The KISS guitarist and singer admits he was wrong when he said that Prince's death was 'pathetic' because 'drugs killed him.'
- May 11, 2016
AceShowbiz - Gene Simmons praised Prince and said bad things about him at the same time. In an interview with Newsweek, the rocker called the late singer's death "pathetic" and claimed the Purple One killed himself with drugs and alcohol.
"His drugs killed him. What do you think, he died from a cold?" he told the site. "I think Prince was heads, hands and feet above all the rest of them. I thought he left [Michael] Jackson in the dust. Prince was way beyond that. But how pathetic that he killed himself. Don't kid yourself, that's what he did. Slowly, I'll grant you... but that's what drugs and alcohol is: a slow death."
Realizing how insensitive his remarks were, Simmons backtracked his earlier statements. He posted on Twitter Tuesday night, May 10, "I don't shy away from controversy, and angry critics really don't bother me at all. If I think I'm right, I'll throw up a finger and dig my heels in and laugh. But this time, I was not. So. My apologies."
He also explained why he initially made such harsh judgment. "I have a long history of getting very angry at what drugs to the families/friends of the addicts. I get angry at drug users because of my experience being around them coming up in the rock scene. In my experience they've made my life, and the lives of their loved ones, difficult," he said. "I was raised in a culture/crowd where drug addicts were written off as losers, and since thats the narrative I grew up with, it's been hard to change with the times."
"Needless to say, I didn't express myself properly here," he added.
— Gene Simmons (@genesimmons) May 11, 2016
The cause of Prince's death is still unknown pending results of toxicology tests. The music icon was in possession of painkillers at the time of his death and police have been focusing on his supposed addiction to painkillers in their investigation.
