by Eamon O'Neill
on the
KISS bassist Gene Simmons has slammed U2 and Marilyn Manson.
The KISS founding member has sensationally slammed Irish supergroup U2 and shock rocker Marilyn Manson in separate tirades during the recent Metal Hammer Golden Gods awards.
Speaking at the event where he received the ‘Legend’ award, the KISS co-founder accused the Irish rockers of “lying to their fans”.
He also hailed ‘Antichrist Superstar’ Manson “the stupidest” for becoming a “drug addict”.
Simmons was among a host of names from the worlds of rock and metal who picked up gongs at the event, which was held at London’s IndigO2 on the 15th June 2015.
KISS guitarist Tommy Thayer picked up the ‘Defenders Of The Faith’ award while Megadeth’s Dave Mustaine was crowned ‘Golden God’.
During an exclusive red carpet interview with Gigs And Festivals Simmons hit out at bands that rely on pre-recorded tapes to aid their performance.
Singling out U2 in doing so, the outspoken bassist exclusively told us: “F**k backing tracks and getting up on stage and lying to your fans. The music, they think it’s live, but there’s some guy backstage pressing a button. I mean, The Edge gets up, and all that music comes out of one guitar? Come on!”
Tempering his statement, he continued: “We love that music but be honest and say, okay, we’ve only got one guitar in the band, and we’ve gotta use backing tracks and stuff otherwise we can’t reproduce our music.”
The U2 guitarist wasn’t the only target for Simmons’ barbed tongue.
When asked if there were any acts around today that could carry on the bombastic tradition of KISS, he replied: “I thought Manson had a period of time around ‘The Beautiful People’ where he could, could have done it.”
“But he succumbed to the stupidest, I mean it’s not even original; what, you became a drug addict? Really? It’s been done! Even blowing your head off your shoulders has been done.”
The entertainer’s comments meanwhile came in the wake of claims made last year that ‘rock is dead’.
Accusing the fans of contributing to the demise of the music industry, he said: “You’re just hurting the thing you love. Where’s the new Sabbath? Where’s the new AC/DC? Where’s the Stones?”
He concluded: “We’ve got to nurture the new baby bands, otherwise there is no future for this thing that we all love.”