Gene Simmons: Rock is dead

Gene Simmons believes rock "is dead".

The legendary Kiss performer has been in the music industry for nearly 40 years. But in that time the 65-year-old feels like so much has changed, and that upcoming musicians don't have the same chances he had.

"I am so sad that the next 15-year-old kid in a garage someplace in Saint Paul, that plugs into his Marshall and wants to turn it up to ten, will not have anywhere near the same opportunity that I did," he said to the American edition of Esquire. "He will most likely, no matter what he does, fail miserably."

Gene was interviewed by his son Nick, 25, and explained how when he co-founded the band in the early 1970s, they had the support of the big record companies. But now, it is harder for songwriters and groups in the rock genre to get that support.

"When I was coming up, it was not an insurmountable mountain. Once you had a record company on your side, they would fund you, and that also meant when you toured they would give you tour support," he recalled. "There was an entire industry to help the next Beatles, Stones, Prince, Hendrix, to prop them up and support them every step of the way. There are still record companies, and it does apply to pop, rap, and country to an extent. But for performers who are also songwriters - the creators - for rock music, for soul, for the blues - it's finally dead."