Gene Simmons has responded to Kanye West‘s recent antisemitic comments, saying the rapper should surround himself with “nicer people” and urging him to take medication.
The KISS bassist made the comments during a recent interview on Piers Morgan Uncensored, where he was asked if he thinks Jewish people should accept an apology from West for his recent antisemitic outbursts, which saw his Instagram and Twitter accounts both suspended and drew widespread criticism.
KISS frontman Paul Stanley has become the latest celebrity to speak out against Kanye West after the rapper shared a string of antisemitic and racially insensitive comments.
Last weekend, West was banned from Instagram and Twitter after sharing posts that violated both platforms’ community guidelines.
In his new statement, the KISS singer and rhythm guitarist wrote: “Mental illness IS a disease but [it] should NEVER be used to minimize the danger of hate speech, advocating anti-semitism and violence against religions or ethnicities. We have found ways over centuries to rationalize this behavior and viewed the atrocities that followed. SPEAK UP!”
Paul Stanley has once again said that he believes KISS can carry on without any original members.
"I think that recasting KISS or KISS 2.0 is not what we have ever talked about. Can KISS continue and can it evolve without us in it? Well, yeah, because it's already 50 percent there. In other words, there was a time where people said, 'Well, it can only be the original four.' [And then] it was, 'Well, it can only be the original three.' Well, things move on and circumstances change.
The band’s last album came in 2012’s ‘Monster’, but new music has failed to materialise since then. (Express)
Instead, Stanley is focusing on releasing the debut album from his ‘Soul Station’ side-project, and says it is unlikely that KISS fans will hear anything from the band before their ‘End Of The Road’ tour comes to a close.
Many bands have announced their 'very last, final, this is the end, we promise' tours over the years. Indeed, Kiss themselves actually launched their original Farewell Tour way back in March 2000. This time, however, founding member Stanley has been brutally honest about why the current End of the Road Tour is exactly what it says. As the band prepares to resume the dates interrupted by the current global pandemic, the frontman has opened up about why it is time to put away the costumes and makeup forever.
"I think I'd be kidding myself if I thought otherwise. If we were just another band in t-shirts and trainers, we could do this into our eighties."But we're running around on stage with 40 or 50 pounds of gear and boots with eight-inch heels, and we do it well, but I also know that we can't do it forever.
“I don’t really see a reason for it, to be quite honest. For the most part, when classic bands put out new albums, they’re looked at and listened to and thrown away because they don’t have the gravitas, they don’t have the age that comes with something being a time capsule or being attached to a certain period of your life,” he told USA Today.
“I’m not alone in that. When you see any classic bands on TV or if there’s a concert video, turn off the sound and I’ll tell you every time they’re playing a new song because the audience sits down.
“So it’s odd to me that people always want you to do a new album, but then they go, ‘That’s great. Now play your hits.’ So honestly, at this point, there isn’t a real reward in it. There’s much more of a reward in changing lanes — I’m still going forward.”
"So before it reaches that point, I think it's better that we stop. I take it real seriously, so the idea of being able to do this without end, it's just not possible.
"The one thing you realise as you get older is that at some point you stop getting older, you know? Everything comes to an end, and there are other things I want to do. And like I said, it's just not possible to do what we do indefinitely. It's just not."
He added: “But in terms of recording more KISS material, I kind of go, ‘Why?’ I thought ‘Modern Day Delilah’ or ‘Hell Or Hallelujah’ were as good as anything I’ve written and as good as anything we recorded, but understandably, it’s like new wine. It just hasn’t aged. So I’d rather not try to roll a stone up the hill.”
