So remember a few years ago when KISS bassist/vocalist Gene Simmons told Esquire magazine that “rock was dead”? Well so does Alice Cooper, who had his own 2 cents to add on the subject.
Simmons was quoted as saying “rock did not die of old age. It was murdered. Some brilliance, somewhere, was going to be expressed and now it won’t because it’s that much harder to earn a living playing and writing songs. No one will pay you to do it.”
This of course has led to a vast number of hard rock and heavy metal musicians to give their opinions on the matter in interviews over the last several years. Well now it’s Alice’s turn.
Cooper, who is promoting his new album, “Detroit Stories”, spoke about rock’s supposed death during a recent interview with NME. saying (see video below): “Gene Simmons — I would like him to do my taxes, ’cause he’s a businessman, and business-wise, [his claim that rock is dead is] valid. But I guarantee you right now, in London somewhere, in garages, they’re learning AEROSMITH, they’re learning GUNS N’ ROSES — a bunch of 18-year-kids are in there with guitars and drums, and they are learning hard rock. It’s the same with the United States — there’s all these young bands that wanna resurge that whole area of hard rock and outlaws. So, in some ways, rock and roll is where it should be right now. We’re not in the Grammys; we’re not in the mainstream. Rock and roll is outside looking in now, and I think that gives us that outlaw attitude. And I think that’s very good for rock and roll, ’cause that’s how rock and roll started; we were all outlaws at the time, and then we became mainstream. But now, hey, FOO FIGHTERS, GREEN DAY — a lot of great hard rock bands out there.”
He continued: “The one [kind of] music, if you think of it, that started and never ended was hard rock. Because it went to punk, it went to disco, it went to hip-hop, it went to grunge — it did all these things — but the one thing that went right to the middle of it was hard rock. THE ROLLING STONES were still THE ROLLING STONES; AEROSMITH was still AEROSMITH; Alice Cooper was still Alice Cooper. We survived those things because guitar-driven hard rock is the only thing that will still be going 30 years from now, 40 years from now. And I think music will go all over the place, but you’re gonna find those hard rock bands still there.”
Then there was that time that Adam Levine told Variety magazine that “rock music is nowhere, really. I don’t know where it is,” he said. “If it’s around, no one’s invited me to the party. All of the innovation and the incredible things happening in music are in hip-hop. It’s better than everything else. Hip-hop is weird and avant-garde and flawed and real, and that’s why people love it.”
Perhaps if he had removed his head from his posterior a little more often he would have noticed bands like METALLICA, SLIPKNOT and GUNS N’ ROSES just dominating the touring circuit prior to the coronavirus pandemic. Mind you, try not to put much stake in it. It is after all Adam Levine. Not exactly a guy who’s opinion of rock even matters in the slightest to the great many of us rock and metal fans.
Anyways. Here’s Alice.