Alice Cooper Explains Why Gene Simmons Thinks ‘Rock Is Dead’
Legendary American vocalist Alice Cooper appeared in LA Weekly. In the interview, Alice Cooper responded to Gene Simmons‘ claims that rock is dead.
Alice Cooper, who is considered the father of Shock Rock and gained international fame with his stage shows, has been contributing to rock music for about 54 years. Alongside incredible stage shows, Cooper has released twenty-one solo albums and seven studio albums with his band. The legendary singer has sold more than 50 million records with these albums.
On the other hand, in his latest appearance with LA Weekly, Cooper responded to Gene Simmons‘ views on the current state of rock. For those who may not know, KISS frontman Gene Simmons had underlined in his recent interviews that rock is dead. Defending his argument since then, Simmons mentioned that the main reason for this claim is that people can now access albums for free thanks to filing share.
Alice Cooper disagrees when Gene Simmons admits that the main problem is not just money and that the rock industry has not been able to produce the new The Beatles for a long time. According to Cooper, although some genres may lose popularity, hard rock can go on forever.
“Gene Simmons said rock is dead but I think he was talking financially,” Alice says. “I think there are kids in garages right now learning Guns N’ Roses, learning Aerosmith, learning Alice, learning Ozzy… Young 16-year-old kids rocking, just rocking. That’s healthy. That’s really healthy. I don’t think rock is ever gonna die.
“When you talk about hard rock, like the Stones, The Who and all that, that’s the only music that’s lasted. Grunge was here for a while. And punk was here for a while. Emo was here and all this, but hard rock bands just kept going. So if you’re in a hard rock band, you can go as long as you want to go.”
Alice Cooper Thinks ‘Rock Is Not Number One Anymore’
Cooper admits that rock’s place is not on top nowadays. At first, the musician touched on Foo Fighters and Green Day, saying that they are great bands. He also claimed that rock music is not number one anymore, which is good for him.
“Well, you’ve got your certain bands – you know, Foo Fighters still going,” he continued. “Green Day, things like that.
“I kind of look at this a little bit differently. There was a time when we first started playing, that rock bands were outlaws. We were on the outside looking into the party and we weren’t invited to the party. It was more pop music and dance music and disco.
“I think we’re back to that point. I think it’s kind of healthy that rock bands now are not number one, number two or number three. We’re back to the point of being rebels again.”
Back in 2021, Alice Cooper revealed what he thinks about the rock is dead argument. When the interviewer said that he never thought rock is dead, he also asked if Alice Cooper thinks rock is dead.
“No,” Cooper told The Eddie Trunk Podcast. “First of all, there are kids right now in garages all over the world learning Guns N’ Roses and Aerosmith, and rock ‘n’ roll is kind of in an interesting place right now because now rock ‘n’ roll is on the outside looking in, and it’s not the apex of music right now.”
He added that they were the pirates at first: “It sort of gives these young bands a chance to be the outlaws again. Because remember, when we first started, rock ‘n’ roll was not – we were the pirates, kind of looking in at the party with our nose at the window.”
Cooper concluded by revealing the change of the music world: “And then all of a sudden we became mainstream, and now we’re back to being outlaws again.”
