Gene Simmons on Donald Trump, Joe Biden, & the Death of Paul Stanley’s Guitar Tech, Fran Stueber – 2022

Posted by fullinbloom On May 27, 2022 0 Comment

SPIN: Gene Simmons on Kiss’s future and what the future of rock is. You can read the entire interview @ this location.

On Donald Trump:

We knew each other before that, in clubs and all that. You have a different responsibility when you’re just a citizen or an entrepreneur. You don’t make policy. It doesn’t affect life and death. When you get into a position of power, it does affect lives. I don’t think he’s a Republican or a Democrat. He’s out for himself, any way you can get there. And in the last election, over 70 million people bought it hook, line and sinker.

On Joe Biden:

The current president [Biden], I like the ethics and morality – not a charismatic guy, unfortunately. The first word I keep hearing from people, even friends is, “feeble.” I don’t think he should run next time. So then who’s around? There are no stars and invariably people vote for stars, not even what they believe in. The cult of personality. Americans are star obsessed: “Kylie’s got a new lip gloss? Fuck!”

The End of the Road Tour was interrupted by COVID-19. How did that affect the band?

The pandemic has sadly affected all of us on earth, a million dead in America, even though there are QAnon and other deniers. But of course, it’s sad when it happens to other people and stupid when you’re a minister saying there’s no such thing as COVID and then you die from COVID, which is what happened. Close to 10 million worldwide deaths attributed or close to, whether you had previous illnesses or not. They didn’t die because they caught a cold, okay? It’s affected everybody, tragically.

I know that KISS had some serious experiences with COVID.

I did catch COVID, but I was vaccinated, so I had zero side effects, literally. No running noses. I didn’t grow a second head. No temperature. Of course the doctor stuck his thumb up my ass, but I said, “Next time you do that, take me to dinner first, okay?” I’ve had two shots and a booster, and I’m going to get another booster just because.

It is true however that we had a wonderful member of the family, Fran [Stueber], who was our guitar tech – who may or may not have filled out the right forms and had the right paperwork because everybody [on the Kiss crew] had to be vaccinated multiple times and proof that you did it. He got a little sick. He was asked to stay at a hotel. We stopped doing concerts and he refused to go a few blocks over to the hospital. And within four days he passed away, alone in the hotel room. We went to the memorial and it breaks your heart because you have three kids and a wonderful wife and everybody’s crying their hearts out. And I wanted to jump up and scream: “Why? It’s preventable!”

A seatbelt’s not going to prevent a car accident, but it may prevent you from having to peel your face off of the glass in front of you when you go crashing into it. And the vaccine, we’re told by the CDC, is not going to prevent you from getting COVID, but you may not have to have a tube going through your body and die the way a million Americans have died.

You can read the entire interview @ this location.