stance – ultimately, we disagree with him.
If you want to check out the video footage that features this interview with the Kiss bassist, you can find that below.