Alice Cooper Denies Gene Simmons’ ‘Rock Is Dead’ Claims
Gene Simmons has been pushing the narrative that "rock is dead" for years now, with his most recent claim being that it's at the fault of young people. Shock rocker Alice Cooper doesn't quite agree with the KISS musician, and believes the genre is exactly where it should be at the moment.
Cooper touched upon Simmons' statements in an interview with NME, and he agreed that from a business perspective, Simmons isn't completely wrong.
"Gene Simmons — I would like him to do my taxes, 'cause he's a businessman, and business-wise, valid," Cooper said.
"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," he refuted. "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."
Cooper believes the fact that rock isn't aired on TV awards shows or mentioned in the mainstream often gives it an "outlaw attitude," which he said is positive for the genre because that's how it all started.
"The one 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," he continued.
"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."
Watch the full interview below.
Cooper's latest album Detroit Stories was released on Feb. 26.
Alice Cooper Interview with NME