A few insights from Gene Simmons

I just read an interview with Gene Simmons of Kiss at the MSN reality TV site:

http://tv.msn.com/reality-tv/gene-simmons-interview/story/feature/?gt1=28103

I don't always agree with Gene, but it's almost always interesting to hear his insights. When it comes to expressing his opinions, Simmons certainly doesn't bite his famous tongue.

There are two insights from the interview which I felt compelled to share on this blog. Here is the first one:

Interviewer: What motivates you to work as hard as you still do after such a long career?

Simmons: Every day you want to wake up and do something, otherwise what good are you? The simple idea is, if you have enough money for food and stuff, and then you quit working, you're just waiting to die. The hours go by and the years go by and what have you got to show for it? At the end of the day, you've got to be able to look in the mirror and say, "I used this day." When you work hard you get to sleep really hard and food tastes good and you appreciate everything.

Interviewer: But everybody's not like that, right? I imagine plenty of rock stars are content to simply count their gold records and vacation somewhere tropical.

Simmons: That's a short pleasure. Satisfaction only exists in doing something. The word pride doesn't exist in vacation. Work is a privilege in most of the world. And as a point of fact, there are some very populated countries that often sell their children so they can have a job. Even with unemployment being so high, work is a privilege, it's not a birthright.

Gene had this to say about the obstacles that young bands now face:

Interviewer: Is it harder for a young band to get attention nowadays or is it easier?

Simmons: Much harder because of piracy. Because music is being downloaded and file shared and if you're a new band, how do you make a living?

Interviewer: But hasn't technology aided in getting discovered though?

Simmons: It's easier to get discovered because you can be anybody and go on YouTube or MySpace, but so what? When you go on iTunes and you want to find a song, there are 15 million choices. You'd spend weeks and weeks just going down the list. If I burped and farted and put it up on iTunes, it'd be right alongside the Beatles and Led Zeppelin and KISS, so there's no filter.

Not surprisingly, the interviewer's next question had something to do with Simmons being "outspoken".