In a recent interview on Howie Mandel Does Stuff, KISS’ Gene Simmons defended his controversial comments on Dancing With The Stars.
He asked, “We ignore all women, never compliment. I didn’t use poopy words, I said, ‘you’re beautiful.’ Are we allowed?” He also questioned why compliments about appearances were seen as a problem, asking, “Is that a bad thing? That’s not how life is, then why are you wearing makeup in high heels to lift and separate?”
Simmons argued that beauty is something everyone judges. He explained, “You’re making an assessment of the entire thing and then you make it personal. Yeah, but I wasn’t asking you. We’re talking generally, what’s the problem? So if you welcome to planet Earth, you will be judged by what you look like. I didn’t make the rules, I’m just aware of them, which is why women wear makeup and high heels and all that and because it’s that. So does KISS.”
He also said, “The sad truth, for those that don’t like the truth, and the wonderful truth is the more beautiful you are the more in shape and you know all that stuff, the better the response is going to be. I’m going to get in trouble, but I already started a new hashtag. It’s #gof*ckyourself. [It generally applies] to all people equally.”
The backlash began after Simmons appeared as a guest judge on the ‘Hair Metal Night’ episode of ‘Dancing With The Stars.’ Instead of focusing on the contestants’ dancing, he made comments about their looks. Some viewers called him “creepy,” and questioned why he was invited to judge.
Simmons responded to the ‘creepy’ comments when speaking to Daily Mail, saying, “All media is clickbait. I stand by every word I said,” the rocker explained to Daily Mail. “I had a great time. The contestants were great. The show was great. Watch the show. It was a lot of fun. But media? Everybody’s got something to say. Watch the show. It was a lot of fun. Everybody had a great time.”
During the show, Simmons made comments like, “This is a brand-new experience for me and it’s difficult to look at you and to figure out which one is more hot, hot, hot,” and praised Chandler Kinney, saying, “You’ve fogged up my glasses. I don’t know what to tell you. You move me, not just with your gyrations and so on, but your beautiful face and how you were into the emotion of it.”
When giving Phaedra Parks a score of five, Simmons caused confusion. The other judges gave her sevens, and the crowd booed. Parks and her partner Val Chmerkovskiy were puzzled since Simmons didn’t criticize their performance.
