Metal, Hardcore, Indie, Rock
The most recent episode of “We’ll Do It LIVE,” a weekly conversation between conservative pundit Bill O’Reilly and celebrities and news figures from a variety of industries, had KISS bassist/vocalist Gene Simmons as a guest, as per Blabbermouth. The 76-year-old musician discussed the growing political polarisation in the United States, where bipartisan disputes over moral, cultural, and socioeconomic issues have devolved into social strife, political impasse, and personal hostility.
You can argue and hate [current U.S. president Donald Trump], and you’re allowed to do that, but you have to recognize the fact that ‘of the people, for the people, by the people’ means that the people have spoken. He won the election by millions, and the electoral college as well. End of story. You don’t like it, you can wait until the next election and vote your conscience.
When I was growing up, nobody ever asked me, ‘Who did you vote for?’ What do you mean, ‘Who did you vote for?’ Who are you, and what business is it of yours who I vote for? There used to be a curtain. You went behind it. You pulled the curtain because it was nobody’s business. You vote your conscience. Leave politics out of it when we sit around and break bread.
I can break bread with anybody in this, other than Nazis, who completely disagree [with me]. Well, keep your feelings to yourself, and your power is the voting booth.
When asked if the music industry shares Bruce Springsteen‘s view of Trump, which he has described as “reckless, racist, incompetent” and “treasonous,” Gene responded as follows.
Oh, yeah. On the [part of the] performers, not the audience.
Gene responded as follows to O’Reilly’s statement that he places that “on the agents and the bookers” who put pressure on the musicians to “think a certain way to get in the clubs” that they are booking.
“I’m not sure if that’s accurate, but I will say the lay of the land, I notice, is mostly they are… In the same way that if you go to California, it is a blue state. It’s mostly Democrat, and as you get to the major cities, it’s mostly progressive, far left Democrats. I mean, the runoff now in the Democratic Party [in California] are two people who I wouldn’t vote for if you paid me for it. On the other hand, if you paid me enough, I might consider [it]… I think Steve [Hilton] should be the next governor [of California].
I’m not beholden to any political point of view or anything. I’m about issues, which is why I have friends from every area. I do business with all kinds of people. If I only did business with people who are Republicans and so on, it wouldn’t make financial sense because people of all political beliefs do business. So business is not what your political beliefs are. It’s whether or not we can both have a win-win relationship.
Simmons made this statement in response to O’Reilly’s observation that a “monolith has developed in the entertainment industry” in which actors, filmmakers, and singers frequently advance a liberal or progressive viewpoint.
It will swing. The pendulum swings… There’s no question, because you’ve seen how politics — sometimes the far left takes a hold and the pendulum goes this way, and sometimes Republicans get into government and so on. And so laws keep changing state to state.
People on both sides of the fence, I believe, have gone to the extreme so that it’s ‘my party says this is the way to do it. If you don’t march along with exactly these things…’ Which is why I’m much more a free thinker and closer to the center. On certain areas, I agree with either party. I’m a firm believer that the [Mexico] wall should be built. Absolutely. The previous Pope was a nice man and so on, I respected him, said that it’s inhumane to have a wall between Mexico and America. Except for the fact that the Vatican has a massive wall around it for the same reason that we should. Border security. You wanna know who’s coming into your border. Not that they shouldn’t. Do it through the legal system.
Gene agreed when asked if his “freedom of intellectual thought” had cost him any jobs.
Yeah. There’s such a thing as being canceled. I didn’t always agree with my mother, and I would give my life for my mother, this idea of always agreeing with somebody is lunacy. Sometimes they’re wrong — for you.
There were maybe two or three shows where somebody asked me on camera locally, as I’m doing interviews, ‘What do you think of the president?’ And I said, ‘I don’t have any problem getting the Kennedy Center Awards at all. He’s the president of these United States, and he was legally voted into power. And if you don’t like the man, you can at least respect the presidency.’ And this idea of just banding about ‘Trump this’ and ‘Trump that’. No, it’s President Trump, just like a doctor. I don’t like my doctor, but he’s a doctor. Doctor so-and-so. And that was not a popular sentiment. Yes, I lost those two or three shows.
