Gene Simmons Fires Shots at Rolling Stone for Low-Rating Ozzy Osbourne on Best Singers List

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Gene Simmons Photo by Medios y Media/Getty Images / Ozzy Osbourne Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images
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Recently, Rolling Stone published a feature naming the “200 Best Singers of All-Time.” Among those included, the publication gave a shout-out to several artists from the world of rock and metal.

Among those artists is Ozzy Osbourne, who out of 200 artists was ranked in 112th place.

During a recent interaction with a TMZ reporter, Kiss bassist and singer Gene Simmons was asked what he thinks about Ozzy’s ranking among the list.

Well, when it comes to that feature, Gene is not much of a fan. In fact, he thinks Ozzy’s low ranking is “a crime.”

Here is what Simmons had to say about Ozzy’s Rolling Stone ranking (as transcribed by Blabbermouth):

“That’s a crime. Look, somebody sits in a backroom — Jann Wenner [Rolling Stone co-founder] and those guys — they sit in a backroom and they decide things. Nobody asked me. Did they ask you? Apparently not.”

The reporter also asks Simmons how he feels about Kiss not being included on the list at all. Gene replies with:

“Well, that’s okay. I was thinking of buying Rolling Stone.”

Gene continues talking about this recent RS feature: “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. 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’?”

When asked where he thinks he would be ranked if he were included in the list, the Kiss bassist and singer says:

“Oh, I don’t give a fuck. Really.”

Do you think Gene Simmons or Paul Stanley should have been included on this list? Do you think Ozzy Osbourne should have been ranked higher?

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