The Darkness frontman Justin Hawkins joined an interview with Classic Rock in their new issue and addressed Gene Simmons’ repetitive statements claiming ‘rock is dead.’
KISS bassist Gene Simmons, also known as The Demon, is also one of the co-founders of the band in the early 1970s. Their unusual stage personas and outstanding performances helped their career quickly rise. Especially the band’s fourth album ‘Alive’ is considered as a turning point in their career as it received great reviews and was ranked among the lists of greatest albums of all time in various magazines.
In 2014, Gene Simmons was interviewed by Esquire and said ‘Rock is dead’ by blaming the industry for not supporting the artists. He has continued to repeat his statements over the years and elaborated on his opinions about the topic. Simmons, later on, claimed that the fans are also guilty of the death of rock music because they keep downloading and sharing the songs for free. He gave a piece of advice to the fans to support the new bands but not for free.
The Darkness’ Justin Hawkins also touched upon the issue and said that rock music never dies owing to the new exciting stuff that always keeps coming along. Hawkins brought up the names of Nirvana and The Darkness to present them as examples for the revival of interest in rock music. He stated that there can be some moments of a slowdown in the industry but it will always manage to recharge itself.
Here is what Hawkins said about Simmons’ ongoing claims:
“It’s always a bit dramatic when people say: ‘Rock is dead’ or ‘Rock has lost its mojo’. It hasn’t. It generally has an idling mojo until something comes along and reinvigorates everything. It happened with Nirvana and, dare I say it, it happened with The Darkness. There’s that burst of interest, and then it goes back to its resting state.”
It seems like Gene Simmons will continue to keep the agenda occupied with his persistent claims on the future of rock music. However, it also seems that the new generation musicians will continue to release new music to keep rock music alive.
