AEROSMITH's JOE PERRY Comments On GENE SIMMONS' 'Rock Is Dead' Remark

AEROSMITH guitarist Joe Perry has responded to KISS bassist/vocalist Gene Simmons' recent comment that "rock is dead."

Simmonstold Esquire magazine last month — in an interview conducted by his son Nick — that "rock did not die of old age. It was murdered. Some brilliance, somewhere, was going to be expressed and now it won't because it's that much harder to earn a living playing and writing songs. No one will pay you to do it."

Simmons went on to elaborate that as a result of file-sharing and other issues, record label support for rock music was not available like it was when KISS was coming up, concluding, "It's finally dead. Rock is finally dead."

Asked to weigh in on Gene's comments, Joe told Cie Martin of BamMagazine.com: "Well, I think he's right in the sense that this whole era of rock and roll has dwindled down to literally a cottage industry.

"When we started, being in a rock band was one step away from being an outlaw. No one ever said, 'Oh good, you're playing in a rock band. How wonderful!' But music was so important to the fans, that was our marching music to the revolution. Then to see it growing from that to being the industry that it was in 'the golden years,' as I call them — the '80s and '90s. And then it started to slow down a little.

"But I think that that era of rock bands playing to sold-out arenas and selling millions of records in a pop — yeah, that part of it is dead. I think there are still rock and roll fans. And every time we do a tour, there's a brand-new batch of kids interested in seeing a band that plays all those songs that they grew up listening to.

"But as far as there being another BEATLES? That was Justin Bieber. But did he change the world? Did he change the way we looked at society? No, so that part of it is dead.

"I don't know exactly in what way Gene meant it, but I can certainly agree with him on certain things.

"Stuff moves along, technology moves along. I think there's still going to be an excitement created by seeing your favorite performer live. It might not be the kind of music that you and I like, or Gene likes, but it's still going to be there."

Perry's memoir, "Rocks: My Life In And Out Of Aerosmith", came out on October 7 via Simon & Schuster.

The guitarist worked on "Rocks: My Life In And Out Of Aerosmith" with author David Ritz, who has written books with B.B. King, Jerry Wexler and Bettye LaVette.