Kiss singer/bassist Gene Simmons speaks at a news conference for the second annual Vegas Rock Star Poker Tournament and Sweepstakes in 2005. (Photo : Getty Images / Ethan Miller)
Kiss singer Gene Simmons has been known for his unfiltered comments and the most recent ones he made were about Prince, drugs and alcohol. The world was shocked on April 21 when Prince, 57, was found lifeless in an elevator in his residence at Paisley Park in Minnesota. The cause of his death has yet to be revealed though there are speculations it has something to do with drug overdose.
Simmons had an interview with Newsweek last week. The topic about the deaths of several music icons popped up. "Bowie was the most tragic of all because it was real sickness. All the other ones were a choice." Simmons told the magazine.
As for Prince, he said: "His drugs killed him. What do you think, he died from a cold?"
Simmons shared he never take it for granted whenever he wakes up every day. He has always been positive and upbeat.
Simmons met Prince at the time the latter was in a relationship with Diana Ross and was still starting out. Prince played in a club and Simmons could already sense the former's musical ingenuity. The latter complimented him as he was great and was expecting such diminutive five-foot-four tall guy to have a huge personality and found out he was very shy.
Prince's eyes were on the ground, could not even look Ross in the face and whispered thanks. People who are starting out would have big dreams.
"When they get to live their dreams, 'What is that insane gene in us,'" Simmons asked. "Well, a lot of us, that makes us want to succumb to the cliché of clichés: drugs and alcohol?"
The Kiss singer added that it was pathetic for Prince to kill himself, since drugs and alcohol means slow death. He admitted there was never a day in his life that he was drunk or high, except in a dentist's chair.
The 66-year-old singer does not care if people believe. "I can almost understand drinking or getting high if it made my schmeckel bigger," Simmons said in the interview. He did not see it making him smarter. "But nothing happens," he added.
Simmon's band mate Paul Stanley felt sorry for the harsh comments about Prince. He tweeted an apology on May 10, Tuesday.
Embarrassed by cold clueless statements re Prince's death. Without all the facts better to say nothing. My apologies https://t.co/Arb5XQ4o7l
— Paul Stanley (@PaulStanleyLive) May 10, 2016
Others opt to keep silent until the exact cause of the singer's death is known, according to Perez Hilton. Here is a video clip of Simmon's thoughts about Prince's death.
