While fellow bandmate Paul Stanley has already been vocal about how upset he is with Kanye West’s anti-Semitic comments, Kiss bassist Gene Simmons recently shared how he feels about what Kanye has been saying. While Kanye has made anti-Semitic comments on social media and via a televised news show, he also made a recent apology.
While talking to Piers Morgan (as reported by Yahoo!), Kanye shared, “I will say I’m sorry for the people that I hurt with the ‘Death Con’ — the confusion that I caused. I feel like I caused hurt and confusion. And I’m sorry for the families of the people that had nothing to do with the trauma that I have been through, and that I used my platform, where you say hurt people hurt people, and I was hurt.”
Morgan also recently talked with Gene Simmons, and during their conversation, Morgan asked Simmons how he felt about Kanye’s apology. Specifically, Morgan asked Gene – who is Jewish – if he feels that the Jewish people should accept West’s apology. This is what Gene had to say (the following was transcribed by Blabbermouth):
“Well, you’ve certainly put me in an awkward position. I’m not here to speak for Jews or the Jewish people or anything, although by birth I happen to be one — in fact, an Israeli. I have no choice in the matter; that’s just the luck of the draw.
“Let me state in the interest of full disclosure: Ye-slash-Kanye and I have never met; we have never e-mailed each other. I have no idea what’s in his mind. All I know is what the media has shown me of him. And Ye [or] Kanye sounds, from everything I’ve heard, it’s erratic behavior, from my point of view, respectfully, he sounds really wounded, he sounds hurt, so he’s lashing out. I get it.
“Let’s be clear about this: African-Americans have been tortured physically, mentally, culturally for decades, centuries, but you’re talking to a people who’ve heard this story and have been tortured mentally, physically for thousands of years; it goes back to the Bible, which our people wrote and gave to the rest of you guys. So, you have to go back in history and get a sense of what all this means. You’re talking about African-Americans and Jews. Jews have done well, let’s be clear, because they worked for it. But don’t kid yourself — racism, anti-Semitism exists right next to each other, and we’re all victims in some way or the other by the ruling establishment, whoever and whatever they are; the consensus of the public. But look back at Martin Luther King. Do a little research — Google and Schmoogle. Who’s standing right beside Martin Luther King in a dangerous march in Birmingham, along with Jesse Jackson and everybody else? You’ve got a rabbi holding a Torah. He’s right there in the front, knowing full well when he goes back up north or on East Coast, he’s gonna get tortured by people who have different points of views.”
Gene continues: “First of all, African-Americans should understand that Jews understand the torture and the racism because [we’ve] been there [and] continue to be there. Jews are not the most popular people on the face of the planet, but there are many other peoples, races and other peoples who get racism.
“So the only piece of advice that I have, as somebody in the peanut gallery… I’m not a doctor. I’m not a physician. I don’t know much about Ye or Kanye. I’ve heard, I’ve got friends who are close enough and so on… If there’s medication, I respectfully urge for the gentleman to take the medication. If he’s surrounded by the wrong people, get some nicer people, because the most important thing, you have to realize is, when you’re a billionaire — and God bless him for that. It’s the majesty, the miracle of the American capitalist system. There we go — in a country full of racism, the capitalist system allowed you to become a billionaire.”